85-Year-Old Democratic Elder Announces He’s Running for 18th Term After Hakeem Jeffries Asked Him to Stay

(AP Photo/Matt Kelley, Pool)

Eighty-five-year-old Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) announced Thursday that he’ll run for an 18th term in Congress after being asked to stay on by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).

Clyburn told supporters at South Carolina’s Democratic Party headquarters Thursday, “In a few minutes, I’m going to sign the paperwork that’s necessary in order to qualify for the Democratic nomination to run again.”

Clyburn also revealed that in a phone call Wednesday, Jeffries asked him to be a part of his leadership team.

“He was among those who asked me to stay. He did not know or had not been informed of what my decision was going to be,” Clyburn said. “And he expressed an interest in my being a part of his leadership, if he were to take the House back. It made me feel necessary.”

Clyburn, who turns 86 in July, said he believed he was “very well equipped and healthy enough to move into the next term, trying to do the things that are necessary.”

“If I were not up to it, I would not do it,” he said.

NBC News reported that Clyburn “is among the oldest members of Congress, but not the oldest,” listing Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who’s “third in line to the presidency” at 92 years old, and Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY) the dean of the House who’s also running for re-election at age 88.

Clyburn was first elected to Congress in 1992, “the same year another Democrat from the South, Bill Clinton, won the White House,” NBC News reported, noting Clyburn’s reputation “as a Democratic kingmaker” in South Carolina, “credited with propelling former President Joe Biden’s campaign to victory in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary with his endorsement.”

Last spring, Clyburn was asked by MS NOW’s Ali Velshi, for his take on criticism that there’s not a “cohesive message” coming form the Democratic Party.

“Well, I think the message coming from the Democratic Party is a good message,” Clyburn said. “The problem we’ve got, I’ll say, is that we have to depend upon the media to deliver it.”

Clyburn continued, “If we have The Washington Post, for instance, caving to this wannabe dictator and we’ve got other media entities that seem to rather push a narrative that will bring eyes to their newspapers or to their television sets and not really give a fair hearing or reporting to what we’re doing.”

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!