Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison claimed on Friday that “women are dying because we are losing elections.”
Ellison, who is currently the vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee, was the keynote speaker at a training event for the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
Ellison brought up his own election loss to former Labor Secretary Tom Perez in 2017’s race for DNC chairman, and when the crowd booed, he reminded them that working together was of the utmost importance. “What am I [going to] do? Say, ‘I didn’t win. I’m out of here.’ No.”
Ellison, who was backed in the DNC election by Senator Bernie Sanders, was immediately named as Perez’s deputy in an effort to keep the party from further division.
Stressing the importance of “being a team player,” Ellison continued, “Did you know that in Missouri and in Texas and maybe other places, maternal mortality has risen? Women are dying because we are losing elections. We don’t have the right to lose a damn election. We have to win. We have to win.”
In Missouri and in Texas, maternal mortality has risen. Women are dying because we are losing elections. We don’t have the right to lose a damn election. pic.twitter.com/PljmVSPKYp
— Rep. Keith Ellison (@keithellison) April 13, 2018
But what Ellison failed to mention is that the high maternal mortality rate in Missouri has been primarily attributed to that state’s greater number of women who smoke or are obese, which puts them at greater risk for cardiac events and blood clots. The higher rates in Texas (overestimated two to one), according to Popular Science, were the result of flawed data.