Ayanna Pressley

In January 2018, Pressley announced her challenge to incumbent United States Representative Michael Capuano in the 2018 Democratic primary nomination for the Massachusetts's 7th congressional district.[18] The 7th is so heavily Democratic that any Republican challenger would have faced nearly impossible odds, meaning that whoever won the primary would be all but assured of victory in November. With a Cook Partisan Voting Index of D+34, the 7th is by far the most Democratic district in New England. No Republican even filed in 2018. Republicans last put up a challenger in the district during Capuano's first run in 1998, when it was numbered as the 8th district. The GOP has only nominated a candidate in this district five times since longtime Speaker Tip O'Neill retired in 1986.

The 7th district is traditionally Democratic and is the state's only district where the majority of residents are not white. Capuano received endorsements from civil rights veteran and U.S. Representative John Lewis of Georgia as well as U.S. Representative Maxine Waters of California.[19]

Pressley was endorsed by The Boston Globe[20] and local chapter of the hotel and electrical worker union,[21] Grassroots movements including Democracy for America, Brand New Congress and the Justice Democrats supported Pressley.[22] She received the endorsements of former Massachusetts Democratic Party chair John E. Walsh,[23] Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey,[7] former Newton mayor Setti Warren[24] and Boston city councilor Michelle Wu.[25] The nomination win in New York's 14th congressional district of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over long-time representative Joseph Crowley increased the visibility of Pressley's campaign.[26][27] While some political commentators distinguished Pressley's campaign from the one of Ocasio-Cortez as Capuano was understood to have one of the most progressive records in Congress, the incumbents both represented districts in which the majority of voters are not white.[28]

Like Capuano, Pressley campaigned as a staunch progressive, admitting that her voting record would likely be almost identical to Capuano's. However, Pressley contended that a reliably liberal voting record was not enough to meet the needs of a district whose demographics and character had changed over the years. She also claimed that the district needed to be represented by someone who would take a more aggressive role in opposing the presidency of Donald Trump. She campaigned with the slogan "change can't wait", and promised that she would bring "activist leadership."[29]

In the September 4, 2018, Democratic primary election, Pressley defeated Capuano by a margin of 59% to 41%.[30] The primary victory was a surprise,[30] as the last poll before the election showed Capuano with a significant lead, 48% to 35%.[31] Part of the reason the polls may have been inaccurate was a surge in the number of primary voters. According to Boston NPR station WBUR, 24 percent of primary voters in the 7th district primary had not voted in the five previous primaries. The percentage of new voters included a disproportionate number of Hispanic and Asian voters.[32] She won the general election unopposed,[33] though the district is so heavily Democratic that she would have assured herself of a seat in Congress with her primary victory in any case.

Pressley was unopposed for the Democratic nomination.[34] Rayla Campbell, a claims adjuster and occupational zoning activist from Randolph, mounted a write-in campaign as a Republican.[35][34]

Pressley is the first African American woman elected to represent Massachusetts in Congress.[36] With the November election victory of Jahana Hayes in Connecticut's 5th congressional district,[37] they are the first women of color to be elected to Congress from New England.[38][39]

Pressley is a member of the informal group known as "The Squad", whose members form a unified front to push for progressive changes such as the Green New Deal and Medicare-for-all. The other members of "The Squad" are Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).[40] Pressley is the oldest and most politically experienced of the four, who asked her to act as spokesperson after Trump attacked them.[13]

In an interview with The Boston Globe in July 2019, Pressley said her office has received death threats after president Trump's tweets of July 14, 2019 and in general since her election.[41]

In May 2019, Pressley gave the commencement address to the graduates of University of Massachusetts Boston, saying they are "President Trump's worst nightmare." In her speech she said, "Represented here today are dreamers and doers, immigrants, people of every race identity, every gender identity and sexuality, sisters rocking Senegalese twists and hijabs."[42]

On September 17, 2019, Pressley filed a resolution that calls for the House Judiciary Committee to launch impeachment proceedings against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.[43]

In November 2019, Pressley introduced a criminal justice reform resolution that calls for decriminalizing consensual sex work, abolishing cash bail, legalizing marijuana, abolishing capital punishment, and solitary confinement, and shrinking the U.S. prison population by greater than 80 percent. The house resolution is called The People's Justice Guarantee.[44]

• Committee on Financial Services
  • Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions
  • Subcommittee on Diversity and Inclusion
• Committee on Oversight and Reform
  • Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy
  • Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

• Congressional Black Caucus[45]
• Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues
• Congressional Progressive Caucus[46]
• Future of Transportation Caucus (Founding Co-Chair)

During her victory speech following the September 2018 primary election, she accused President Donald Trump of being "a racist, misogynistic, truly empathy-bankrupt man."[47] She supported the impeachment of Donald Trump.[48]

