Tom Perez, DNC chairman, struggles to rebuild Democratic Party

Tom Perez has had a rocky first year as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, managing to incense liberals, ostracize pro-life Democrats and lose a string of special congressional elections — before notching some major victories over the past two months.

The DNC is in the midst of some of its worst fundraising in recent history, and Mr. Perez has faced headwinds left over from the 2016 presidential primary.

Nancy Worley, chairwoman of the Alabama Democratic Party, described Mr. Perez’s push to rebuild the DNC as “very much a work in progress.”

If not for the late victories, including holding the governor’s mansion in Virginia, capturing it in New Jersey and then assisting Doug Jones in a stunning upset in conservative Alabama’s special election for Senate, Mr. Perez could be in deeper trouble.

“You can’t argue with the success that the party has had in special elections in 2017, can you?” said Kathleen Sullivan, a member of the DNC from New Hampshire. “At the end of the day, it is all about winning elections, and Democrats have been winning elections.”

As it is, Mr. Perez is still struggling to defend his job performance amid carping from the inside and mocking from counterparts at the Republican National Committee, who refer to him as “part time” chairman because he took a teaching job at Brown University while holding the party chairmanship.

“Tom Perez is a part-time chairman of a party still waging a bitter and divisive internal battle for the soul of the DNC,” said Rick Gorka, a Republican National Committee spokesman. “Additionally, the DNC lacks a clear and coherent message to deliver to the voters in 2018. Obstruction and partisan games may play well with the base, but they are not a motivating message for swing voters looking for solutions.”

Mr. Perez’s most immediate challenge is fundraising. Without a Democrat in the White House, the DNC has lagged far behind the RNC.

November’s report showed the national party raised $5.7 million, for a total of $60.7 million in 2017 — just half the RNC’s take. Republicans have nearly $40 million in cash on hand and no debt, while the DNC had just $6.3 million on hand and $2.6 million in debt.

“To me, there’s basically one job above all others that is most vital for a party chairman, and that is fundraising,” said Kyle Kondik, of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “By that measure, it’s hard to say much positive about Tom Perez’s tenure, as the RNC continues to raise substantially more money than the DNC. He needs to improve DNC fundraising to be a successful chairman.”

The financial woes are magnified by the fact that the Democratic Congressional Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — the party’s congressional campaign arms — have outraised their Republican counterparts.

Mr. Perez could not be reached for comment, though he has said the party is where it should be in a year between major national elections. When Democrats took over the U.S. House and Senate in 2006, he said, the RNC outspent them by a margin of 2-to-1.

Jaime Harrison, associate chairman and counselor at the DNC, said Mr. Perez inherited an organization that was in tatters and deserves credit for getting it back on track.

“Rebuilding takes time,” Mr. Harrison said. “Now we think we are getting into our stride.’

Mr. Harrison said the DNC has established a $10 million State Party Innovation Fund on Mr. Perez’s watch, marking the party’s biggest investment in state parties and their organizing efforts.

It also has embraced a 50-state strategy popularized by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who led the party from 2005 to 2009, and is restoring confidence in the donor class, Mr. Harrison said.

“Points are being placed on the board, and they are thinking this team may be able to compete and win,” he said.

Party adherents say Democrats need better fundraising to fully capitalize on anti-Trump resistance in the midterm elections. Democrats are defending over two dozens Senate seats, including five in conservative states that Mr. Trump carried by double digits in the presidential race.

The financial struggles also have prevented Mr. Perez from making larger investments in state parties that received as little as $2,500 per month during the Obama years, when Democrats lost control of both chambers of Congress, 970 state legislative seats and a dozen governorships.

When Mr. Perez took over, the parties were receiving $7,500. Now they are getting $10,000 per month, according to party chairs. That is still only about half of what the DNC shelled out when Mr. Dean was chairman of the party from 2005 to 2009.

Mr. Perez, who served as labor secretary in the Obama administration, won the chairmanship this year as the pick of the Democratic establishment, topping progressive darling Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota.

Mr. Perez said he walked into a DNC that had “obvious room for improvement.”

In his first move, he carved out a deputy chairman position for Mr. Ellison, but he has had to spend a lot of time solving problems left over from his predecessor, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and how she handled the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries, favoring Hillary Clinton over Bernard Sanders.

That means Mr. Perez hasn’t had the money or time to build a national grass-roots operation, analysts said.

“Unfortunately, the fundraising has not been to the level that anyone wishes it was,” said Raymond Buckley, chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party.

Mr. Buckley backed Mr. Ellison in the national chairman election after ending his bid.

“I very much am a believer in building a strong grass-roots network, and the earlier the better. And I wish if we had done better than that, we could develop our training program with the DNC to train local committees and build that sort of permanent sustained long-term grass-roots structure in every ZIP code,” Mr. Buckley said.

“The challenges of the fundraising were bigger than anyone anticipated,” he said.

That has created a sense of urgency within the party that appears to have led to the recent dismissal of the DNC’s finance director, Emily Mellencamp Smith, who spent just five months on the job.

DNC members say Mr. Perez is not entirely to blame for the financial problems. They say the party faithful are suffering “donor fatigue” after the election and disillusionment after the bitter 2016 primary race.

But Mr. Perez has at times fanned divisions, including in April when he sought to quell the concerns of powerful feminist groups by declaring that all Democratic candidates needed to be pro-choice on abortion.

“That is not negotiable,” he said at the time — though he has since softened, saying “unity does not mean unanimity — it doesn’t mean we agree on every issue as a party.”

Despite naming Mr. Ellison to a prominent post, Mr. Perez still hasn’t done enough to reach out to backers of Mr. Sanders, some Democrats said.

“He didn’t really appoint any significant Bernie leaders to key committees like the Rules and Bylaws,” said Jane Kleeb, head of the Nebraska Democratic Party and a supporter of Mr. Sanders in 2016 and Mr. Ellison in the chairman’s race. “I honestly was very surprised, because when I became chair I appointed Hillary and Bernie people to positions that I could appoint. That was a very conscious and right thing to do.”

Mrs. Kleeb, though, said Mr. Perez has come a long way after settling into the post.

“I think it was a steeper learning curve on that part, but he learned it and he is doing it,” she said. “I am very proud of everything he is doing right now and the amount of time he is spending in the states. The chairs under President Obama spent no time in the states.”

Mrs. Kleeb credited Mr. Perez with supporting a Unity and Reform Commission, comprised of Sanders and Clinton supporters, which has made recommendations on restoring faith in the party.

They called for dramatically reducing the role that superdelegates have in the presidential nomination process, and for more budget transparency. The recommendations still must be approved by other committees and the entire DNC body.