DNC chair contenders seek unified front against Trump

Over and over, the candidates to helm the Democratic National Committee stressed Saturday that they’re waging a new fight against Donald Trump — not re-fighting the old one between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. Their race is no proxy battle, and the party is now unified around the cause of stopping Trump as he prepares to take the oath of office, the seven contenders said.

FILE – In this Jan. 11, 2017 file photo, Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga….

As the candidates for chairman of the Democratic National Committee gathered here for a forum Saturday, they wrestled with a vexing question: how to confront the asymmetrical political warfare of President-elect Donald Trump. “If you try to go tweet-to-tweet with him, more often than not you’re not going to succeed,” said Thomas E. Perez, the secretary of labor, warning about going to “a knife fight with a spoon.”

Namechecked by Obama, gay ex-Navy officer joins race to revive Democrats

Washington; The gay, 34-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana – namechecked recently by President Obama – has entered the contest for chairman of the Democratic party, presenting himself as an alternative to the two leading candidates. Warning that beleaguered Democrats can ill afford a replay of their contentious presidential primary in the race to lead the Democratic National Committee, Pete Buttigieg said “this is not a time to relitigate an old battle”.