Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez took a shot at past DNC administrations on Monday, saying the old mission statement of the organization was merely to help elect a Democrat president every four years.
Perez made the remark during an interview with the progressive, Wisconsin-based radio show "The Devil's Advocates," as he touted the party's backing of Judge Rebecca Dallet for a state Supreme Court position there.
"We've got some boots on the round right now in Wisconsin as we speak, because we want to make sure that the DNC is putting our best foot forward," he said. "Our new mission statement is very different from our old one. Our old mission statement was just help me to elect the president every four years, and our new mission statement is helping to elect Democrats and good people up and down the ballot from the school board to the Oval Office, and that includes Supreme Court races, and that's why we're investing in Wisconsin."
Perez took over the position in 2017 after the explosive ouster of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D., Fla.), who held the chairmanship from 2011 to 2016. During her tenure, President Barack Obama was re-elected, but Democrats lost control of the U.S. Senate and saw its minority shrink further in the U.S. House of Representatives.
During Obama's two terms in office, Democrats went from controlling 59 percent of state legislatures to 31 percent, and they went from holding 29 governor's offices to just 16.