Former Labor Secretary Tom Perez, who is campaigning to be the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee said Wednesday if he's picked, he'd urge Senate Democrats to filibuster President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee if that person is a "hard right" conservative, even if it leaves the seat vacant.
"If they support the hard right, absolutely," said Perez during a MSNBC "Morning Joe" interview. "If they're going to continue to go to the hard right, you have to do that."
Republicans last year kept then-President Barack Obama's choice, Merrick Garland, from advancing through confirmation hearings, which Perez called "unprecedented."
Meanwhile, Perez discussed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's lost election, saying the defeat shows his party needs to get back to basics.
"I believe in data analytics, but data analytics are no substitute for good old-fashioned organizing," said Perez. "In Wisconsin, Mitt Romney got more votes than Hillary Clinton, but every fourth October going to an AME church, that's not an organizing strategy. When you ignore rural America, you ignore it at your peril."
Florida is another good example, said Perez, because four years ago, the Republican Party there invested in year-around organizing throughout the state, producing an estimated 120,000 voters.
Democrats have lost 1,000 legislative seats nationally, and Perez said he agrees with former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's call for a 50-state strategy.
"When you work with states to make sure we're fielding candidates from school board to Senate, that's how you rebuild the Democratic Party," said Perez. "We can't be the party of the West Coast and the East Coast and a couple states in between. We can and must be a party in every state."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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