Brunswick delegate camps out to get front row seat at DNC | News

CHARLOTTE, NC (WECT) - Brunswick County Delegate Tom Simmons arrived before lunch time Wednesday to make sure he had a front row seat for the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. That's six hours prior to the gavel dropping on the evening festivities.

"I camped out because I want to get a feeling of all these speakers," Tom Simmons told WECT.com. "I want to feel their emotion, feel their spirit and I do. I didn't think I'd be overcome by emotion, but I am."

Simmons, who is running for the Board of Education in Brunswick County this year, found himself overcome with emotion during a passionate speech from Missouri Representative Emanuel Cleaver early Wednesday evening. 

"Every one of these speakers is talking about that American dream," Simmons said. "From living on the streets to where I am now with my education and other things in my life, all of a sudden I realize what the American dream is."

Simmons says he was raised in a boy's home and spent some time on the streets as a young boy.

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