The Democratic Party just missed their opportunity to win back power

We had two remarkable, diverse, gifted candidates – Pete Buttigieg and Jehmu Greene – to lead the party forward. Instead, we again opted for more of the same with Tom Perez and Keith Ellison

Tom Perez was elected Democratic National Chair (REUTERS/Chris Berry)

The old guard lives to ride another day. Yesterday, the Democratic National Committee elected former Obama administration Labour Secretary, Tom Perez, as the new chair. He defeated five-term Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison, who was backed by the progressive wing of the party.

There is a lot to be hopeful for in this result. Minutes after his election Perez nominated, and the DNC confirmed Ellison as his deputy chair, which could go a long way towards uniting a party still bitterly divided over last year’s primary race between hard left Sanders and the establishment candidate, Clinton.

Perez also becomes the first Latino chair of the DNC, and Ellison is a Black Muslim – both of which could help energise the party’s base and promote a civil rights agenda in an era when Trump is simultaneously attacking both Latino immigrants and Muslims.

Still, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed that it came down to these two candidates in the first place, let alone that they now hold the reigns of the party I’ve belonged to since I first registered to vote at 18. At that time, Nancy Pelosi was the leader of the House Democrats – a post she holds to this day.

I love and greatly admire Nancy Pelosi, America’s first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives. Still, when she was re-elected House Minority Leader last month, I was sorely disappointed. The election of Chuck Schumer, who has represented New York in the House or Senate since 1981 (five years before I was born), similarly made me wonder: where are the young party leaders?

Turns out, they’re in Indiana. South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg threw his hat into the ring last year and emerged as a dark horse candidate that excited many in the grassroots. “I spent Thanksgiving morning in a deer blind with my boyfriend’s father,” he joked during a CNN debate last week. “How’s that for a 2017 sentence?”

Frankly, it’s a great 2017 sentence, and one we need to hear more of. A plain talking, openly gay Army veteran and Millennial (he was born in 1982, the year after Schumer entered Congress), he hails from Vice President Mike Pence’s home state can clearly connect to Rust Belt voters, something the party desperately needs following our crushing defeat in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio.

Also running was 44-year-old Jehmu Greene, the daughter of Liberian immigrants and former president of Rock the Vote, a group that works to register young voters. Greene has a unique skillset that can bring the millions who marched not only in last month’s Women’s March but who continue to demonstrate against Trump into the Democratic fold. She recognises a need to ensure the party is “a welcoming home to them,” which means adjusting course in a more progressive path than the Perez, Pelosi, or Schumer may be comfortable with.

She is passionate and adamant about defending our freedoms and unafraid to speak truth to power, a particularly urgent need in the era of Donald Trump. “The Democratic Party has to be that last line of defence for our constitution and this country. We don’t have the luxury to take a backseat as this man is arrogantly marching us towards fascism,” she said in last week’s debate.

We had two remarkable, diverse, gifted candidates to lead the party forward and bring fresh talent to the forefront of Democratic politics. Instead, we again opted for more of the same – and that same ain’t working so well. I was a vehement supporter of Clinton in the primary and the general, but even I can recognise that it’s time for a new direction.

New leaders cannot possibly rise when the old leaders refuse to step aside. Buttigieg and Greene are the future of the Democratic Party and the future of America, if only we let them and others like them lead.

For what it’s worth I do believe Perez and Ellison are capable of leading the party forward. I just hope that we’ve not seen the last of Buttigieg or Greene, and that maybe party elders will start allowing them to lead us into the future.