Newly elected DNC chair Perez vows to rebuild

Posted: Mar 1, 2017

Former Labor Secretary Tom Perez vowed Saturday to help rebuild the Democratic Party by forming "57 state parties" after he was elected the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Perez, who headed the Labor Department during the Obama administration, told members of the DNC in Atlanta after the vote that he would help the Democratic Party recover after a poor showing in the 2016 elections. He stated his goal to create 57 state parties and said that he went to the Republican National Committee's website prior to getting into the race to run for chair. "I frankly found myself, when I first got into this race, going to their website because I was learning a lot," Perez said. "Sally [Boynton Brown] and I had lunch a number of times talking about our shared interest in building 57 state parties that work." Perez's flub harkened back to when Barack Obama was campaigning in the 2008 election. "I've now been in 57 states?" Obama said. "I think one left to go." Free Beacon ;