Democratic National Committee hopeful Keith Ellison’s says DNC must fight for the working class

For Rep. Keith Ellison, what ails the Democratic Party isn’t its policies or its people but math.

Since announcing his bid to become the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee, the Minnesota congressman has said his party was kneecapped by an unlucky confluence this year of Donald Trump’s negativity, Republicans’ success at discouraging people from voting and an inability to let working-class Americans know how much Democrats care about them.

“The real problem for Democrats is we’ve got to help people believe, and then we’ve got to deliver the message to them,” Mr. Ellison said on CNN as he made his case for leadership. “Believe what? That we are absolutely, unshakeably on their side and we’re going to fight for them every single minute.”

But just over a week into his bid, it remains unclear what sort of changes he plans to make to achieve his goals of strengthening turnout if he rises to become the new face atop the party’s chain of command.

“Unless I have missed something, I have not seen the details yet,” said Jim Manley, a Democratic strategist. “It is all the usual rhetoric, but I don’t know if I see a plan yet.”

The battle for DNC chair is shaping up as the first test of Democrats’ direction following their election losses, which saw them lose the White House — ceding the last political lever they had controlled in Washington.

Interim DNC Chair Donna Brazile has announced a task force to study what went wrong, but analysts say the party lost touch with working-class voters in the middle of the country, got outhustled on the ground and lacks a credible bench of future candidates.

Mr. Ellison quickly jumped into the race, as did former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who already served as chairman from 2005 to 2009, and who has been credited with laying out a more concrete vision for revamping the party’s strategy and tactics.

Mr. Dean has argued the DNC post is a full-time job and is calling for the party to return to the “50-state strategy” that he pursued during his tenure.

“We have to talk to everybody, not just the people who are going to vote for us,” Mr. Dean said on NPR. “We have to be in 50 states. We have to build capacity in 50 states.”

A spokesman for Mr. Ellison did not respond to an email seeking comment on his own plans.

Some analysts caution against reading too much into the results of the election, in which Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton won the popular vote but lost in the Electoral College.

Ms. Brazile, in a memo this week, blamed voter-suppression efforts in key battleground states for depressing the Democratic vote.

Mr. Ellison has delivered the same message in a series of TV and radio interviews, arguing the Democrats must do more to protect the right to vote, which he says has been under assault from Republicans.

“Republicans have set their intention to suppress the vote,” Mr. Ellison said on the “Keepin’ It 1600” podcast. “They have a whole program on how to push the vote down, and I also think that they know a lot of people will never support their program, but what they can do is just make people think the whole thing sucks, so why participate? And, of course, that helps their cause too.”

Mr. Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress and the first black member of the Minnesota delegation, could have the inside track in the DNC race after winning backing from incoming Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer and Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernard Sanders of Vermont, who share his progressive vision.

“Keith understands that by rejecting the policies of the political establishment and wealthy campaign contributors, we can start to get to work on issues like creating a $15 minimum wage, opposing fracking and the construction of oil pipelines, and passing debt-free college,” Mr. Sanders’ political group, Our Revolution, said this week in an email blast.

Lawrence Jacobs, political science professor at the University of Minnesota, said Mr. Ellison is one of the anchors of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

“So for the Democrats who feel that the problem with Hillary Clinton is that she was too mainstream, too tied to Wall Street, too tied to the old establishment, Keith Ellison is a smart choice,” Mr. Jacobs said.

But others have raised concerns over Mr. Ellison’s decision this week to cancel an interview with The New York Times after learning the newspaper wanted to prod him about his relationship with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who is known for his anti-Semitic rhetoric.

Onlookers have wondered whether Mr. Ellison would be spread too thin to balance both his duties as a congressman and as DNC chairman, or questioned whether he’s too far left to be able to broaden the Democratic Party’s base.

“The Bernie Sanders wing says the party did not go far enough to the left, but obviously this is the most liberal platform in history, at least on economic issues, and the challenge is finding ways to connect with rural voters, the white working-class and voters that might be conservative on some issues, including social issues,” Mr. Jacobs said. “Is Keith Ellison the person to do that? I have not seen him do that.”

Mr. Jacobs added, “If he was the head of the DNC, he is not really your big-tent guy; he is going to give you Sanders in stereo.”