Två gör upp om ledarpost i Demokratiska partiet

Thomas Edward "Tom" Perez (born October 7, 1961) is an American politician, consumer advocate, and civil rights lawyer who was the United States Secretary of Labor from 2013 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Perez has also served as the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice. Born in Buffalo, New York, Perez is a graduate of Brown University and Harvard Law School. He worked as a law clerk for the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado before serving in the Department of Justice from 1989 to 1995, where he worked as a federal prosecutor, and as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights under Attorney General Janet Reno. He worked as a Special Counselor for Senator Ted Kennedy until 1998 when he served as the Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the final years of the Clinton administration. Perez was then elected to the Montgomery County (Maryland) Council in 2002, serving as the council's president from 2005, until the end of his tenure in 2006. He attempted to run for the Democratic nomination for Attorney General of Maryland, but was disqualified for not having 10 years of legal experience in Maryland (he was admitted to the Maryland bar in 2001). Perez was appointed by Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley to serve as Secretary of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation in January 2007, until his October 2009 confirmation by the United States Senate as Assistant Attorney General. March 2013, Perez was nominated by President Barack Obama to be the United States Secretary of Labor, replacing outgoing Secretary Hilda Solis. He was confirmed by the Senate on July 18 and sworn in on July 23, 2013. Perez announced his candidacy for Chair of the Democratic National Committee in the 2017 election on December 15, 2016.

Keith Maurice Ellison (born August 4, 1963) has been the U.S. Representative for Minnesota's 5th congressional district since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), the Minnesota state Democratic Party affiliate. The district centers on Minneapolis and surrounding suburbs. Ellison is a co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and a Chief Deputy Whip, and also serves on the House Committee on Financial Services. Ellison was the first Muslim to be elected to the U.S. Congress, and along with André Carson of Indiana, is one of two Muslims now serving in Congress. He is also the first African American to have been elected to the U.S. House from Minnesota. In November 2016, progressive groups and United States senators, including Bernie Sanders of Vermont, supported Ellison for chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Demokratiska partiet (engelska: Democratic Party) är ett politiskt parti i USA som formellt bildades ur Andrew Jacksons "demokratiska" falang av det gamla Republikanska partiet efter valet 1828. Från Thomas Jeffersons seger i presidentvalet 1800 var partiet helt dominant i amerikansk politik, med delstaternas självbestämmande som huvudpunkt på sitt program. Partiet splittrades av slavfrågan, med ett svårt nederlag som följd 1860, då republikanen Abraham Lincoln valdes till president. Partiet kom endast att behålla dominans i det segregerade södern, och fram till 1932 lyckades endast Grover Cleveland och Woodrow Wilson nå presidentposten. Med Wilson inträdde en mer radikal agenda, som fortsatte under Franklin Delano Roosevelt och Harry S. Trumans ledning regeringsmakten i Vita Huset 1932–1952. Partiet vann åter valen 1960 och 1964 men besegrades av Richard Nixon 1968. Demokraterna vann åter 1976 då Jimmy Carter valdes till president. Carter besegrades dock av Ronald Reagan 1980, men Demokraterna återtog presidentposten i och med Bill Clintons valsegrar 1992 och 1996, varefter man åter förlorade 2000 och 2004, då republikanen George W Bush vann presidentvalen. År 2008, då en ny president skulle väljas, vann demokraternas Barack Obama över republikanen John McCain och partiet återtog åter presidentposten samt stärkte sin position i kongressen. 2010 förlorades emellertid representanthuset till Republikanerna, vilket försvagat partiets åter dominanta ställning i amerikansk politik. Traditionellt sett har Sydstaterna varit partiets starka fäste, vilket delvis hävts på senare år. Detta till trots är Barack Obama och John F. Kennedy de enda demokrater som nått presidentposten efter kriget utan att kandidera för en f.d. slavstat (som Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, Jimmy Carter och Bill Clinton). Kalifornien och New York är två större delstater som röstat demokratiskt i samtliga val sedan 1988. I Mellanvästern har partiet alltid varit svagt och vann större inbrytningar endast med William Jennings Bryan och Franklin D. Roosevelts valkampanjer.