Ellison Focuses on the Grassroots

Ellison Hopes To Impress Both Populists and Establishment Democrats

With the race for Democratic National Committee Chair nearing the finish line, leading candidate Rep. Keith Ellison is making his case for the job with a video laying out his vision for the party."Building" captures his plan for a grassroots-focused strategy. "The number one priority for the Democratic Party must be voter turnout, voter engagement, building voter trust ... the most exciting thing about a turnout-oriented strategy is that it will bring people together who maybe have not been together."Over vintage images of one his early campaigns, Ellison gets nostalgic, "When I first got there, we had the lowest voter turnout in the state of Minnesota of any congressional district. We would turnout about 150,000 votes. Now we get at least 250,000. How do we do it? We identify a numerical goal after every election. Then we figure out where we were light ... and then we go after those voters ... [Now] the 5th district [has] the highest turnout in Minnesota."Ellison ends with a tantalizing prospect for partisan Democrats, "Now there are no statewide Republicans in Minnesota because we have chased them all out, and I'd like to share that with the rest of the country."Ellison is backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders and the populist wing of the Democratic Party, but is viewed somewhat skeptically by Establishment figures. In this video, Ellison is trying to assure all factions of the party that he knows what it takes to win.The DNC Chair race is typically won in backrooms, not over the airwaves. But Ellison hopes that by rallying Democratic activists with his grassroots message, he can impress the elite group of voting DNC members that the enthusiasm he brings will carry over into the upcoming elections.