Democrats Elect Thomas Perez, Establishment Favorite, as Party Chairman

Former Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee on Saturday, narrowly defeating Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota to take the helm of a still-divided party stunned by President Trump’s victory but hopeful that it can ride the backlash against his presidency to revival.

The suspense-filled balloting revealed that Democrats have yet to heal the wounds from last year’s presidential primary. Mr. Perez, buoyed by activists most loyal to President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, won with 235 votes out of 435 cast on the second ballot. Mr. Ellison, who was lifted primarily by liberal enthusiasts of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, pushed the voting to a second round after Mr. Perez fell a single vote short of winning on the first ballot.

After Mr. Perez’s victory was announced, Mr. Ellison’s supporters exploded in anger and drowned out the interim chairwoman, Donna Brazile, with a chant of “Party for the people, not big money!” When Mr. Perez was finally able to speak, he immediately called for Mr. Ellison to be named deputy chairman, delighting Mr. Ellison’s supporters.

Mr. Perez’s victory was the culmination of a more than three-month-long campaign that began when Democrats were still shellshocked over having lost the presidential race. All of the major candidates argued against any turn toward moderation, and they shared the same strategic vision for reviving a national committee and state parties that had withered under Mr. Obama.

What had been expected to be a robust debate over the way forward for a party shut out of power across much of the country was soon diminished by the larger, more immediate matter of President Trump’s near daily provocations and the raging backlash to his hard-line agenda.

Still, the race reflected the fault lines dividing the party before Mr. Trump’s shocking victory, and it carried a measure of suspense not seen in the party in decades.

Entering the race immediately after Mr. Trump’s win, Mr. Ellison, a prominent surrogate for Senator Bernie Sanders in the presidential primary, quickly won support from Mr. Sanders and other leading liberals. Allies of Mr. Obama, Mrs. Clinton and other establishment-aligned Democrats soon began casting about for an alternative. In December, Mr. Perez entered the fray, quickly winning praise from Mr. Obama and endorsements from a number of governors.

Other candidates also entered the race, but by the time the committee members descended on Atlanta, it was a two-person contest between Mr. Perez and Mr. Ellison.

While voting members of the party, many of them officials from the 57 states and territories, are more closely linked to the establishment wing, Mr. Ellison kept the race close by consolidating liberals and picking up support from mainstream Democrats such as the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.

Party chairman races have in recent years been tidier affairs, with those trailing often withdrawing before the election takes place. Indeed, Saturday’s vote marked the first time in over three decades that the outcome of a vote for chairman was unknown when the balloting began. (The previous time was in 1985, the year after Walter Mondale lost 49 states in the presidential race.

In this year’s contest, the candidates all sought to align themselves with the so-called resistance, some of them showing up at airport protests the weekend Mr. Trump issued his executive order banning migration from some Muslim-majority countries.

Though the protests overshadowed the contest for chairman, they also brightened the spirits of Democrats, who quickly began to view Mr. Trump as a powerful mobilizing tool and the best force for unity in their own ranks.

“People are very energized about Trump, and this is a golden moment to capture that energy,” said Representative Maxine Waters, the veteran California Democrat. “We’ve just got to make sure that we come out of here together no matter what.”

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