Son of two Dominican immigrants, Buffalo, New York-born Thomas Perez, was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) on 25 February 2017. He is the first Latino to be head the DNC. The DNC faces daunting challenges to counteract the Trump administration.
Previously, 55-year old Perez served as Labor Secretary during the Barack Obama administration (2013-2017) and Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice. Perez is a graduate of Brown University, and Harvard’s Law School and John F. Kennedy School of Government.
The US media reported that the new chairman must rebuild a party that in the last decade has lost about 1,000 elected posts from the White House to Congress to the 50 statehouses, a power deficit Democrats have not experienced nationally in 90 years.
Pérez’s father, Rafael Antonio de Jesús Pérez Lara was born in the Dominican Republic earned U.S. citizenship after enlisting in the US Army after World War II. He was a physician who had moved to Canada to do his medical residency. His mother, Grace (Altagracia Brache Bernard), was also born in the Dominican Republic and moved to the United States in 1930 after her father, Rafael Brache, was appointed as the country’s ambassador to the United States. Her father would stay in the United States after differences with then dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo.
Read more:
Son Of Caribbean Immigrants To Lead Democratic Party’s Fight Against Trump
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Perez
http://time.com/4683102/democratic-party-dnc-chair-tom-perez-unite/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/tom-perez-elected-as-first-latino-leader-of-democratic-party/2017/02/25/1fd76f52-fad7-11e6-9845-576c69081518_story.html?utm_term=.c9ba3f3619b2
http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/02/25/tom-perez-democratic-national-committee-names-new-chair
