Dem Rep Calls on DNC Chair to Resign over Iowa Failure

Zachary Evans
·2 min read

State Democratic Party officials have expressed increasing frustration with Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez over his handling of the fallout from the Iowa Caucus, and one member of Congress has even called for Perez to resign, Politico reported on Friday.

“Oh yeah,” Representative Marcia Fudge (D., Ohio) told Politico when asked whether Perez should go. “We’re a party in chaos.”

Representative Bennie Thompson (D., Miss.) also expressed dissatisfaction with Perez’s handling of the crisis.

“It’s just a matter of time before he’s going to go,” Thompson said.

Officials in the Democratic Party were angry with Perez after the DNC Chair took one day to respond publicly to the delay in caucus results. State party members thought Perez had left the Iowa party chairman, Troy Price, to absorb the blame for the delay.

“Loads of state party chairs are pissed that [Perez] would treat one of their peers like this,” one state party official commented.

“It was very frustrating to not hear from the DNC for 48 hours, except for them throwing Troy under the bus,” said Washington state party chair Tina Podlodowski.

In an appearance on MSNBC on Thursday, Perez placed blame on the Iowa Democrats for the caucus issues.

“This was a major league failure, [Price] owned up to it,” Perez said. “And we’ve been there with him ever since.”

While Perez has tried to distance the national party from the caucus failure, the DNC was reportedly intimately involved in developing the app that was largely responsible for the reporting delays.

The Iowa Democrats have yet to declare a final winner of the caucus. However, with 99 percent of the results reported as of Friday, South Bend, Ind. mayor Pete Buttigieg held a slim lead over Senator Bernie Sanders (D., Vt.).

The latest WBZ/Boston Globe/Suffolk University poll of the New Hampshire caucus places Buttigieg one percentage point behind Sanders.

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