Brayden Harrington, a 13-year-old New Hampshire boy who called himself “an ordinary child,” gave a powerful address in a primetime-speaking closing Thursday at the Democratic National Convention on how he bonded with Joe Biden on the campaign track. “About a few months ago I met him in New Hampshire and he told me we were members of the same club. We stutter,” Brayden said, stumbling over his words.
Biden talked about overcoming a stutterer as a child – and one of the videos at the DNC mentioned people mocking him for his stutterer. Brayden met Biden at a CNN town hall in New Hampshire in February, after a student asked him about his stutter.
At City Hall, Biden Brayden said “it has nothing to do with your intelligence quotient. It has nothing to do with your intellectual makeup.” Biden said he did not receive professional help for his stutter, but instead said he would practice for hours in front of the mirror. He said his mother would tell him, “Joey, let this not define you. Joey, remember who you are. Joey, you can do it.”
According to CNN, Biden asked for Brayden’s phone number and said he would check in. On Thursday, Brayden spoke for a sign of the Biden campaign.
“It was really great to hear that someone like me became vice president,” Brayden said, stumbling over the last word. “He told me about a poem book by Yeats that he would read aloud to practice.”
Brayden said Biden told him he marked his speeches to make them easier to sound, and Brayden said he had done the same for this speech.
“Joe Biden cared,” Brayden said. “Imagine what he could do for all of us. Children like me count on you to choose someone we can all look up to. Someone who cares. Someone who will make the country and the world feel better. We count on you to choose Joe Biden. “
Brayden was one of many who spoke to the Democrats during the convention about resistance and their support for Biden. Gabby Giffords on Wednesday marked her long road to recovery since she was shot in the head in 2011, while Kristin Urquiza spoke about the death of her 65-year-old father of COVID-19 and 11-year-old Estela Juraez spoke Wednesday about her father being deported.
.
