ICYMI: DNC Chair Jaime Harrison Touts Biden-Harris Investments for Black Communities Ahead of the 2024 Democratic National Convention

CHICAGO – As more than 400 Democratic leaders from across the country visited Chicago this week to preview the Democratic National Convention, Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison called into The Perri Small Show, a Black talk radio show on Chicago’s WVON, and spoke about the opportunities that the convention is bringing to Black small businesses and Black-owned firms, the Host Committee’s work to engage residents from across Chicago’s neighborhoods, and the work that the Biden-Harris administration has done to benefit Black Americans.

The convention will serve as a key opportunity for Democrats to bring the story of the Biden-Harris administration’s accomplishments to the American people – including their historic record on investing in Black communities in Chicago and across the country.

LISTEN HERE: PART I and PART II

Key Excerpts:

“We want to make sure that we are […] delivering economic benefits to Chicago because that’s the thing that’s important, jobs and putting money in people’s pockets. And so we’ve already started that, making sure that we’re working with Black business leaders, small businesses, Black-owned firms. For the first time in convention history, we have a 100% Black-owned firm called Show Strategy from Chicago that will be the exposition services provider. So we want to continue to do that and we want all of the neighborhoods to get a look and to feel the impact of having thousands of people coming to the city.”

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“So much is at stake right now. I’m a father of two boys, a nine year old and a five year old. And I was raised by my grandparents in the South, and so I often hear the stories of how they grew up and the things that they did not have. And now I see some of the things that they talk about are now coming back, and I tell you this, Perri, with everything I have in me, and with every breath in my body: I’ll be damned if I allow my sons to have to grow up in a world similar to the way that my grandparents grew up in.”

[…]

“No president ever touched the issue of student loans until Joe Biden. And now his newest proposal is going to really impact a lot of people who’ve been paying student loans, but the interest has been accruing at such a fast rate that they now have more debt than they originally had at the beginning. This president is doing something about it. First president to put a Black woman on the Supreme Court, first president to appoint a Black woman to be vice president. The money that we have pumped into historically Black colleges and universities, infrastructure, getting rid of lead pipes, the new jobs that we’re seeing created.”