The tone of Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison’s letter to voting members of the Democratic National Committee underscores how civil the leadership race had been until now. | AP Photo Ellison pushes back on Perez's DNC whip count The Minnesota congressman derided Perez's announcement of support for DNC chairman earlier this week.

The race for the Democratic National Committee chairmanship is getting chippy in the home stretch.

Just over a day after former Labor Secretary Tom Perez told DNC members that his campaign had 180 pledged voters of the 224 needed to win, Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison is pushing back, sending an email to the membership accusing Perez of trying “to exert pressure on you."


“One of the other great candidates for this race released an unverifiable public whip count earlier this week. You received a voicemail, email and a text message trying to make the race sound like it is over. And the goal is clear: to exert pressure on you,” he wrote in the email, which doesn’t mention Perez — his fellow front-runner — by name.

“We chose not to engage in the same tactics because we believe you deserve the respect to make your own decision without a finger on the scale. However, I feel compelled to respond: we are very confident in our whip count and are in an excellent position to win next week."

The latest volley in the back-and-forth comes just a week before the party’s membership converges on Atlanta to vote on a next chair — a decision that will come down to roughly 447 party insiders. And it also landed just hours after Perez and Ellison had dinner together after a candidate forum.

Perez and Ellison are joined in the race by New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Raymond Buckley; South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison; Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana; Idaho Democratic Party Executive Director Sally Boynton-Brown; and television commentator Jehmu Greene. The close race, high number of competitors, and small number of voters make it likely that the final vote will go multiple rounds, since it takes a majority of the voters present to win.

The tone of Ellison’s letter underscores how civil the DNC leadership race had been until now, with the candidates hardly ever even disagreeing with one another. And while some of the candidates have been speaking with members since November, voting members have started privately grumbling in recent weeks about attempts to publicize vote counts or endorsements.

“Let me assure you, we expect to earn the majority of support from DNC members on February 25, but we intend to do that the way we have over the last several months — conversations with you the DNC members about our vision to win elections and rebuild the party,” writes Ellison.

"We are proud of the broad support we've received, but it's clear that this race is far from over," said Perez spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa. "Tom will spend the next 10 days traveling across the country to talk to Democrats about rebuilding our party."