Her resignation statement made no reference to DNC e-mails, published last week via WikiLeaks, that revealed staffers’ condescending and combative posture toward Sanders, the progressive Vermont senator who provided an unexpectedly strong challenge to Clinton deep into the primary season. The party apparatus is expected to remain neutral until the primary season ends.

The departure of Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who has weathered a long list of controversies during her more than five-year tenure leading the Democratic National Committee, marked a chaotic start to a convention week intended to display unity for Clinton’s White House bid. Wasserman Schultz will leave her post after the convention ends on Thursday.

PHILADELPHIA — The Democratic Party’s top official resigned Sunday amid e-mail revelations that national committee staffers had tried to undermine Bernie Sanders, Hillary’s Clinton’s spirited rival, during the primary election season.


As news of the e-mails spread over the weekend, Wasserman Schultz came under increasing fire, especially from progressives. In her statement Sunday, she said only that stepping down is the best way for her to “accomplish” the goal of electing Clinton.

“It’s definitely unfortunate that we have to start the convention like this,” said Jim Manley, a veteran Democratic strategist and former staff member to Senate minority leader Harry Reid.

“I’m a little surprised she didn’t do this earlier. But it was probably the right thing to do because the Sanders folks weren’t going to let go of the issue,” said Manley.

Longtime Democratic operative Donna Brazile will replace Wasserman Schultz until a new DNC leader is selected.

The vast disagreements within the Democratic coalition have been largely underplayed this year as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has supplied an endless list of inflammatory comments causing open revolt in the GOP. But there has been real anger roiling on the Democratic side as well, with many of the same populist themes that have captured the Republicans.


Democrats have carefully scripted this week’s convention in hopes of focusing not on division within the party, but on the unity needed to send Clinton to the White House.

Monday has been carefully cordoned off as “progressive day,” with a slate of prime-time speakers from the left wing of the party who have only reluctantly embraced Clinton.

Sanders is set to speak, as is Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who many liberals hoped would be picked as Clinton’s running mate. She was passed over for Tim Kaine, a centrist senator from Virginia.

Also on the roster is Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, the only senator to endorse Sanders, and AFL-CIO chairman Richard Trumka, a close Warren ally.

Democratic insiders are hoping that the resignation of Wasserman Schultz will quell some of the anger that has been mounting as reporters and activists have sorted through the leaked DNC e-mails. The messages have revealed that Wasserman Schultz’s organization worked against Sanders, including suggestions to focus on Sanders’ faith just before contests in Southern states.

“I think I read he is an atheist,” Brad Marshall, the DNC’s chief financial officer, wrote in one e-mail. “This could make several points difference with my peeps. My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist.”

Talk of the e-mails dominated Sunday morning news programs, short-circuiting what Clinton’s team had hoped would be a period focused on Kaine, her newly minted vice presidential candidate.


“Nobody’s talking about Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine’s debut yesterday,” said Mary Anne Marsh, a Democratic strategist. “Everyone is talking about this. Unfortunately she had to go, to start this convention the way it should be, without controversy.”

The Clinton campaign tried to draw attention to the alleged source of the leaked e-mails: Russia.

“Experts are telling us Russian state actors broke into the DNC, stole these e-mails, and other experts are now saying that the Russians are releasing these e-mails for the purpose of actually helping Donald Trump,” Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager, said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Trump has put forward a series of Russia-friendly foreign policy statements, including casting doubt on whether the United States would honor its NATO commitment to defend small Baltic nations if Russia invades.

But blame for the Russians was getting little traction Sunday among some delegates, who have a long list of grievances against Wasserman Schultz and appeared more interested in focusing on her shortcomings.

The e-mail controversy, meanwhile, fueled the liberal wing’s anger over Clinton’s choice of Kaine, a moderate, as her vice presidential pick. Making matters worse, many of them view the choice as the first real indication of how Clinton would govern if elected in November.

“Would I have preferred to see somebody like an Elizabeth Warren selected by Secretary Clinton?” said Sanders on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday. “Yes, I would have.”

As if to make the left’s case, a smattering of centrists, and even Republicans, praised Kaine.


On Sunday, Sanders delegates held a news conference in Philadelphia where they blasted the choice. “The selection of Kaine will make defeating Donald Trump that much more difficult,” predicted Sanders delegate Norman Solomon.

Some progressive leaders were a bit heartened that Kaine made a screeching left turn in recent days on trade, which they hope shows that Clinton won’t tack too hard to the center.

AFL-CIO chairman Richard Trumka released a statement Saturday praising Kaine for his recent change of heart on the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, saying Kaine’s new opposition “signifies the beginning of a new era” in Democratic politics.

Stephanie Taylor, a cofounder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a liberal group, pushed Kaine to be outspoken on other progressive issues.

“We hope Tim Kaine soon joins Hillary Clinton in calling for breaking up Too Big To Fail banks and prosecuting Wall Street bankers who break the law,” she said in a statement.

Enjoying the spectacle of discord among Democrats were the Republican Party leaders who hosted a reception for journalists in Philadelphia Sunday night.

Annie Linskey can be reached at annie.linskey@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @AnnieLinskey.