At Democratic Party forum, a call for unity from those who hope to lead

The men and women who want to lead the Democratic National Committee agreed on a few things here Saturday. No one wanted to change the party’s progressive 2016 platform. No one wanted to enrich the consultant class. And please, please, please: With Donald Trump about to take power, no one wanted to re-fight the 2016 primary.

“This is a ‘where were you?’ moment,” said Thomas Perez, the outgoing labor secretary, kicking off the party’s “future forum,” and referring to the challenge posed by a Trump presidency.

“We need to unify, no matter who we supported in the primary,” said Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., one of the highest-profile supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

“We don’t have time to re-litigate the 2016 primary,” said Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind.

The Phoenix forum, attended by 55 of the DNC’s 437 voting members, marked the official kickoff of a race that had already been roiling for two months. Ellison was endorsed right away by Sanders and by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., with the implicit hope that he’d keep restive Sanders voters in the party. Perez, who entered the race in December, came with vocal support from swing-state governors and quiet support from President Barack Obama’s administration.

What unfolded was neither a coronation nor an ideological feud. In addition to Buttigieg, who has pitched himself as the candidate of neither the “Berniecrats” nor the party’s establishment, the Democratic race includes Idaho Democratic executive director Sally Boynton Brown; Ray Buckley, the chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party; Jaime Harrison, South Carolina’s chairman; and Jehmu Greene, a media strategist.

None has a commanding lead; all have heard DNC members tell them that they need to read their plans and have a few more conversations.

“The media wants to treat this like a horse race (between Ellison and Perez), but Sally has more DNC member endorsements than Tom,” said Buckley.

The Phoenix forum demonstrated just how much the rival candidates overlapped, with granular pitches to DNC members about how they would help the party rebuild. Every leading candidate proposed a new version of the “50-state strategy,” deployed by former chair Howard Dean to rebuild party organizations in red states.

This story was originally published January 14, 2017 at 9:33 PM with the headline "At Democratic Party forum, a call for unity from those who hope to lead."