WASHINGTON ― If there had been any doubts, President Barack Obama expunged them on Friday afternoon: The outgoing president wants his labor secretary, Thomas Perez, to succeed him as the top figure in the Democratic Party.
“Tom Perez has been, I believe, one of the best secretaries of labor in our history,” Obama said at his end-of-year press conference. This week, Perez
challenged Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) in the race to chair the Democratic National Committee. Obama did not mention Ellison by name in his remarks.