CHICAGO — Angie Gialloreto of Pennsylvania first attended the Democratic National Convention in 1976, when Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale were on the ticket, and has attended every DNC since. At 95, she is believed to be the oldest of thousands of Democratic delegates who campaigned this week for Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential bid and has no plans to sluggish down, she told the Capital-Star Tuesday.
“I’m a Democrat and I started when I was very young,” said Gialloreto, who said she has been a Wilkins Township committeewoman for 66 years. This year’s election, she said, feels different than many years past. “This is a new generation, women and people of color are finally not being left out and overlooked. This is the beginning of a new American freedom.”
Gialloreto, who was a delegate for Hillary Clinton in 2016, said Clinton’s speech Monday night was moving. “She should be president,” Gialloreto said. “But she’s like me, a true Democrat. And I’m proud of the leadership of my state and this country.”
She advised younger delegates and women not to give up the fight, even on days when they feel discouraged, and to get involved in politics.
“Sometimes it fills your heart so much that you can’t explain to people the enthusiasm you feel,” she said. “But if they feel like they have something to contribute to their community, then it’s worth it. Come and try it, you’ll love it.”
She couldn’t pick a favorite convention. But she said President Joe Biden is her favorite Democrat. “I met him when he was running for senator and I had a feeling about him,” she said.
The youngest delegate from Pennsylvania, and one of the youngest at the DNC, is Ellie Goluboff-Schragger, 20, a third-year student at the University of Pennsylvania. “I wanted to see how it all works on a national level and meet all the people who make it all happen,” she said.
Goluboff-Schragger said she met with Gov. Josh Shapiro on Monday and was impressed. “He was so nice and amazing,” she said. Of course, she also wants to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris, but also U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who Goluboff-Schragger said is really reaching out to younger voters.
This week, she’s listening to Democrats weigh in on the issues most crucial to her and her peers. “As a woman, obviously reproductive rights are important; as a gay woman, I think LGBTQ rights are really important,” she said. “The right to marry is really important to me, as is the right to choose what I do with my body and to be able to have a child without having to worry about, you know, what we heard at the convention last night.”
She referenced a group of women who shared their stories of struggles to access abortion care during Monday night’s convention kickoff. “Kamala Harris has been an incredible advocate for abortion rights and reproductive rights, and Tim Walz has been an advocate for LGBTQ rights since the beginning. So I think those are the things that matter the most.”
Gialloreto plans to treat the upcoming election the same way she has treated all the previous ones: as a call to work. “I believe in freedom. I believe in America,” she said. “I’m just a happy 95-year-old woman who’s going to work her ass off to get Kamala elected.”
