Tokyo — From February 11 to 17, 2017, members of Democrats Abroad Japan participated in an online poll to express their preference for the next DNC Chair. Keith Ellison, Democratic Congressman from Minnesota, was the overwhelming preference among those who responded. Ellison was the preferred choice of 65.5% of the respondents. Former Secretary of Labor Tom Perez came in a distant second at 11.7%. Ellison and Perez are generally considered the front runners in the race for DNC chair.
Thirty-four respondents (19.9%) preferred a candidate other than Ellison or Perez, and all but two of the candidates listed in the poll received at least two votes.
Only two of the respondents indicated that they had no preference or were undecided. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Howard Dean all received write-in votes, although some of them were excluded from the official total due to spoiled ballots.
The poll’s margin of error is estimated at 7% at a 95% confidence interval. The complete results of the poll are listed below.
Democrats Abroad Japan
DNC Chair Poll (February 17, 2017)
65.5% Keith Ellison, U.S. Representative from Minnesota since 2007
11.7% Thomas Perez, former United States Secretary of Labor (2013-2017)
3.5% Robert Vincent Brannum, NAACP-DC Veterans Committee Board Member
3.5% Sally Boynton Brown, Executive Director of the Idaho Democratic Party since 2012
3.5% Jaime Harrison, chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party since 2013
2.9% Pete Buttigieg, Mayor, South Bend, Indiana
2.9% Jehmu Greene, former head of Rock the Vote
2.3% Sam Ronan, Ohio
1.2% Raymond Buckley, chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, current DNC Vice Chair (Buckley has dropped out of the race and endorsed Keith Ellison)
1.2% Bernie Sanders (Write-in)
1.2% Undecided / No Preference
0.6% Howard Dean (Write-in)
0.0% Peter Pecharsky, Wisconsin
0.0% Vincent Tolliver, Georgia
Methodology
An email containing a link to the poll was sent to 2,681 members of Democrats Abroad Japan on Saturday, February 11, 2017. The email was received by 2,659 members, as 22 email addresses were either bad or the message bounced. The email was opened by 1,069 members. On Friday, February 17, 2017, a reminder email including the link to the poll was sent to the DAJ membership list. The reminder email was opened by 993 members. The poll closed at 12:00 a.m. on Saturday, February 18, 2017.
In total, 179 responses were received. The following responses were excluded from the final tally: 1 duplicate response, 2 invalid members, and 5 spoiled responses (i.e., respondents selected more than one candidate). A total of 171 valid responses were received.
Respondents were required to provide name and contact information. Email address and residential address were required. Respondents were also required to state whether or not they currently reside in Japan. Telephone number was optional. Each respondent’s name and/or email address was searched in the DAJ database to ensure that each respondent is a valid DAJ member.
Margin of error was determined using Survey Monkey’s online Margin of Error Calculator.