Former US Labor Secretary Tom Perez has narrowly defeated Democratic Muslim Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota to become the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee, delivering a blow to the progressive wing of the party led by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
Perez secured 235 votes on the second ballot on Saturday after failing to clear the 218-vote threshold to reach a majority in the first ballot, in which he only received 213 votes.
While Perez was backed by former Vice President Joseph Biden and other key figures of the Obama administration that backed Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential bid, Ellison – the first-ever Muslim elected to the US Congress – enjoyed the support of Sanders and many of his allies.
Perez was also supported by pro-Israel elements in the Democratic Party, led by Harvard University law professor and jurist Alan Morton Dershowitz, who published an article accusing Ellison of being “anti-Semite” and…