25 February 2017, 11:00 GMT
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Perez, the Democratic Party's first ever Latino leader, was backed by a margin of 235 DNC member votes to 200 in favor of his closest rival, US Congressman from Minnesota Keith Ellison.
Perez then appointed Ellison as his deputy chair.
The vote was broadcast live by the Fox News channel.
Perez served as the labor secretary under former President Barack Obama between 2013 and 2017.
The DNC chair's role was left vacant after the resignation of Debbie Wasserman Schultz following last year's embarrassing WikiLeaks revelations. The DNC email leaks showed that its members sabotaged the party's more left-wing presidential nominee Bernie Sanders in favor of Hillary Clinton.
Clinton lost to Republican candidate Donald Trump in the November 8 presidential election having achieved 227 electoral votes to Trump’s 304.
