Pressley a one-of-a-kind public servant
I knew Ayanna Pressley would win the race for the 7th Congressional seat a decade before her historymaking run for the Boston City Council, when in 2008 she became the first African-American woman ever to win a seat on that body in its history.
How did I know? Back when she worked for U.S. Sen. John Kerry I nominated her for the Mass. Women’s political caucus Wonder Woman award. There, I publicly proclaimed that she would be the first woman of color to represent Massachusetts in Congress. She looked at me like I was crazy.
On the road to Congress, you might say she took a detour. In the mid-2000s, when the UMass Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy did a report on the lack of women in major public office, I asked Ayanna to run for City Council.
My husband, Bruce, himself a groundbreaker in his own right as the city’s first African-American president of the Boston City Council, and I served as her policy prep and forum briefers.
Bruce proclaimed her a one-of-a-kind public servant — not politician. Public servant.
It takes one to know one. As he, I and Ayanna pondered the complexity of various issues around our dining room table, we were always struck that Ayanna always asked how issues would impact the human condition — how an issue would impact people.
That’s how she won the council race and that is how she won the race for the 7th District on Tuesday. Her strong suit, one borne of her experiences that she and her mother, Sandy Pressley, form the foundation of who she is.
While her opponent talked about the billions he brought back home, and his experience, she spoke of what she saw in front of her as she rode the Number One bus from Harvard Square to Dudley and saw life expectancy drop.
Unfairness and inequality were two words that were huge in this race. People saw inequity played out before them. Kids in cages. A president who could care less about people and told you so.
To win this race, Ayanna needed to have votes from everyone across the board and that she got.
Millennials ran her campaign and started a movement for change that brought others into the fold — all working, all together for another word with meaning — change. Many seasoned leaders created a kitchen cabinet of community leaders,who helped gauge the pulse of the community. Technology combined with shoe leather and old-fashioned organizing won the day.
Tomorrow, the real work begins.