Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) will relinquish his congressional seat, if elected Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman.
The legislator told the Minneapolis-based Star Tribune on Wednesday morning that he would make the move, after hearing that many of his colleagues would not back another sitting lawmaker as head of the DNC.
“Serving my neighbors in Congress and fighting for them has been the best job I’ve ever had,” Elllison said. “Until the DNC Chair election, I plan to continue doing just that,” he added.
The vote to pick the next DNC head will be held in February, in Atlanta, Ga. Ellison needs to win a majority of the 447 member electorate. He would resign, if victorious, the next week, the Star-Tribune said.
The previous chair of the DNC was Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.). Because her reign was widely seen as an utter catastrophe–given November’s election results and a tumultuous primary that saw the DNC favoring Hillary Clinton over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)–prominent Dems are saying the next person should fill the job on a full-time basis.
Ellison is also being targeted with criticism that alleges he holds anti-Semitic beliefs, due to mild criticism he has made of Israel.
Many of those recent charges stem from a video manipulated by a man described as a Muslim-hating extremist by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Despite this, Jonathan Greenblatt, director of the Anti Defamation League, said the clip “raise[s] the specter of age-old stereotypes about Jewish control of our government.”
Ellison was one of eight members to vote against emergency funding for Israel’s “Iron Dome,” in 2014, as the country rained bombs on Gaza that killed more than 2,000 Palestinians.
He was also one of the few lawmakers to speak out on behalf of Tariq Abu Khdeir, a Palestinian-American beaten by Israeli police, during the 2014 conflict, when Abu Khdeir was-15 years-old.
