Joseph Kennedy III's 2016 Democratic National Convention Speech

Joseph P. Kennedy III delivered a speech to introduce Elizabeth Warren at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on 25 July 2016.

Transcript
Thank you. Thanks, guys.

It was my first day of law school. My very first class. The goal: escape unscathed. Not three seconds in, and I get the first question:

"Mister Kennedy: what is the definition of sumpsit?"

"Uhhhhh..."

"Mistery Kennedy: you realize a sumpsit is the very first word in your reading?"

Yeah. And I actually circled it, because I didn't know what it meant.

"Mister Kennedy: do you own a dictionary? That's what people do when they don't know what a word means: they look it up in a dictionary."

I never showed up unprepared for Professor Elizabeth Warren ever again. She was the toughest teacher on campus, but the wait-list for her class was a mile long. She pushed us hard; she brought out our best; she believed in us. And she believed in the law. Not as an abstraction, but as a living force with the power to make life better, or worse. She taught us that it's impact lay not in classrooms or textbooks, but in a society where wages have not budged in forty years. Where two-and-a-half million children are homeless. Where we can expect one in three black men to go to prison.

Our laws have human consequences. That fact fueled a law school professor to take on this country's most entrenched financial interests. It brought a middle-class champion back to a Massachusetts Senate seat. And it let a first-term U.S. Senator become our government's gut-check. In a sea of power and privilege, Senator Warren is an anchor for the voiceless and victimized. She asks more from all of us, because she believes deeply in each of us.

That faith – in our country, and the American people – is the very foundation of our Democratic Party. It echoes through this arena tonight, and to every classroom, living room, and hearing room that Senator Elizabeth Warren has ever touched.

Ladies and gentlemen: it is my honor to introduce to you your Senator, my Senator, our Senator. Senator Elizabeth Warren!