Speaker 1: Joining us now is a man who, I mean, for
Speaker 1: more than half of his life has been in Democratic politics.
Speaker 1: Jason Ray was first a delegate at the age of seventeen,
Speaker 1: the youngest person to ever be a delegate at the
Speaker 1: I think anywhere. I don't recall hearing of any Republicans
Speaker 1: that have done that younger. I have to ask, what
Speaker 1: did your parents do to you to make you want
Speaker 1: to go into politics at seventeen?
Speaker 2: Jason?
Speaker 3: You know, my parents weren't into politics at all. They
Speaker 3: always voted, They cared much more at the Green Bay
Speaker 3: Packers than they did in politics. But for me, it
Speaker 3: was just always something that was intrinsic. I remember, you know,
Speaker 3: in elementary school, we would have to do biographies on someone,
Speaker 3: and I chose John F. Kennedy right then and there.
Speaker 3: And there was just something I fell in love with
Speaker 3: with his idea of service to the party, service to
Speaker 3: the country. And that's how I got involved, because I
Speaker 3: really thought party activism was a way to create change
Speaker 3: in my community.
Speaker 1: So when you said to your parents, Hey, mom, dad,
Speaker 1: can you drop me off at this Democratic Party meeting?
Speaker 2: How did that go?
Speaker 3: I actually wrote my bike to most of them.
Speaker 2: Actually, that's even better. I don't know why that's better,
Speaker 2: but that's even better. They just trusted me.
Speaker 3: I knew a couple of local elected officials who'd invited
Speaker 3: me to the meetings and just got to show up.
Speaker 3: And here I was a fifteen sixteen year old going
Speaker 3: to county party meetings, county party vice chair before I
Speaker 3: could ever vote, and elected to the DNC before I'm
Speaker 3: a graduated high school.
Speaker 2: Well you are.
Speaker 1: Now we're now twenty years on. This is your sixth convention.
Speaker 1: What in all the conventions you've been to give me
Speaker 1: some takeaways that you see from this convention versus the
Speaker 1: other ones.
Speaker 3: You know, it's really hard. I've been thinking about that
Speaker 3: as we are preparing to kick off night two here.
Speaker 3: And each convention really does have its own unique feel too.
Speaker 3: I think my first one was two thousand and four
Speaker 3: in Boston where Barack Obama was the keynote speaker. So right, yeah,
Speaker 3: see yeah, and that was a really special moment, you know.
Speaker 3: Here I was a young kid, had always had been
Speaker 3: interested in politics, being at a national convention for the
Speaker 3: first time for me, This one is going to be
Speaker 3: a really special one tonight when we do the roll
Speaker 3: call and as I went on stage on Sunday to
Speaker 3: practice a little bit of that. There was just a
Speaker 3: special moment for me there of being you know, a
Speaker 3: kid a group and ruled northern Wisconsin who just wanted
Speaker 3: to get involved in politics to make a difference and
Speaker 3: to be a national party officer and getting to participate
Speaker 3: in an historic event tonight.
Speaker 1: I haven't even mentioned the fact that you are the
Speaker 1: secretary of the DNC and as such you will be
Speaker 1: actually executing the role call, though this is a symbolic
Speaker 1: role call, because you guys already wrap that up.
Speaker 3: We had to vote early because of some ballot access
Speaker 3: laws in Ohio, so we did a virtual role call
Speaker 3: vote back to the beginning of August to officially certify
Speaker 3: Kamala Harrison Tim Walls as our nominee. So tonight's really
Speaker 3: are a reaffirmation of that, and really the real purpose
Speaker 3: of it is the purpose of convention is to really
Speaker 3: come together as a party, for delegates to celebrate, to unify,
Speaker 3: and we wanted to make sure that those delegates who
Speaker 3: are ran and caucuses and conventions in their.
Speaker 2: Home states got to be a part of it.
Speaker 3: You know, they fill up their ballot online, they send
Speaker 3: it in but we really wanted to be able to
Speaker 3: come together and unify the country and go state by
Speaker 3: state through all fifty seven states and territories tonight to
Speaker 3: really celebrate that moment.
Speaker 2: I was talking about that on the air.
Speaker 1: We also cover the RNC, and just like the DNC,
Speaker 1: the RNC and the DNC, they are the roots of
Speaker 1: the political parties. These are people who live, breathe, and
Speaker 1: just live for democratic national politics or democratic politics. And
Speaker 1: when you get them all together in a room like this,
Speaker 1: what kind.
Speaker 2: Of things do you guys see.
Speaker 1: When you look across the entire group of delegates that
Speaker 1: are out on the floor. What do you feel when
Speaker 1: you look out there at all of your fellow Democratic
Speaker 1: I thanks for me.
Speaker 3: When I look at it, I see America out there.
Speaker 3: My office is responsible for helping certify all of our
Speaker 3: convention participants. So we've been working the last several months
Speaker 3: to get demographic information on folks. And you know, near
Speaker 3: fifty percent our first time convention delegates to this convention.
