*(Via HuffPost via MSN News) – Boston City Council member Ayanna Pressley beat a 10-term incumbent Tuesday to win the Democratic nomination for Massachusetts’ 7th Congressional District, an upset building on the momentum for progressives sparked by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s victory in a New York House primary earlier this summer.
Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) conceded to Pressley on Tuesday evening.
“Clearly the district wanted a lot of change,” he told supporters after his loss. “I’m sorry that this didn’t work out.”
With no Republican on November’s ballot for the district, Pressley is all but guaranteed to make history as the first black congresswoman from Massachusetts. Pressley, 44, already broke barriers in 2009 when she became the first woman of color elected to the Boston City Council.
Capuano first won his House seat in 1998. The 7th District encompasses most of Boston and much of Cambridge.
Facing an uphill battle against Capuano ― a poll for radio station WBUR showed her trailing him by 13 percentage points a month ago ― Pressley campaigned on the need to change the House’s status quo.
“I’ve been told to wait my turn,” Pressley said at a campaign event earlier this year. “I’ve been called a traitor for challenging an incumbent, told simply this isn’t the way things are done here.”
But, she added, “When the challenges we are confronted with are this big, this deep, and growing, I can’t and I won’t wait my turn.”
READ THIS: ARETHA FRANKLIN’S FAMILY ‘CAUGHT OFF GUARD’ BY REV. JASPER WILLIAMS JR. ‘DISTASTEFUL’ EULOGY
Congratulations to my sister in service, @AyannaPressley, on continuing her historic path into Congress tonight.
Let’s push together to make Medicare for All, tuition free college, & living wages a reality in America – all without corporate PAC money. ?? https://t.co/o2SbtUkByS
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) September 5, 2018
Those rallying to her cause included Ocasio-Cortez, the political newcomer thrust into the national spotlight when she upended veteran Rep. Joe Crowley, a House Democratic leader, in New York’s June 26 primary. Fresh from her win, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, “Vote her in next, Massachusetts,” referring to Pressley.
Pressley’s campaign had dispatched staffers to aid Ocasio-Cortez’s get-out-the-vote efforts. And Pressley has called the New Yorker “my sister in change.”
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