Sarah Groh, Pressley′s chief of staff, reported that panic buttons that had been installed in the office had been removed some time prior to the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.[49]

Pressley is an advocate of Medicare for All.[50]

In May 2019, Pressley and Senator Cory Booker introduced the Healthy MOMMIES Act, legislation that would expand Medicaid coverage in an attempt to provide comprehensive prenatal, labor, and postpartum care with an extension of the Medicaid pregnancy pathway from 60 days to a full year following birth for the purpose of assuring new mothers have access to services unrelated to pregnancy. The bill also directed Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program's Payment and Access Commission report its data regarding doula care coverage under state Medicaid programs and subsequently develop strategies aimed at improving access to doula care.[51]

Pressley supports the U.S. national anthem protests, which have been used to bring attention to police brutality towards black men and specifically used by athletes.[52]

On March 5, 2019, Pressley proposed lowering the voting age from 18 years old to 16 in an amendment she introduced in Congress. This was her first amendment on the House floor and was intended to amend the For the People Act of 2019. Her amendment was defeated 305–126–2, with a slight majority of the Democrats and one Republican voting in favor.[53]

On December 5, 2019, Pressley, Senator Booker, and Representatives Cedric Richmond, Marcia Fudge, and Barbara Lee introduced the Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair (CROWN) Act to ban discrimination based on hair textures and hairstyles that are commonly associated with a particular race or national origin.[54]

In June 2018, Pressley called for the defunding of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying the law enforcement agency poses an "existential threat" to immigrant communities.[55] In June 2019, Pressley was one of four Democratic representatives to vote against the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Humanitarian Assistance and Security at the Southern Border Act (H.R. 3401, a $4.5 billion border funding bill sponsored by Nita Lowey that required Customs and Border Protection enact health standards for individuals in custody such as forming standards for individuals for "medical emergencies; nutrition, hygiene, and facilities; and personnel training."[56][57][58]

In 2018, Pressley said that she would make ending sexual violence a major priority of her work in Congress.[59]

Pressley supports decriminalizing sex work and prostitution saying, "Decriminalizing sex work would improve the health and safety of sex workers and put them on the path to greater stability." She argued that sex work is the only work available to some marginalized people, especially transgender women of color, and that they would be less at risk if they could self advocate and report unlawful acts committed against them.[60]

On April 9, 2019, Pressley was one of four House Democrats to introduce the Be HEARD Act, legislation intended to abolish the tipped minimum wage along with ending mandatory arbitration and pre-employment nondisclosure agreements. The bill would also give workers additional time to report harassment and was said by co-sponsor Patty Murray to come at a time when too many workers are "still silenced by mandatory disclosure agreements that prevent them from discussing sexual harassment and longstanding practices like the tipped wages that keep workers in certain industries especially vulnerable."[61][62]

On July 23, 2019, Pressley voted in favor of H. Res. 246, a House Resolution introduced by Illinois Congressman Brad Schneider that formally condemns the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel. The resolution passed 398–17; Pressley was the only member of "the Squad" to vote in favor of it.[63][64][65]

Speaking at a fundraiser with Ilhan Omar in Somerville, Massachusetts, Pressley condemned the 2020 Baghdad International Airport airstrike that killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, saying: "It is consistent with the impulsive, reckless, short-sighted foreign policy of the occupant of this White House who I think proceeds as if he's engaging in a game of Battleship and does not prioritize diplomacy."[66]

In early February 2021, Pressley supported a plan to cancel up to $50,000 in student loan debt for approximately 44 million Americans who have federal student loans. She has asked President Biden to forgive this debt by using executive order rather than going through the legislative process that would likely get bogged down in partisanship. Pressley told The Boston Globe, "It’s about an equitable economic recovery. If people really do believe that Black Lives Matter, then the only receipts that matter in this moment are budgets and policies."[67]

Pressley at a townhall for Elizabeth Warren in November 2019

In November 2019, Pressley endorsed Senator Elizabeth Warren for president.[68] Pressley, who was named one of Warren's three national co-chairs, became a prominent surrogate on the campaign circuit.[69] After Warren's withdrawal, Pressley did not transfer her support to Biden or Sanders.[70]

Pressley is a supporter of prison reform and supports programs for prisoner reentry that starts well before an inmate has been released from incarceration. In 2020, Pressley's husband, who spent ten years in prison, testified before the United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security saying "All the other things that organizations can offer, like identification cards, are important, but it all starts with where you lay your head at night." In the autumn of 2019, Pressley introduced a resolution calling for an overhaul of the criminal justice system called the People's Justice Guarantee.[71]

In early June 2020, Pressley and Libertarian representative Justin Amash introduced the End Qualified Immunity Act.[72][73] The act would remove from law enforcement officers, and other officials, the protection of qualified immunity that had routinely protected them from prosecution when they could claim that acts that would otherwise trigger criminal charges had been committed as part of performing their official duties.[74]