Labor leader wins election to become new California Democratic Party chair

Labor union leader and grassroots organizer Rusty Hicks was elected California Democratic Party chair Saturday evening, the party announced.

Hicks won 57 percent of the more than 3,000 ballots cast during the party’s three-day convention in San Francisco, securing his lead over progressive activist Kimberly Ellis, who trailed him with 36 percent of the vote.

Hicks takes over from Alex Gallardo-Rooker, who stepped in as acting chair when former chairman Eric Bauman was ousted amid sexual harassment allegations. Gallardo-Rooker was the first Latina and woman of color to hold the position. Hicks is the first veteran elected to the job, Gallardo-Rooker said.

Hicks is scheduled to speak Sunday at the close of the convention, where 14 presidential candidates and thousands of delegates congregated this weekend for the chair election and to lay out policy priorities in the lead-up to 2020.

Ellis lost to Bauman by a slim margin in 2017, which prompted her supporters to cry foul and question the results. Hicks alluded to the past drama over the chair’s race in a statement on his victory.

“I am humbled by the outcome,” Hicks said. “I believe that the positive nature of our respective campaigns has been and will prove to be a positive step to a bigger, better, stronger Democratic Party.”

Hicks leads the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. He previously served as the union organization’s political director and worked on former President Obama’s 2008 campaign.

The party’s new leader is also an Afghanistan war veteran and ran his campaign on a “Medicare for All” and environmental justice platform. He also promoted plans to help formerly incarcerated people get union jobs.

This story was originally published June 1, 2019 at 10:51 PM with the headline "Labor leader wins election to become new California Democratic Party chair."