Keith Ellison Quotes

The Democratic chairman doesn't need to be a household name. Most people didn't know who Ron Brown was when he was chairman of the Democratic Party, but he put the party in a position where Bill Clinton could come in and he had a solid base to run from.

The strength of the Democratic Party of Cook County is not something that just happened.

Top Democrats laying down their markers for how they'll work with President [Donald] Trump, but who will take on the job of rebuilding the Democratic Party after Tuesday's crushing defeat put Republicans in control of the White House and congress.

For Democrats to win, they're going to have to address the needs of working people. They're going to have to address the needs of the middle class.

There're a lot of places that I can serve. And I'm going to serve. I'm going to be fighting to rebuild the Democratic party no matter what. I'm going to be fighting to make sure the Democratic party is known among working people that we are their champion no matter what. So I'm looking for a place to serve.

I think when we show voters in every ZIP code across America that the Democratic Party is fighting for them - I mean, Dr. King said, what good is a seat at the table if you can't afford to buy a hamburger? I think that's a message that resonates everywhere, and we have to boldly put that forth, and we've got to organize around it everywhere so that people understand, in Wisconsin, or in the heart of Baltimore, what we stand for.

I have no problem if you want to be a socialist. But for those people who are in the middle, you know, I don't know if you're really welcome in the Democratic Party, and I don't even know who the Republican Party is anymore. I have absolutely no idea.

The Democratic Party is a coalition. Its strength and its weakness is, it's a coalition of interest groups, caucuses. It's a lot less homogeneous than the Republican Party, where people tend to believe the same things and oftentimes look alike.

To strengthen the grassroots at the party - at the party unit, at the county level, at the precinct level, and then to help motivate and facilitate the local grassroots to get out there and turn out the vote and boost turn out. And then to help govern in places where we do hold city councils and state legislatures.

I think that the Democratic Party is a big tent, which means that there are positions I may not agree with.

We're not forcing people... you can support and be a supporter, but if you go beyond that and become a member, [and] if you're a businessman, your business will multiply... Everything you touch will multiply. I've always said that a wise businessperson will support the ANC... because supporting the ANC means you're investing very well in your business.

Trump's dividing us. Yes, but people were already divided; Trump just expressed that division. And we have to find a way to, within a very heterogeneous party, even though we're the minority, we're a much more diverse party, of course, than the Republicans are. How do we talk about universal programs, have a universal message, and make sure we're talking about recent immigrants and non-immigrants, African-Americans, Latinos, LGBT people, as well? To me, that is a serious problem.

If you wanna maintain 20 percent of the world's income with 4 percent of the world's people, you gotta first of all have more shared prosperity and shared growth.

I think a core principle of the Democratic Party has to be a defense of equal rights for every American. At the same time, when you look at the election, and not just the 2016 election, but the elections to come, Democrats have to do better than we did in 2016 in communities, in rural communities where people feel like they've been in a slow burn recession or depression for years, not just months.

I don't hear any clear, coherent message [from Democrats]. I mean, when you're a party out of power, it's the time to be a national party chair.

This is why I don't understand Democrats worried about turnout. They get the dead out every year. I mean, what's the problem? But if [Hillary Clinton] wins this, it isn't gonna mean anything to be a Republican.

I always run ahead of the ticket [compared to Democratic presidential candidates]. But this time there were a lot of people that just voted party line, a lot more than usual.

For Democrats to win, they're going to have to address the needs of working people. They're going to have to address the needs of the middle class. And that means standing up to Wall Street, standing up to the greed of corporate America. Even now and then, standing up to the media. And that means having a candidate who can excite working families, excite young people, bring them into the political process, create a large voter turnout.

Nothing will make me change my principles. Even with the knife at my neck I shall still declare, up to this day, the poor have done everything; it is time for the rich to take their turn... The selfish people, the young idlers, must be made useful, whether they like it or not, and some respite be procured for the useful and respectable worker.

The economy working - the economy growing, corporations growing and hiring people and wage increases occurring - is the worst thing that can happen politically for the Democrat Party.

For the Democrats, they're trying to avoid having the Sanders-Clinton debate over and over again. But, to some degree, they're sentenced to that debate. Clinton is much more embracing of the global economy and the international world order. Sanders and Warren are much less so. And they have got to figure out which side the party is on, if they're going to have a clear message. I think this is probably one you probably can't straddle.

If Europe were once united in the sharing of its common inheritance there would be no limit to the happiness, the prosperity, and the glory which its three or four million people would enjoy.

The real question is not what one person's going to do, what are we all going to do? How are we all going to pitch in to fix this party to make working America know that the Democratic party is absolutely on their side? That's the real question.

The Democratic Party has succeeded so well that many of its members are now Republicans.

I don't want people to think he [Eldridge Cleaver] is so important - our party is important because our party works for the people and no individual is important in our party, including myself.