The roster of declared candidates for DNC chair currently includes Perez, Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison, and New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley. | Getty Idaho official to run for DNC chair

The race for the Democratic National Committee chairmanship is getting another candidate.

Sally Boynton Brown, the executive director of the Idaho Democratic Party, told POLITICO on Friday that she plans to enter the race, just a day after Labor Secretary Tom Perez also announced his candidacy for the job.


The president of the Association of State Democratic Executive Directors, Boynton Brown said Perez's decision to enter the race was the final motivation.

"Ultimately, that's exactly why I got into the race. The last thing that our party and especially our country really needs is for us to be having an ideological conversation between Bernie folks and Obama-Hillary folks about whether we're going to be liberal or whether we're going to be moderate," Boynton Brown said.

The roster of declared candidates for DNC chair currently includes Perez, Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison, and New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley. Ellison, a backer of Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential bid, has the Vermont senator's endorsement. Perez, who was on Hillary Clinton's vice presidential shortlist, jumped into the race partially at the urging of top White House officials.

But as the race for DNC chair has taken shape with Ellison as the early favorite, committee members have worried the contest could turn into a proxy fight between Sanders supporters and Clinton supporters.

"It is shaping up to be a race between [Perez] and [Ellison]," said Maria Cardona, an at-large DNC member supporting Perez.

Boynton Brown said she has the support of all four Idaho DNC members, including Bert Marley, the state party chairman, and the state's two national committeemen. But her bid remains a long shot since state party executive directors don't vote in the race for DNC chair, and Ellison and Perez cut a much higher national profile.

Her announcement makes her the first woman to join the field of candidates. NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue is weighing a bid and has reached out to DNC members but hasn't made a final decision. Boynton Brown said she and Hogue had been exchanging emails about running.

"Ilyse and I were kind of trading emails. We were going to connect and just haven't had a chance to," Boynton Brown said, noting that the "women's perspective is missing right now" from the race.

"While I know that Ilyse was talking about it, she hadn't made a decision that I had seen yet, and I didn't think that we could afford to wait any longer," Boynton Brown said.



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Democratic National Committee