美国国家公共电台 NPR Tight Race For DNC Chair Narrows Ahead Of Weekend Vote

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

The Democratic Party is in search of a leader. Now, often, that means finding the next inspirational figure to run as a presidential nominee 1. But in their current state, Democrats 2 are beginning with electing someone to chair the Democratic National Committee, which has seen a fair amount of upheaval 3 over the past year. Party officials vote in Atlanta. And NPR's Scott Detrow is there right now. Scott, good morning.

SCOTT DETROW, BYLINE 4: Morning, David.

GREENE: So a whole lot of candidates have been running for this job. We've heard from many of them on this program. What are the differences between them?

DETROW: Well, you know, it's hard to tell at times because many of the candidates are just agreeing with each other so much. Still, a lot of people are viewing this race as a proxy 5 for last year's primary. You have the grassroots, more liberal and activist 6 wing of the party that backed Bernie Sanders. Then you have the establishment wing that was with Hillary Clinton and, before that, Barack Obama.

And if you take that view, Minnesota Congressman 7 Keith Ellison is the grassroots candidate. He did get really early support from Bernie Sanders. And former Labor 8 Secretary Tom Perez has the backing of Obama allies like Joe Biden and Eric Holder 9. So those guys are the two main contenders right now in a seven-person field.

And I think another candidate to keep an eye on who could be a dark horse tomorrow is South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg. He's seen as a future leader of the party. And he's gotten some big endorsements 10, too - especially Howard Dean, who endorsed 11 him a few days ago.

GREENE: Yeah. We heard from him on the show. He was talking about his strength being the fact that he is an outsider and the fact that he doesn't have much Washington experience. This race, Scott, has been going on for a long time now. We were talking to some of these people, you know, just after the election about how the party can reconnect with working-class voters. Has much changed since then?

DETROW: Yeah, and the race feels especially long because so much has changed politically since November...

GREENE: Yeah, really.

DETROW: ...A lot. It was pretty static until the last week or so, when it's changed a lot. Yesterday, you had one of the candidates drop out. That was South Carolina party chair Jaime Harrison. He now says he's endorsing 12 Tom Perez. And that happened a few days after another candidate and another party chair, Ray Buckley from New Hampshire, left the race. And Buckley endorsed Ellison.

So those two moves really solidify 13 Perez and Ellison as the top contenders here. Their camps are both claiming - and most observers watching this agree - that, going into Saturday, they have way more votes than anybody else running.

GREENE: Let's meet some of them. Let's hear from some of what they've told us on the program. And it has been remarkable 14 that they've been pushing basically the same message.

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TOM PEREZ: When Donald Trump 15 says, I'm going to bring those coal jobs back, we know that's a lie. But people understand that he feels their pain.

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KEITH ELLISON: We've got to build a durable 16 relationship of trust with voters around the things that they are most concerned about.

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PETE BUTTIGIEG: We've got to be talking about what our values actually are and what the policies are that flow from them.

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SALLY BOYNTON BROWN: And we need to make sure that everything that we're doing then promotes our values. And I think we've been out of alignment 17 for a while.

GREENE: That was Sally Boynton Brown there - also Pete Buttigieg, Keith Ellison and Tom Perez. Scott, I mean, they all seem to be saying the challenge is the same for the party here.

DETROW: Yeah. And, I mean, when you think about it, the Democrats - they are in the minority at all levels of government, state government, the House, the Senate, the White House. So there's a lot of work for this DNC chair to do. A lot of that is messaging, also raising a lot of money for the party and serving as a key face for Democrats going forward. Whoever wins this will have a lot of work on their plate.

GREENE: OK. And, briefly 18, how does this vote actually work tomorrow, Scott?

DETROW: A lot of rounds of voting in a hotel room in Atlanta. You have to get a majority of 447 votes. And they keep voting until somebody clears that majority. So it could take a while.

GREENE: And you're in Atlanta, and you will be covering this tomorrow. That is NPR's Scott Detrow, covering the race for chair of the Democratic National Committee. Thanks, Scott.

DETROW: Thank you, David.