The onetime cabinet secretary is set to announce the mark in an email to DNC members on Tuesday afternoon, fewer than two weeks before the election. Perez's DNC campaign claims 180 of 224 needed votes

Former Labor Secretary Tom Perez’s Democratic National Committee chair campaign told POLITICO on Tuesday that it had reached 180 pledged supporters — a number that underscores the likelihood that the late-February vote will go to multiple rounds of balloting given the size of the field and the small voter pool.

The onetime cabinet secretary is set to announce the mark in an email to DNC members on Tuesday afternoon, fewer than two weeks before the election.


Perez’s main opponent in the race is early front-runner Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, but the field also includes a handful of other candidates who are thought to have enough votes to keep one of the front-runners from a simple majority come voting time in Atlanta, potentially leading to a messy weekend of negotiations and dealmaking.

That group includes New Hampshire Democratic Party chairman Raymond Buckley, South Carolina chair Jaime Harrison, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Idaho Democratic Party Executive Director Sally Boynton-Brown, and former television commentator Jehmu Greene.

While Perez and Ellison have competed over prominent endorsements — like Ellison’s from Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer, and Perez’s from former Vice President Joe Biden, former Attorney General Eric Holder and former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack — the vote ultimately comes down to 447 party insiders, necessitating 224 votes to win outright.

"With many strong candidates in the race, we believe that DNC members deserve the respect to make this hard decision without unverifiable public whip counts designed to put a finger on the scale," said Jamie Long, Ellison's campaign manager. "We have by far the most public support in the race, including dozens of state party chairs and vice chairs, five complete state delegations, and numerous elected officials who serve on the DNC. Most of our supporters prefer to remain private and we respect that. We will not be releasing our full whip count, but we are on track to win next week and we are confident that we will."

Enough members remain uncommitted as the candidates cross the country in the closing days of the campaign to win them over that campaigns are preparing for voters to look to their second and third choices over repeated rounds of voting.