Ayanna Pressley: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

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Ayanna Pressley is the 44 year old Boston City Councilor who shocked the political establishment when she unseated 10-term congress member Michael Capuano in the Democratic primary on September 4. Capuano called Pressley to concede defeat even before the Associated Press called the race. There is no Republican running for election for that seat, which is traditionally a Democratic stronghold. John F. Kennedy once represented the district and is one of the most left-leaning in the country.

Pressley is now poised to become the first African American elected to the House of Representatives from Massachusetts.

Here’s what you need to know about Ayanna Pressley:


1. Pressley Told Voters She’d Vote the Same Way as Her Democratic Opponent on the Issues But Would Be More Effective at Fighting Against Trump

Pressley had a tough fight against her opponent, Michael Capuano. Not only is Capuano a 10-term congressman, he is also a progressive who has been given 100 approval ratings by the ACLU, the NAACP, the AFL-CIO and Planned Parenthood. Pressley has admitted that she would likely vote the same way on most issues as Capuano would.

So why should voters pick her over the incumbent? Pressley made the case that she will be a more effective fighter against Trump.

“The hate that is coming out of this White House will not be defeated by a reliable vote on the floor of Congress,” Pressley said. “The hate coming out of this White House will be defeated by a movement and by a coalition.”


2. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Endorsed Her, and the Two Women Call Themselves Friends

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 28 year old Democratic nominee for Congress from New York, tweeted her support for Pressley last week. Ocasio-Cortez was one of the few Democrats to endorse anyone in this primary race; Elizabeth Warren, for example, was noticeably silent on the race.

After Pressley’s win, Ocasio-Cortez took to twitter to congratulate her. She wrote, @AyannaPressley + I bonded over running while constantly told it’s “not our turn,” that we “weren’t ready,” “good enough,” or “experienced” enough. We kept going anyway.”

The two women have been compared in the press, since both are progressive women of color who ran hard-fought campaigns against established white men.

But Pressley, 44 years old, is an experienced politician who served as a member of Boston’s city council and has been involved in politics for the past 18 years. She got her first job in politics working for Representative Joe Kennedy II as an intern, when she was a student at Boston College. In 1996, she volunteered to work on Senator John Kerry’s election campaign and, after the campaign, she went to work for Kerry. In 2009 she launched her run for the City Council.


3. Pressley Is Married to Conan Harris And Is Stepmother to His 9 Year Old Daughter

Pressley and Harris got married in 2014. You can also read more about Conan Harris here.

Harris spent years in jail on drug-related offenses as a young man; upon getting out of prison, he vowed to do something to improve the lives of people in his community. He began to work with at-risk youth and is now the director of the Boston chapter of My Brother’s Keeper, an organization that seeks to increase opportunities for young men of color. Harris also works as deputy director of public safety initiatives in the office of Boston’s mayor.

Harris and Pressley live in the Ashmont/Adams neighborhood of Dorchester with Harris’s nine year old daughter, Cora.

4. Pressley Grew Up in Chicago and Was Raised by a Single Mother

Pressley grew up in Chicago, in what she has described as a rough neighborhood. But she’s also spoken positively about the place she grew up.

In 2009, she wrote, “Bad influences and distractions were around every corner. But I also learned that my neighborhood could be a nurturing, positive place to grow up. We make a mistake when we stereotype neighborhoods as ‘bad,’ and not worth our attention or investment.”

Pressley said that her father had substance abuse problems and was in and out of jail throughout her childhood. She was raised by her mother. She left Chicago as a young woman to attend Boston University, but she never graduated, because she decided to drop out of school and get a full time job to support her mother after she lost her job.


5. Pressley Was an Abuse Victim as a Child and Has Revealed that She Was Raped in College

Pressley says that she survived sexual abuse as a child in Chicago. She also says that she was raped when she was a 19 year old student at Boston College.

As a city council member, Pressley has called on colleges to do a better job protecting young women from sexual assault and rape. During a City Council meeting in 2011, Pressley admitted that she herself had been a victim of rape. Afterwards, she said that she hadn’t planned to talk about her experience, but said it just naturally came out.

“What happened to me could have happened anywhere on any college campus. And it fact, it does,” she told WBUR.