DNC Chair Praises Senior Caucus for ‘Building the Foundation’

Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison speaks on the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago on Aug. 21, 2024. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison appeared before members of the party’s senior caucus on the third day of the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 21 to thank and credit them for being members of the older generation that put in the work to build the party of today. 

“Thank you for building the foundation on which we stand,” he said to the group of older party members. “Thank you for standing up for what is right. Thank you for allowing us to stand up and be a voice for each and every one of you.

“Thank you, senior counsel, for all that you have done for this great nation.”

The senior caucus consists of Democrat voters aged 65 and older.

Harrison shared his story of being raised by his grandparents in Orangeburg, South Carolina. He said going to vote was a tradition for him and his grandfather, and it was one of the last things they did together before his grandfather died in 2004.

He recounted watching his grandparents work hard despite his grandmother only having an eighth-grade education and his grandfather having a fourth-grade education and being evicted from their home after a “con man” stole their mortgage payments.

He told the senior party members, “I made a promise to myself that if I ever, ever got a good job and a good education, I was going to buy my grandparents’ house.”

He achieved that dream in 2004, just before his grandfather’s death.

“Why do I do this?” he asked with tears in his eyes. “It’s not for a title. It’s not to win an election. I do this because of people like my grandparents, people who society may not think have much value because they don’t have college degrees, they don’t have big titles, they don’t have a whole lot of money. These are the people making this country great.”

He gave their generation credit for walking the hard roads to help make it easier for him so he could make it even easier for his sons.

“That is who we are as a party,” he said. “Because we leave nobody behind.”

Harrison’s address to the senior caucus was made during a convention that many party delegates and politicians view as a time of the older generation “passing the torch” to the younger generation, attendees told The Epoch Times, beginning with President Joe Biden stepping down and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris.

Piyush Seth, platform delegate from Pittsburgh, said: “The old Democrats, which I’ve been a part of for a long time, are passing the torch to the new Democrats, and it’s going to make a difference.

“It was a very smooth transition.”