Former presidential candidate Howard Dean dropped out of the contentious race to become the Democratic Party’s next leader, speaking by video today to state chairs in Denver.

Dean, who served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2005 to 2009, said that while he is taking his name out of consideration, he is still pledging resources to the party.

With his announcement, the DNC chair’s race came down to three: U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Jamie Harrison, chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, and Ray Buckley, chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party.

“We cannot allow this to be a proxy fight between Bernie Sanders’ people and Hillary Clinton’s people,” the former Vermont governor told Democratic state chairs inside a hotel ballroom. “This party needs to start again, and we need to be together.”

Despite Dean’s plea, the DNC chair’s race has become a battle between the “political revolution” Sanders side of the Democratic Party, and the more establishment Clinton end. The contest has allowed wounds that never healed from the divisive primary to resurface.

Leading the pack is Ellison, who is backed by Sanders and U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

Despite the somewhat divisive inter-party race, Ellison advanced a theme spread by all of the candidates at the DNC “Future of the Party Forum”-unity.

“I believe I can help pull us together and be unified, because that is key,” Ellison said, acknowledging that he supported Sanders during the primary.

“We need to energize the Democratic activists across the country, giving them the tools they need to rebuild the party from the bottom up,” he continued.

“We’re all friends and we plan on working together, no matter how this race comes out.”

The meeting of Democratic Party chairs in Denver will run through Saturday morning. On Friday evening, party leaders and state chairs will discuss rules and bylaws. On Saturday morning, the DNC Executive Committee will convene for discussions.

The DNC chairs forum was moderated by Colorado Democratic Party Chairman Rick Palacio, who underscored the frustrating election for Democrats, in which Clinton lost to Republican Donald Trump and Democrats underperformed nationally in gubernatorial, Senate and House races.

“Republicans have not been this well positioned since the 1920s,” Palacio said. “Wide swaths of the American people did not vote with us and we find ourselves at a crossroads.”

Palacio pointed to some of the controversies surrounding the Democratic National Committee during the primary, when former Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was accused of favoring Clinton. Leaked emails highlighted an effort by the DNC to tilt the primary in favor of Clinton. Wasserman Schultz resigned in the aftermath.

“Controversy within the DNC created a very deep schism within our party. Faith in our party was broken,” said Palacio, who recently announced that he would not run for re-election. “How do we begin to heal these divisions and restore trust in this party that we love so much?”

Harrison said, “The Democratic Party has to transform, we have to transform from simply being a political organization looking for votes every two to four years, and we must become a community organization.”

Buckley added, “We have chosen to believe that we can win, but only if we are one party, not if we are divided.”