SC’s Harrison drops bid for DNC chair

Jamie Harrison announced Thursday he is dropping his bid for the Democratic Party’s top job and throwing his support behind the current front-runner.

Harrison, who is chairman of the S.C. Democratic Party, said despite “positive feedback from emails, calls, and tweets” after Wednesday’s televised CNN debate, he realized he didn’t have the votes to win in this weekend’s balloting.

Harrison said he began to realize that many of the leaning-but-undecided supporters were beginning to succumb to what he called “external pressure” to support someone else.

“People always want to be on the team that’s winning,” he said. “To be quite honest, I’m a state party chair running against a congressman and a secretary. They have support from some of the biggest names in politics. ... Of course it was frustrating at times.”

Harrison said he will back Tom Perez, who was a labor secretary under President Barack Obama and the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

“Tom Perez has brought integrity, passion, and tenacity to every job he’s ever had,” Harrison said. “I have had a front-row seat to these qualities in the many debates and forums we have participated in.”

Voting for the national party’s chair is set for Saturday.

This story was originally published February 23, 2017 at 1:48 PM with the headline "SC’s Harrison drops bid for DNC chair."