DNC convention speakers: What to know about James Clyburn

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Rep. James Clyburn, House majority whip, is among the first round of speakers to address the Democratic National Convention Monday night.

Clyburn D-S.C., is the highest-ranking Black member of Congress and he provided a jolt to Joe Biden’s campaign by offering his endorsement in February. His speech is fifth on the line-up on the first day of the week-long DNC held mostly virtually from the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee.

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The 80-year-old from rural Sumter County is credited for bringing the 1960s civil rights legacy to the DNC this year.  Many of his contemporaries -- like former Washington Mayor Marion Barry, Rep. John Lewis, and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. --  have passed away, so Clyburn will address the nation in the midst of a new, contentious chapter in the pursuit of racial justice and the Democratic party, which is on the verge of nominating the first Black woman for to run for vice president on a major party ticket.

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Clyburn serves as the Chairman of the House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis.  He is also the Chairman of the Rural Broadband Task Force and Democratic Faith Working Group. 

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Clyburn said he recorded radio ads and calls to flood South Carolina with his endorsement for Biden before Super Tuesday --  a move that helped revive the former vice president's campaign and set him on course to the nomination he is expected to receive, along with running mate Sen. Kamala Harris of California.

As violent, nighttime demonstrations in Portland, Ore., erupted in the weeks since George Floyd's killing, Clyburn received pushback in July for comparing federal law enforcement, which was sent to the city, to Nazi Germany’s Gestapo police force in an interview with CNN’s John Berman.

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“That kind of activity is the activity of a police state, and this president and this attorney general seem to be doing everything they possibly can to impose Gestapo activities in local communities,” Clyburn said in the televised interview.

Like many congressional Democrats, Clyburn has also criticized Trump for threatening to withhold funding from the U.S. Postal Service, which critics claim would stifle widespread mail-in voting amid the pandemic. 

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“We ought not be crippling the Post Office,” Clyburn tweeted Monday. “For the president to admit that he is doing this in order to gum up the works when it comes to the elections, he is actually signing a death warrant for a lot of people.”

When he came to Congress in 1993 to represent South Carolina’s sixth congressional district, Clyburn was elected co-president of his freshman class and quickly rose through leadership ranks, according to his official biography on the House of Representatives website.

He was subsequently elected chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, vice chairman and later chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. He previously served as the majority whip from 2007 to 2011 and served as assistant Democratic leader from 2011 to 2019. 

Clyburn's decade-long push for rural broadband, which is critical now during the coronavirus pandemic for remote education, employment, and health care, is gaining fresh currency and it was approved as part of an infrastructure bill and is being eyed as part of a COVID-19 aid package.

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Biden's campaign is leaning into Clyburn's longtime priorities, including his signature “10-20-30" formula to spend 10 percent of federally appropriated funds in places where 20 percent of the population or more has spent 30 years in poverty.

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Viewed as a political kingmaker in South Carolina, Clyburn earned former President Bill Clinton’s wrath for tipping the scales to Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton in the state's 2008 primary. Clyburn was instrumental in positioning the Palmetto State after Iowa and New Hampshire for the early vote.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.