Thomas Perez on Principles & Values

Trump 2016 Russian collusion was unprecedented treachery

Tom Perez, the DNC chairman, said, "This constituted an act of unprecedented treachery: the campaign of a nominee for President of the United States in league with a hostile foreign power to bolster its own chance to win the presidency."

Perez said the Russian government notified the Trump campaign in advance that it had stolen Democratic emails and other information about plans by the party that Russia sought to support Trump's candidacy.

"Rather than reporting Russia's offer to meddle in a U.S. election, the Trump campaign welcomed Russia's help," Perez said. "Trump's closest political adviser, Roger Stone, also appeared to have advance knowledge of specific plans by WikiLeaks to disseminate some of this information."

Invest in grassroots every-Zip-code strategy

PEREZ: We have to rebuild our parties in the 50 states, and that's exactly what we're going to do. We also have to redefine our mission. We not only elect the president of the United States, but we elect people from the school board to the Senate and everywhere in between. Governors, secretaries of state, treasurers, attorneys general. I think there's an acute understanding that where we fell short is that we didn't invest enough in those state parties. When we build that strong infrastructure, when we're in every ZIP code--I heard from rural America that the Democratic party hasn't been there for us recently. We have to make sure we have an every-Zip-code strategy. That's how we win. That's exactly what we're going to do. These investments in grassroots organizing.

First Latino elected to the Montgomery County Council

The son of Dominican immigrants, Secretary Perez was born and raised in Buffalo, New York. Public service was the family business. Perez's maternal grandfather was the ambassador to the United States from the Dominican Republic in the 1930s, until he spoke out against his home country's brutal dictator and was declared non grata. Pere's father, a physician, served in the U.S. Army and worked for many years at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Buffalo.