Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigns as Chair of the Democratic National Committee

Embat­tled Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Com­mit­tee Chair Deb­bie Wasser­man Schultz has announced that she will resign from her post once the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion has con­clud­ed, the par­ty said in a state­ment today.

Wasser­man Schultz, who also serves in the U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, has been under fire for some time from par­ty lead­ers and activists unhap­py with her man­age­ment of the party.

Bernie Sanders has been call­ing for her res­ig­na­tion for weeks, and many of his sup­port­ers have been call­ing for her ouster for even longer than that.

It is worth not­ing that Wasser­man Schultz was not cho­sen as DNC Chair in a com­pet­i­tive elec­tion by the mem­bers of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Committee.

Rather, she was picked by Pres­i­dent Oba­ma’s advi­sors, who mis­tak­en­ly thought she’d make a good suc­ces­sor to Tim Kaine when he stepped down to run for Unit­ed States Sen­ate in Vir­ginia. Kaine is now Clin­ton’s run­ning mate.

(The Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty has a non­sen­si­cal tra­di­tion of allow­ing the White House to select the par­ty chair when the pres­i­den­cy is held by a Demo­c­rat — a prac­tice that I, in my capac­i­ty as a Demo­c­ra­t­ic activist, am deter­mined to abolish.)

From the begin­ning, Wasser­man Schultz was an inef­fec­tive chair who could not get things done well, or at all. Her tenure has been marked by a series of elec­toral loss­es, fias­cos, and set­backs for the party.

Under Wasser­man Schultz, Democ­rats suf­fered mas­sive loss­es in the 2014 midterms, missed out on earned media due to a poor­ly thought-out pres­i­den­tial debate sched­ule, had data stolen in a breach of the DNC’s com­put­er sys­tems, and need­less­ly engaged in mul­ti­ple pub­lic feuds with the Sanders cam­paign (includ­ing over Vote­Builder access last December).

The par­ty’s media out­reach under Wasser­man Schultz was also incred­i­bly weak.

Many Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty lead­ers believe Wasser­man Schultz should have resigned or been forced out months ago, par­tic­u­lar­ly when it became appar­ent she had lost the con­fi­dence and trust of her own vice chairs.

But inex­plic­a­bly, she has remained in charge. Until now.

This week­end, Wasser­man Schultz called Pres­i­dent Oba­ma, report­ed­ly to offer her res­ig­na­tion. But it is not his to accept.

Wasser­man Schultz is sup­posed to be the leader of a par­ty that lives up to his name. The par­ty grass­roots has already been demand­ing Wasser­man Schultz’s res­ig­na­tion for a long time. I don’t know a sin­gle Demo­c­ra­t­ic activist who approves of her job per­for­mance. It is appro­pri­ate that she is final­ly listening.

POSTSCRIPT: Hillary Clin­ton, Pres­i­dent Oba­ma, and Vice Pres­i­dent Joe Biden have all pre­dictably issued state­ments thank­ing Wasser­man Schultz for her service.

Clin­ton’s:

I want to thank my long­time friend Deb­bie Wasser­man Schultz for her lead­er­ship of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Com­mit­tee over the past five years. I am grate­ful to Deb­bie for get­ting the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty to this year’s his­toric con­ven­tion in Philadel­phia, and I know that this week’s events will be a suc­cess thanks to her hard work and leadership.

There’s sim­ply no one bet­ter at tak­ing the fight to the Repub­li­cans than Deb­bie — which is why I am glad that she has agreed to serve as hon­orary chair of my cam­paign’s 50-state pro­gram to gain ground and elect Democ­rats in every part of the coun­try, and will con­tin­ue to serve as a sur­ro­gate for my cam­paign nation­al­ly, in Flori­da, and in oth­er key states. I look for­ward to cam­paign­ing with Deb­bie in Flori­da and help­ing her in her re-elec­tion bid–because as Pres­i­dent, I will need fight­ers like Deb­bie in Con­gress who are ready on day one to get to work for the Amer­i­can people.

Oba­ma’s:

For the last eight years, Chair­woman Deb­bie Wasser­man Schultz has had my back. This after­noon, I called her to let her know that I am grate­ful. Her lead­er­ship of the DNC has meant that we had some­one who brought Democ­rats togeth­er not just for my re-elec­tion cam­paign, but for accom­plish­ing the shared goals we have had for our coun­try.  Her crit­i­cal role in sup­port­ing our eco­nom­ic recov­ery, our fights for social and civ­il jus­tice and pro­vid­ing health care for all Amer­i­cans will be a hall­mark of her tenure as Par­ty Chair.

Her fundrais­ing and orga­niz­ing skills were matched only by her pas­sion, her com­mit­ment and her warmth.

And no one works hard­er for her con­stituents in Con­gress than Deb­bie Wasser­man Schultz. Michelle and I are grate­ful for her efforts, we know she will con­tin­ue to serve our coun­try as a mem­ber of Con­gress from Flori­da and she will always be our dear friend.

Biden’s:

Deb­bie Wasser­man Schultz has had the President’s and my back over the last eight years—and we’re incred­i­bly grateful.

She’s been part of our efforts to build an econ­o­my from the mid­dle-out, to deliv­er qual­i­ty, afford­able health care to mil­lions of Amer­i­cans, and to pro­tect equal rights for everyone.

Gov­ern­ing is seri­ous busi­ness. The coun­try deserves — and needs — seri­ous lead­ers like Debbie.

A fight­er for women’s health and rights. A fierce advo­cate for seniors and work­ing fam­i­lies. A Con­gress­woman who knows her first job is serv­ing her constituents—and her first oblig­a­tion is always to her beau­ti­ful family—Steve, Jake, Rebec­ca, and Shel­by. Deb­bie is an incred­i­ble pub­lic ser­vant, and she will always be my friend.

Bernie Sanders had a very dif­fer­ent take:

Deb­bie Wasser­man Schultz has made the right deci­sion for the future of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty. While she deserves thanks for her years of ser­vice, the par­ty now needs new lead­er­ship that will open the doors of the par­ty and wel­come in work­ing peo­ple and young peo­ple. The par­ty lead­er­ship must also always remain impar­tial in the pres­i­den­tial nom­i­nat­ing process, some­thing which did not occur in the 2016 race.

Tim Cano­va, Wasser­man Schultz’s Demo­c­ra­t­ic pri­ma­ry chal­lenger in Flori­da’s 23rd Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict, who is seek­ing to replace Schultz in Con­gress, said:

Deb­bie Wasser­man Schultz has resigned from the DNC and now it’s time for her to step up and debate me or drop out of our House race. Her inter­ests lie not with her con­stituents, but rather in the inter­ests of cor­rupt spe­cial inter­ests groups and herself.

It’s time for a change in South Florida.

Wasser­man Schultz will per­form her final duties as Chair this week at the Con­ven­tion, and then Don­na Brazile will become the inter­im Chair.