Rep. Keith Ellison, the front-runner in the race for chairman of the Democratic National Committee, has been strikingly silent on whether his party should flex the filibuster to block a GOP Supreme Court nominee, giving his competitors an opening to draw distinctions.

The issue surfaced this week after former Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, widely considered Mr. Ellison’s top rival for the DNC post, said Republicans did everything to gum up President Obama’s agenda, so Democrats should return the favor by filibustering President Trump’s upcoming high court pick.

“If they’re going to continue to go to the hard right, I think you have to do that,” Mr. Perez said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

How stiffly Democrats should resist Mr. Trump has become a major issue as Democrats look to pick up the pieces of last year’s election, and the handling of a Supreme Court nominee is the tip of the spear.

Mr. Ellison is on record opposing filibusters.

Frustrated over legislative gridlock, Mr. Ellison joined a lawsuit in 2012 that challenged the constitutionality of the 60-vote requirement, and said at the time that the “crazy filibuster rules” are empowering “the minority in a way that the Founders never imagined and runs contrary to the democratic spirit of our country.”

“So I think it is high time to bring this to a close,” he said on MSNBC. “Let the will of the people emerge. Let’s have some real democracy in the United States Senate.”

A federal judge threw out the lawsuit.

Three years later Mr. Ellison has refused to say whether he thinks Senate Democrats should use the filibuster in the case of a Supreme Court nominee, leaving distance between himself and Mr. Perez.

Mr. Ellison’s congressional office and DNC campaign did not respond to multiple phone calls and emails on the subject.

Meanwhile, Jaime Harrison, the chairman of the South Carolina Democrats who is also seeking the DNC chair, sided with Mr. Perez on the issue, pointing out that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, refused to hold a vote on President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, U.S. Circuit Judge Merrick Garland, despite the fact that fellow Republican members considered him a “consensus pick.”

“So President Trump would be wise to choose a consensus nominee like Merrick Garland,” Mr. Harrison said. “But given his radical actions since the start of his presidency, I worry that consensus is not a word in President Trump’s vocabulary. If he nominates a right-wing zealot, bring out the cots for a filibuster.”

The field of candidates for chair could have the chance to weigh in on the subject when they appear together Saturday at Texas Southern University in Houston for a DNC “Future Forum.”

It is the second of four planned forums.

Mr. Perez, Mr. Ellison and Mr. Harrison are returning to the stage, along with New Hampshire Democratic Chairman Raymond Buckley; Sally Boynton Brown, executive director of Idaho Democrats; South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg; and former Fox News commentator Jehmu Greene.

Four newcomers — Peter Peckarsky of Wisconsin, Sam Ronan of Ohio, Vincent Tolliver of Georgia and Robert Vinson Brannum from the District — are also slated to attend.

The event offers candidates the opportunity to speak directly to many of the 447 DNC members that will cast their votes for a new chair next month in Atlanta.

Donna Brazile has served in the position in an interim status since Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida stepped down following a hacked email controversy in which members of the DNC were shown as being biased against Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont in his Democratic primary race versus Hillary Clinton.

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