Speaker 1: That's really actually very impressive because there's a lot of return.
Speaker 2: There is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and when you look out though, you see America.
Speaker 3: You see people who this is their first or people
Speaker 3: who've been coming for eight ten conventions already, you see
Speaker 3: the wide array that really makes up the Democratic Party.
Speaker 3: And I think that was actually one of my proudest
Speaker 3: mom once last night, when we as officers were sitting
Speaker 3: up on stage watching the speeches and just looking out
Speaker 3: at the crowd and saying, this is America. Here the
Speaker 3: Democratic Party represents America.
Speaker 2: You are thirty seven years old.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like this convention maybe more than prior conventions,
Speaker 1: we're seeing a generational shift.
Speaker 3: I think we saw it last night with President Biden
Speaker 3: really passing the torch to the next generation. I think
Speaker 3: we're seeing that through convention, and I think it'll be
Speaker 3: a theme we heard last night. We were able to
Speaker 3: celebrate his leadership and commitment to the party for five decades,
Speaker 3: and I think as we continue now the next three nights,
Speaker 3: we will talk about what this new generation of leaders
Speaker 3: looks like. I think it's also the reason we looked
Speaker 3: at speakers last night. We had some great folks early on,
Speaker 3: lieutenant governors for example, who were up and rising stars
Speaker 3: within the party, and I think we'll continue to see
Speaker 3: folks like that take the stage over the next three nights.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm gonna ask you this, and I don't expect
Speaker 1: you to answer the question because you are in politics.
Speaker 1: Who do you thought? Who did you think last night?
Speaker 1: Let's take Joe Biden out of it. We're just gonna
Speaker 1: take him off. Who did you think really crushed it
Speaker 1: last night? We have too that we thought crushed it
Speaker 1: last night.
Speaker 3: Oh it's really hard. I can't. I can't answer that.
Speaker 1: Was like, hey, okay, actually, what if you knew someone
Speaker 1: who would have an opinion, what would that opinion be.
Speaker 3: One of those that I thought did a fantastic job
Speaker 3: was Ashley Biden. Actually introducing her father was just a
Speaker 3: really moving, touching moment, and I think everyone in the
Speaker 3: hall could see that for them, and I think it
Speaker 3: was a culmination of celebrating his five decades of service
Speaker 3: to the party and when you're the leader of the
Speaker 3: free world like that, your family has to take sacrifices,
Speaker 3: and hearing from the family and getting to celebrate them
Speaker 3: as well, I think was really an important moment.
Speaker 1: I gotta say, I thought Hillary gave the best speech
Speaker 1: of her life last night.
Speaker 3: She was fantastic.
Speaker 1: I mean, I really thought that was the best she's
Speaker 1: ever been. She was really and odd that she's not
Speaker 1: campaigning for herself, She's just throwing it out there. And
Speaker 1: I just thought it was a really good speech by
Speaker 1: her last night.
Speaker 3: She did really, really well and I brought the house down.
Speaker 2: How do you decide?
Speaker 1: And I don't know how intimately you are involved as
Speaker 1: the secretary of the DNC with the planning, but.
Speaker 2: How do you guys decide what night people speak on?
Speaker 3: You know, there's a whole team that has focused on
Speaker 3: that to figure out what the messaging is for each
Speaker 3: day and how do speakers fit into that. But really
Speaker 3: also then ensuring that we have the diversity of our
Speaker 3: party represented on stage. We not only want the diversity
Speaker 3: in our delegates and those who are coming to participating convention,
Speaker 3: we want the speakers to reflect that so that as
Speaker 3: folks are sitting at home, they can see themselves. You know,
Speaker 3: for me, as a young young gay kid growing up
Speaker 3: in Ryal, Wisconsin, trying to find those out elected leaders
Speaker 3: like Tammy Baldwin who could take the stage and speak
Speaker 3: and I could say, well, that could be me up
Speaker 3: there someday. So that's I think one of our goals
Speaker 3: we identify those speakers is to say who can inspire
Speaker 3: folks to be active, engage and participate in the process.
Speaker 1: So should we expect to see candidate Jason Ray at
Speaker 1: some point in the future out of Wisconsin.
Speaker 3: You know, I love what I'm doing for the party
Speaker 3: right now. This is I feel like the best way
Speaker 3: I can give back is to elect great candidates who
Speaker 3: are going to fight for my values.
Speaker 2: Jason Ray, it's a joy to talk to you.
Speaker 1: And although I think you're insane for spending your entire
Speaker 1: life in the political process, I do admire your gumption
Speaker 1: and forgetting I just can't even imagine being a seventeen
Speaker 1: year old and writing my back to a political party meeting,
Speaker 1: So part.
Speaker 2: Of me thinks you're a little crazy.
Speaker 3: I think in politics is probably a little bit special here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, congratulations. We look forward to seeing you do
Speaker 1: the role. Call tonight and thank you for making time
Speaker 1: for us.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much. All right, that's Jason Ray.
Speaker 1: He is the secretary of the Democratic National Convention.