Longtime incumbent Democratic Rep. Michael Capuano (D-MA) lost his primary on Tuesday to anti-establishment insurgent Ayanna Pressley in the latest of a series of powerful incumbents to lose to grassroots-fueled outsiders.
Capuano conceded the election early after returns started flowing in, a sign of how badly Pressley defeated him.
And @RepMikeCapuano has conceded to @AyannaPressley. #MAPoli #MA07 pic.twitter.com/mkYuRPhhGQ
— Julio Ricardo Varela (@julito77) September 5, 2018
BREAKING: @AyannaPressley wins race for Massachusetts' 7th congressional district,
in an upset victory over incumbent @mikecapuano: https://t.co/zpWo83oCaP #ma7 #mapoli pic.twitter.com/De9aEfx2KT— WGBH News (@wgbhnews) September 5, 2018
As @mikecapuano conceded, cheers of “change can’t wait” from supporters here at @AyannaPressley HQ #ma07
— Ali Vitali (@alivitali) September 5, 2018
It appears the hard left Democrat Capuano was not leftist enough for even leftist Massachusetts:
.@mikecapuano wasn't liberal enough for #MA07…?
(graph from GovTrack) https://t.co/4yIoanGgaP pic.twitter.com/rdLBE3REpl
— Joel B. Pollak (@joelpollak) September 5, 2018
This win for the hard-left of the Democratic Party against its own establishment comes in the wake of devout socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s stunning upset win over Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY) in New York earlier this summer, a shocker that rocket-fueled the leftist wing of the Democratic Party in a year where establishment incumbents are having a hard time winning re-election.
A glowing profile of Pressley in the New York Times published with a Cambridge dateline just a few days before the primary on Tuesday reveals just how unusual she is:
It’s not a sight you see every day, certainly not around Boston — a black woman mounting a plausible challenge to a 10-term white congressman from her own party, a politician with vast connections who votes the progressive line and opposes everything Trump.
But here was Ayanna Pressley, a Boston City Council member and rising Democratic star, exhorting volunteers in a Cambridge restaurant with an impassioned performance style she learned as a child at her grandfather’s storefront Baptist church in Chicago.
The piece goes on to quote her about how she plans to lay out a leftist agenda, and not just provide “resisting and affronting” to President Donald Trump.
“This is not just about resisting and affronting Trump,” Pressley said, per the Times. “Because the systemic inequalities and disparities that I’m talking about existed long before that man occupied the White House!”
Pressley is backed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the leftist socialist who defeated Crowley in New York on a message of pushing to “Abolish ICE.” Pressley herself also backs abolishing the federal agency that handles immigration enforcement, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)–and other pillars of a socialist agenda like “Medicare for all” and widespread gun control:
The times require and our district deserves bold activist leadership. A champion who will fight for:
✅Medicare for all
✅Abolishing ICE
✅Ending the gun violence epidemic
✅Eliminating the cash bail system
✅Women’s bodily autonomy
✅Justice#changecantwait— Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) September 3, 2018
And on social justice issues:
Also, @AyannaPressley opposed a bill to protect police officers from assault, which @mikecapuano voted for: https://t.co/DSBeXAvBGc
— Joel B. Pollak (@joelpollak) September 5, 2018
Ocasio-Cortez backed Pressley in her race in interviews and tweets:
“The people closest to the pain should be closest to the power.”
– @AyannaPressley.Vote her in next, Massachusetts.
There are more of us, too: @CoriBush, @Chardo2018, @AyannaPressley & more.
We need to elect a corporate PAC-free caucus if we’re going to get things done. https://t.co/M2tF5cedTs
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) June 27, 2018
And in a CNN interview, Ocasio-Cortez pushed Pressley’s campaign:
"We won because I think we had a very clear winning message and we took that message to doors that had never been knocked on before," says 28-year-old political newcomer Ocasio-Cortez on her win in NY's 14th District Democratic primary https://t.co/QPoCbqeFNr pic.twitter.com/CiEnZD3Ry0
— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) June 27, 2018
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