National Nurses United today re-affirmed its strong support for Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota to be the next chair of the Democratic National Committee and condemned the latest round vitriolic attacks on Ellison as “symbolic of McCarthy era politics that should have no place in American politics.”



“Selecting Keith Ellison to chair the DNC is exactly the direction the Democratic Party needs to go to rebuild and strengthen its ties with working class Americans, young people, communities of color, and the full diversity of the 99 percent of Americans who should be the base of the Democratic Party,” said NNU Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro who is also a vice president of the AFL-CIO.



“With allies of the far right and corporate interests now in control of all the branches of the federal government and a majority of state governments, it could not be more clear that the Democratic Party needs a new path that represents a fundamental break with reliance on Wall Street donors and the corporate class,” said DeMoro.



“With his stellar record in Congress, which includes an uncompromised commitment to working people, and challenging corporate interests, Keith would be an outstanding leader who lead the shift the Democratic Party needs,” DeMoro said.



“It is precisely because his candidacy represents a break with neoliberal policies that have too often characterized the Democratic Party establishment that we are seeing some of the disgraceful attacks now surfacing on Keith and his background,” DeMoro maintained. “It is time for those who are behind this scurrilous campaign to stop, and ask whose interests do these attacks serve, Wall Street or Main Street?”



Nurses will continue to campaign for Ellison and urge Democratic Party leaders to elect him, DeMoro concluded.