Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., speaks during day three of the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Wednesday, August 21, 2024. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson took the stage on night three of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Wednesday night to urge Americans to cast their November presidential vote for Kamala Harris.

Thompson, Mississippi’s longest serving member of Congress and the state’s only Democratic delegate in Washington, led the congressional special committee to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and attack on the U.S. Capitol.

READ MORE: ‘An attempted coup’: Rep. Bennie Thompson tells the world what happened on Jan. 6, 2021

Touching on his time as chairman of the Jan. 6 committee and also as a longtime champion of civil rights in Mississippi, Thompson issued a direct plea to voters ahead of the November presidential election.

“In this country, we settle our differences at the ballot box, not through violence,” Thompson said during his DNC speech. “It took a long time to get here, and we’re not going back. I remember that dark history. It’s my own history. In this life, my father never cast a vote because of Jim Crow, so I dedicated my career to protecting the vote against violence and discrimination.”

WATCH: Congressman Bennie Thompson’s full speech at the DNC

Thompson continued: “You can imagine what I felt on Jan. 6, when I saw with my own eyes those insurrectionists trying to take that away. They did it to rob millions of Americans of their votes. They did it because Donald Trump couldn’t handle losing. He lied about the election fraud, he called his conspiracy-led mob to Washington. He would rather subvert democracy than submit to it. Now, he’s plotting again … elections are about choice. Choose democracy, not political violence. Choose the America we always taught our children to love. Choose Kamala Harris.”

Thompson was the only Mississippi official to take the stage during primetime of either the Democratic National Convention or the Republican National Convention in July, though U.S. Sen. Laphonza Butler, a Democrat representing California who spoke at the DNC on Tuesday night, is a native of Magnolia in Pike County.

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Editor-in-Chief Adam Ganucheau oversees Mississippi's largest newsroom. He was the lead editor of Mississippi Today's 2023 Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Backchannel" investigation, which exposed the roles of high-profile players in the state's welfare scandal. During Adam's tenure as editor, Mississippi Today has won numerous national, regional and statewide journalism prizes for its journalism. Under his leadership, the newsroom won a 2023 Pulitzer Prize and was named a finalist for a 2024 Pulitzer Prize; won two Goldsmith Prizes for Investigative Reporting; won a Collier Prize for State Government Accountability; won a Livingston Award; won a Sidney Award; and was awarded the National Press Club's highest honor for press freedom.

He previously worked as a staff reporter for Mississippi Today, AL.com, The Birmingham News, and the Clarion Ledger. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post and Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He earned his bachelor’s in journalism from the University of Mississippi in 2014.