Aide to Vice President Kamala Harris to speak at Deltona MLK luncheon
Fifteen years ago, Bradley Pough − as a high school senior − gave the keynote address at the Deltona Dream Keepers' annual Martin Luther King Day Luncheon.
This year, he will return to Deltona from Washington, D.C., where he serves as associate director for policy for Vice President Kamala Harris, to once again address the Dream Keepers' event.
"He gave a great speech. I don't think this one will be as good as the last one," said his mother, Donna Pugh-Rivera.
He will, however, speak from a much different vantage point. That of a 32-year-old newlywed connected to the highest reaches of political power.
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Before joining the Office of the Vice President, he served the Biden-Harris campaign as counsel for the transition team, then as deputy associate counsel in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel. That followed a stint as an attorney at Jenner & Block, a Chicago-based law firm.
Pough is a graduate of Yale University, where he earned a bachelor of arts degree in political science and government, and Harvard University, where he got his law degree in 2018.
"He came home from karate class when he was a kid, 8 years old," his mother said. "The sensei had come from Yale, and so he said, 'I'm going to go to Yale.'"
Pough-Rivera told her son Yale is an expensive school, especially coming from a "working class" family.
"He was 8. He said it then, and he did it," Pough-Rivera said. "If he says it, he means it. Anything he does, I am not surprised, although I was a little surprised when he left the law firm and went to work for (President Joe) Biden."
Leaving the private sector to serve the president was a sacrifice in terms of salary.
"Bradley's thing has always been you do what you think is right," she said.
Mike Williams, one of the event's organizers, said he's known Pough since he was a small boy.
"He was always a very focused young man," Williams said.
Because he stood out in that way, he was tapped in 2008 to deliver the keynote at the MLK event in Deltona.
The talk was well-received, Williams said.
"People at the time said this young man is going places," he said.
The event is from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14 at The Center at Deltona, 1640 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Tickets are $25 and must be purchased in advance from Mike Williams at 386-804-6136.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Aide to Vice President Kamala Harris to speak at Deltona MLK luncheon
