MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) - Minnesota U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison told New Hampshire Democrats on Saturday to prepare for an ongoing fight against all Republicans, not just President Donald Trump.
“We can’t just say it’s all about Trump,” Ellison said. “They’ve got a whole wave movement where they’re trying to do damage all over the place.”
Ellison is the newly appointed deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, a post he secured after losing his bid to be chairman. New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley had also been in the race, but dropped out to endorse Ellison. Still, former Labor Secretary Tom Perez won the post.
Before Ellison’s Saturday speech to the Democrats’ annual meeting, Buckley was re-elected as state party chairman. Both Ellison and Buckley had argued the party had become too focused on the White House at the expense of state legislatures and governorships. Ellison again shared that message, saying Democrats are losing because they lack a cohesive national message that can inspire ordinary Americans. Without one, he warned, Republicans would continue to win.
“We’ve got to have a higher vision than just winning an election,” he said. “When we set our sights as really agents and champions for the American people, people start feeling the flow.”
State Republicans, meanwhile, criticized Ellison as “out of touch” and a supporter of poor economic policies.
“New Hampshire Democrats are out of touch and out of line for embracing Keith Ellison’s dangerous worldview,” state GOP Chairwoman Jeanie Forrester said in a statement.
Ellison said he resists the idea that Trump is somehow different than other Republicans and urged the crowd to keep an eye on what the GOP is doing at all levels. He singled out Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder as two GOP leaders who are “bad ones,” and slammed some of the policies pushed by New Hampshire’s Republican Gov. Chris Sununu.
“I think that (Trump) is a Republican on steroids,” Ellison said. “He believes all the things that they believe, but he doesn’t believe in watering it down or sugarcoating it.”
Ellison took time to relish in House Republicans’ failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act as well as the court’s rejection of two travel bans by Trump’s administration. But he told the crowd the fight to “literally save the nation” is just beginning.
“We gotta lace up,” he said.
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