Keith Ellison, an early favorite to become the next Democratic National Committee chairman, has hit his first roadblock. The Minnesota congressman and Bernie Sanders ally is facing growing resistance to the idea of electing another party chairman who is a sitting member of Congress.

On the heels of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s troubled tenure as DNC chief, the issue of whether Ellison will commit full-time to the job poses a threat to his candidacy — even as he enjoys significant support in his bid to become DNC chairman.


Wasserman Schultz drew criticism in party circles for how she handled the two demanding roles, and Democrats privately grumbled that she sought to leverage her position as party chairman to give her congressional donors plum spots at DNC fundraisers with President Barack Obama and solicited DNC donors for contributions to her campaign.

“I think we all watched at DNC meetings a chair trying to do both, and both is a matter of the amount of time being taken but also, if you are a sitting officeholder, there's potentially some separation between your interests and the interests of the national party," said Ohio Democratic Party chairman David Pepper.

Already, two of Ellison’s opponents for the top DNC job — former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and South Carolina Democratic Party chairman Jaime Harrison — have made the point that congressional responsibilities would dramatically undercut the ability of the next chairman to do the job effectively.

"Look, I like Keith Ellison a lot. He's a very good guy. There's one problem. You cannot do this job and sit in a political office at the same time. It's not possible," Dean, a former DNC chairman, said during a Nov. 11 interview on MSNBC.

In announcing his bid for chair last week, Harrison made clear he would quit his lobbying job if he won the DNC race. On Thursday, he stressed that the next DNC chairman has to be a full-timer.

"Anybody that understands what has to be done right now to rebuild the Democratic Party understands that you can't do part-time. You can't do quarter-time, you can't do half-time. It has to be a full-time commitment, or I just don't see how it works," Harrison said.

Ellison has not publicly addressed the issue and so far has given no indication that he would step down from Congress if he were elected to the chairmanship.

"He's fully committed to doing both jobs. He's ready to step down from his leadership post and as co-chair on Day One. People have confidence in his capabilities. That's why he has so much support," a source with direct knowledge of Ellison's thinking said when asked whether Ellison would step down from his House seat if elected. Ellison currently serves as a co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and as a chief deputy whip for House Democrats.

But that may not be enough to allay Democratic worries, with some pointing to the national party’s charter and by-laws, which state that the "National Chairperson shall serve full-time."

Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, who is up for reelection in 2018, said last week that “the DNC head ought to be full-time," though he refused to answer followups on the race or who he's supporting. Ilyse Hogue, president of the abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America, is considering a run for the DNC post and also thinks the position should be full-time, according to a spokeswoman.

Last weekend, Assistant House Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn of South Carolina sent a letter to House Democrats arguing that the next chairman needs to be engaged on a full-time basis.

"The Democratic National Committee's (DNC) primary goal is to win the presidency," the letter, obtained by POLITICO, said. "Winning the presidency in 2020 is possible. But it will require, in our not-so-humble opinion, a 24/7 bottom-to-top rebuilding effort."

Clyburn, who backs Harrison for chairman, sent the letter before Harrison jumped into the race. On Wednesday, Clyburn told his fellow Congressional Black Caucus members that he would be making the same argument regardless of whether he supported Harrison, who is a former Clyburn aide.

"He told the Black Caucus today that they are unrelated, and Clyburn's the type of person who would shoot straight," said CBC Chairman Rep. G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina, who's open to either Harrison or Ellison becoming chairman.

On Friday, another South Carolinian, former DNC chairman Don Fowler, emailed current DNC members to press the case.

"We must have a fulltime Chair who will devote all of her/his time and energy to electing Democrats in the midterm election of 2018 and retaking the White House in 2020," Fowler wrote, stressing that that he was not endorsing any candidate in the race. "A part time Chair simply cannot get it done. Please join me in insisting upon following our Charter and electing a fulltime Chair for the next four years."

One option that could accommodate Ellison is a dual-chairman structure.

"It's been done multiple times. Having done it, I think it would work successfully," said former DNC chairman Steve Grossman, who co-chaired the committee with then-Colorado Gov. Roy Romer.

But many Democrats are leery of the idea. Even when they assumed that the party would inherit the White House in 2016, the dual-chairman scenario was viewed askance by some top officials. An internal Hillary Clinton campaign memo released in a WikiLeaks batch of campaign chairman John Podesta's emails showed campaign officials warning of a "Two-headed monster with little clarity of who is responsible for different areas of work within the committee."

While Grossman saw merit in a dual chair set-up, he cautioned that a single chairman, especially when the party is out of power, would have to be full-time. "I think it is a big mistake for the Democratic Party to choose one person to be the chairman of the party unless that person is prepared to make it a full-time job. It is too big, too complex, it is too all-encompassing and consuming."

Ellison's backers strongly disagree with that argument. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, an Ellison supporter, insisted Friday the previous problem wasn’t that Wasserman Schultz was a member of Congress, it was that she didn't balance the two roles properly.

"Well, she had two hats, and the conflicts with those hats got her in trouble. I don't think Keith has conflict," Grijalva said.

Ellison’s position is bolstered by Sen. Bernie Sanders, who offered his unqualified support Thursday and said the solution is for the next chairman to bring in capable staff. The Minnesota congressman has already brought on Nick Carter, formerly in charge of delegate math for Sanders' presidential campaign, to help his bid.

"Look, I think it's no secret I'll tell you I think Debbie Wasserman Schultz was not an outstanding chair of the Democratic Party, but it wasn't because she was a sitting member of Congress, and I think we have a lot of precedent in the past for DNC leaders to be governors, to be full-time public officials," Sanders told reporters. "On the other hand, the argument is a valid argument that is especially now it is a very time-consuming job. But the way you deal with that is to have the kind of staff that you need, to have an executive director that you need to handle a whole lot of executive work that needs to be done."

The real reason it's being discussed, Sanders added, is because it's a way for Ellison's critics to undermine his candidacy.

"I don't believe it was being raised when Debbie took the job. And I think this is just a way for Keith's opponents — I mean, the usual line is, 'We love Keith, he's great, but,' and that's the ‘but.’ So I think this is a way for his opponents to try to criticize him and end up supporting somebody else," he said.

Heather Caygle and Elana Schor contributed to this report.