October 8, 2018
By Maia Hahn-Du Pont and Manon LeDonne
On Sept. 4, Ayanna Pressley, the first woman of color to serve on the Boston City Council, won the Democratic primary for the House of Representatives. She is currently running unopposed and is therefore poised to become the first ever black congresswomen from Massachusetts.
Ayanna Pressley is a nominal winner. She beat Mike Capuano in the primaries, who has held the congressional seat for ten terms (a total of 20 years).
“We built a movement. This was a people-powered, broad, deep and diverse grassroots coalition that we built one door, one voter, one living room at a time,” Pressley said to WBUR.
This race is not an ordinary election. It is a turning point in history for women and people of color. Elizabeth Warren, currently running unopposed for the Democratic Party for the US Senate in Massachusetts, is another woman looking to maintain her position in Congress. Arizona has exclusively women running in the race for Senate, and half of the women running in the primaries in the country have won already.
Lexington continues to reflect this. Two out of the five candidates in the race for State Representative for Lexington’s district were women, and Michelle Ciccolo won the race.
As for people of color, this election holds great significance as well: Jay Gonzalez is up against Charlie Baker in the run for Massachusetts governor, and an increased number of Latino people are also in the race.
Is Massachusetts politics becoming more progressive? Ayanna Pressley’s success as a black woman indicates that the answer is yes, at least with respect to racial and gender diversity. .
“It is time to show Washington, D.C., both my fellow Democrats, who I hope will stand with us and Republicans who may stand in our way… change is coming and the future belongs to all of us” Pressley said, speaking to her win.
Some students, such as Anna Nelson, are pleased by the increase in diversity.
“I think it’s absolutely amazing that there’s finally minority groups being represented in government and I really hope that during elections for higher office the diversity continues,” Nelson said.
Other students pose possible explanations for this increase in diversity.
“[This change is] a reaction to people feeling generally underrepresented in the past political years and wanting to stand up for what they believe in,” Melanie French, a junior at LHS, said.
Comments