Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., endorsed Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., to lead the Democratic National Committee during a speech Wednesday night, a sign Sanders wants to see change at the top.
Sanders, who ran for president this year as a Democrat, made the announcement at the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the American Federation of Teachers.
"Now is the time for real change in the Democratic party, to revitalize the Democratic party and to bring in people who have not been welcomed in the past," Sanders told a crowd of roughly 100 union members, per The Hill.
"We should not be afraid of new energy and new faces. We should welcome and embrace new energy and faces. Now is the time for a chair of the Democratic Party who has a very different vision of the party than those in control today. Now is the time for Keith Ellison to become chair of the Democratic party."
Ellison, who is Muslim, once called for the creation of a blacks-only society in the U.S.
Another report said he took a pilgrimage to Mecca in 2008 — a trip allegedly paid for by the Muslim American Society, which has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Democratic Party was left scratching its heads after Hillary Clinton lost the presidential election to Republican Donald Trump. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., resigned as the DNC chair over the summer after it became public she showed favoritism toward Clinton over Sanders in the presidential race.
The party is now led by interim chair Donna Brazile, who reportedly provided town hall questions to the Clinton campaign ahead of time when she worked for CNN.
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