Rep. Keith Ellison said the party needs to be strong again "so we can shatter that glass ceiling that Hillary Clinton was banging on." | AP Photo DNC candidates: Chairman's race isn't about Bernie and Hillary

The seven candidates competing to run the Democratic National Committee want to make one thing clear: The race for chairman isn't a repeat of the Hillary Clinton vs. Bernie Sanders primary.

In their first appearance onstage together — the first of four regional forums hosted by the DNC — the candidates took pains Saturday in Phoenix to explain that the contentious Democratic presidential primary is behind them and no one views the chairman's race as a proxy war for the future of the party.


"You know, people ask me, ‘Are you a Clinton Democrat or a Bernie Democrat?' Guys, I grew up in South Carolina, and all I’ve ever been is a Democrat," said South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison.

"I am not interested in relitigating the 2016 primary," said South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg. "We’ve all been through that. As was said before, Donald J. Trump will be president of the United States in a week. We don’t have time to relitigate 2016."

Rep. Keith Ellison, who is backed by Sanders in the chair race, pointed out that he supported both the Vermont senator and then Clinton in the 2016 election. The Minnesota congressman then attacked the president-elect, saying that the party needs to be strong again "so we can shatter that glass ceiling that Hillary Clinton was banging on."

Ellison was the first candidate to jump into the race after the election, and he quickly rolled out a host of prominent Democratic supporters as part of an effort to clear the field. But the opposite occurred, and all seven candidates were onstage Saturday, including Labor Secretary Tom Perez, New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley, Idaho Democratic Party Executive Director Sally Boynton Brown, and Fox News analyst Jehmu Greene.

Perez, Ellison's highest-profile rival, has rolled out a slate of governors supporting him to counter the national Democrats backing Ellison — Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe among them. He's also won support of prominent state party chairs like Texas Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa. But as a former top Clinton surrogate and one of her vice presidential prospects, he's been viewed by some Democrats as a more establishment-oriented candidate compared to Ellison, the preferred candidate of the Sanders wing.

"I don't think Perez will ever win their trust or support," said Oklahoma Democratic Party chairman Mark Hammons, referring to Sanders supporters.

"And that's not a knock on him; it is he's an establishment guy, which is a bad thing in today's climate," said Hammons, who backs Ellison. "Not necessarily a bad thing of working your way up, but in today's climate you don't want to be an establishment guy, and one of Hillary's problems is she was always going to be an establishment candidate."

The regional forum was the first of four official gatherings scheduled ahead of the late February vote for chairman, when the 447-member voting body will pick the next DNC leaders. As the kickoff event and the first chance that DNC voting members got to compare the candidates side-by-side, it was an opportunity for all the candidates to showcase their views, said Jeff Weaver, the former campaign manager for Sanders and president of Our Revolution, an outside group.

"Instead of people just calling on the phone and talking to this one and that one and lining up support, this is a very public way and in that way brings the process more out into the open," said Weaver, whose group supports Ellison.

While all the candidates have been lining up supporters and reaching out to DNC members directly to ask for their votes, undecided members said the forums would play a key role in helping them make a final decision.

"I want to hear these people speak. I don't know them personally. I want to hear them speak. I want to hear how they present themselves, how they project our values. How they express that, how they come across, because that coming across is a very important aspect of that position," said Washington state DNC committeewoman Nancy Monacelli, who is undecided. "I want someone who speaks well; if someone uses bad grammar, they're off my list."