DNC Chairman Race Home Stretch: Competing Whip Counts

ATLANTA – In the past few days, at least two news organizations have tried to do a whip count to gauge the state of the race for DNC chairman.

According to The Hill:

• The Whip Count:
  • Keith Ellison – 105
  • Tom Perez – 57
  • The other candidates had less than a dozen votes each.
• The Hill’s math only accounts for 162 out of 447 voting DNC members.
• More than 50 DNC members undecided.

According to the Associated Press:

• The Whip Count:
  • Perez – 205
  • Ellison – 153
  • Harrison – 27
  • Boynton Brown – 10
  • Buttigieg – 8
  • Greene – 0
• AP’s math accounts for 403 out of 447 voting DNC members.
• The magic number to win the race is 224.
• If AP’s math is correct,
  • Neither of the two frontrunners has the race locked up.
  • Tom Perez is 19 votes shy of winning the race.
  • Jaime Harrison could play role of kingmaker and put Perez over the top with his 27 votes.
    • Even if Harrison and Perez work out some sort of deal along the lines of the one allegedly worked out between Keith Ellison and Ray Buckley, that doesn’t mean that Harrison’s 27 votes are obligated to vote for Perez.
  • Even if Keith Ellison were to win all 44 votes that are unaccounted for, he still comes up short.

Regardless of which story you read, take with a grain of salt, because alliances can shift as candidates gain momentum or drop out through the rounds.  Some promises or commitments may have been made privately, but that doesn’t mean they are binding. Because neither of the two front runners likely has a lock on 224 votes for an outright victory on the first ballot, there will likely be multiple rounds of voting.

Author: David de Sola

Editor/Publisher Political Wilderness View all posts by David de Sola