40 Facts About Ayanna Pressley

Ayanna Soyini Pressley was born on February 3,1974 and is an American politician who has served as the US representative for Massachusetts's 7th congressional district since 2019.

Ayanna Pressley was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 2018 after she defeated the ten-term incumbent Mike Capuano in the Democratic primary election for Massachusetts' 7th congressional district and ran unopposed in the general election.

Ayanna Pressley was the first black woman elected to the Boston City Council and the first black woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts.

Ayanna Pressley is a member of "The Squad", a group of left-wing progressive congress members.

Ayanna Pressley was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and raised in Chicago, Illinois.

From 1992 to 1994, Ayanna Pressley attended the College of General Studies at Boston University, before leaving school to take a full-time job at the Boston Marriott Copley Place to support her mother, who had lost her job.

Ayanna Pressley took further courses at Boston University Metropolitan College.

Ayanna Pressley was first elected to the Boston City Council in November 2009.

The only woman in a field of 15 candidates, Ayanna Pressley won one of the four at-large spots on the city's 13-member council with nearly 42,000 votes.

In December 2011, Ayanna Pressley voted to remove Councilor Chuck Turner, who had been convicted of a felony bribery charge in October, from the City Council.

Ayanna Pressley led an effort to pass an ordinance requiring municipal trucks to have side guards to protect cyclists.

Ayanna Pressley proposed an amendment to the Boston Living Wage Ordinance which would have increased the standard for what the city considers to be a "living wage" for those working in service and security jobs.

Ayanna Pressley led in 13 of the city's 22 wards and finished second in three others.

Ayanna Pressley won Boston's communities of color and many progressive neighborhoods.

Ayanna Pressley placed first ticket again in November 2013 and November 2015, and placed second in November 2017 behind only Michelle Wu.

In January 2018, Ayanna Pressley announced her challenge to incumbent United States Representative Michael Capuano in the 2018 Democratic primary nomination for the Massachusetts's 7th congressional district.

Ayanna Pressley was endorsed by The Boston Globe and local chapter of the hotel and electrical worker union.

However, Ayanna Pressley contended that a reliably liberal voting record was not enough to meet the needs of a district whose demographics and character had changed over the years.

Ayanna Pressley claimed that the district needed to be represented by someone who would take a more aggressive role in opposing the presidency of Donald Trump.

Ayanna Pressley campaigned with the slogan "change can't wait", and promised that she would bring "activist leadership".

Ayanna Pressley won the general election unopposed, though the Democratic primary in her district is seen as tantamount to election.

Ayanna Pressley is the first black woman elected to represent Massachusetts in Congress.

Ayanna Pressley is a member of the informal group known as "The Squad", whose members form a unified front to push for progressive changes such as the Green New Deal and Medicare-for-all.

In May 2019, Ayanna Pressley gave the commencement address to the graduates of University of Massachusetts Boston, saying they are "President Trump's worst nightmare".

On September 17,2019, Ayanna Pressley filed a resolution that called for the House Judiciary Committee to launch impeachment proceedings against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

In July, 2021, Ayanna Pressley joined Cori Bush and Ilhan Omar in sleeping on the steps of the US Capitol to protest the expiration of the eviction moratorium during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

On November 5,2021, Ayanna Pressley was one of six House Democrats who broke with their party and voted against the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, as it was decoupled from the social safety net provisions in the Build Back Better Act.

Ayanna Pressley has supported the US national anthem protests, which have been used to bring attention to the disproportionate rate of which police brutality affects black people.

On March 5,2019, Ayanna Pressley proposed lowering the voting age from 18 years old to 16 in an amendment she introduced in Congress.

In June 2018, Ayanna Pressley called for the defunding of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying the law enforcement agency poses an "existential threat" to immigrant communities.

On July 23,2019, Pressley voted in favor of H Res.

In early February 2021, Ayanna Pressley supported a plan to cancel up to $50,000 in student loan debt for approximately 44 million Americans who have federal student loans.

Ayanna Pressley has asked President Biden to forgive this debt by using executive order rather than going through the legislative process that would likely get bogged down in partisanship.

In November 2019, Ayanna Pressley endorsed Senator Elizabeth Warren for president ahead of the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries.

Ayanna Pressley, who was named one of Warren's three national co-chairs, became a prominent surrogate on the campaign circuit.

Ayanna Pressley is a supporter of prison reform and supports programs for prisoner reentry that starts well before an inmate has been released from incarceration.

On November 5,2021, Ayanna Pressley was one of six House Democrats who broke with their party and voted with a majority of Republicans against the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a $1.2trillion infrastructure spending bill.

In January 2023, Ayanna Pressley was one of 13 cosponsors of an amendment to the Constitution of the United States extending the right to vote to citizens sixteen years of age or older.

Ayanna Pressley has stated that she is a "woman of faith" who "grew up in the church" and she is the granddaughter of a Baptist preacher.

Ayanna Pressley is a member of the nonprofit social and service organization The Links.