Ayanna Pressley Profile

Ayanna Pressley is an American politician currently serving as the U.S. Representative for Massachusetts’s 7th congressional district since 2019. Pressley’s district includes the northern three-fourths of Boston, parts of Milton, most of Cambridge, as well as all of Chelsea, Randolph, Everett, and Somerville.

Ayanna Pressley Education

Pressley attended the Francis W. Parker School. While there, Pressley was a cheerleader, did modeling and voice-over work appeared in Planned Parenthood bus advertisements and was a competitive debater. During her senior year of high school, Ayanna was voted the “most likely to be mayor of Chicago” and was the commencement speaker for her class

From 1992 to 1994, she attended the College of General Studies at Boston University, but she left school to take a full-time job at the Boston Marriott Copley Place to support her mom, who had lost her job. Pressley took further courses at Boston University Metropolitan College, also known as MET.

Ayanna Pressley Age

Pressley was born Ayanna Soyini Pressley on February 3, 1974, in Chicago, Illinois United States (she is 47 years old as of 2021.) She celebrates her birthday on the 3rd of February every year.

Ayanna Pressley Height

Pressley stands at a height of  1.67 m tall.

Ayanna Pressley Family/ Parents

Pressley was born in Cincinnati, Ohio,  but grew up in Chicago, Illinois. She is the daughter of Martin Terrell and Sandra Pressley. Her mother worked multiple kinds of jobs to get ends meet to support her family. She also worked as the community organizer for the Chicago Urban League which advocated for the rights of tenants.

Quick Facts About Ayanna Pressley

Her Dad, on the other hand, had struggled with addiction throughout Pressley’s childhood. He eventually became a professor at a local college. Her parents later divorced. Her mother later moved to Brooklyn, where she worked as an executive assistant and later remarried When Pressley was elected to the Boston City Council, her mother would often attend the public meetings, wearing a hat that said “Mama Pressley.”

Ayanna Pressle Husband

Pressley is married to her husband Conan Harris who has a stepdaughter. She also confesses she survived the trauma of having gone through Sexual abuse as a child. Pressle also was sexually abused before when she was still a student at Boston University. She adds that she and her stepdaughter are living a happy life together despite not being related.

Ayanna Pressley’s Net Worth

Pressley has an estimated net worth is $1 Million which she has earned through her career as a politician.

Ayanna Pressley Career

Pressley is a politician who after finally graduating from Boston University, Pressley decided to work as a district representative for Joseph P. Kennedy II. The work involved assisting constituents with Social Security claims and working with senior citizens and people who have disabilities. She was then promoted to Kennedy’s Scheduler and also to working as Constituency director.

She later became the political director and senior aide for Senator Kerry in 2009. Her job as the political director for Senator John Kerry’s involved being responsible for managing his relationships with elected officials in the city. In November 2009 she became elected to the Boston City Council.

She was sworn in on January 4, 2010, where she was termed as the first woman of color to serve in the 100-year history of the Boston City Council. Pressley then formed the Committee on Healthy Women, Families, and Communities in her first year as the City Councilor. Pressley then faced competitive re-election in the November 2011 elections but she finished first with 37000 votes.

She then announced in January 2018 her challenge to Michael Capuano who was the Incumbent US Representative in the 2018 Democratic primary nomination for the Massachusetts 7th Congressional district. Her competitor Capuano received endorsements from civil rights veteran and US Representative John Lewis of Georgia. US Representative Maxine Waters of California also endorsed him.

Pressley was endorsed by The Boston Globe and the locals of the hotel workers and also the electrical worker unions. She campaigned as a Staunch progressive and proved that her voting record was almost identical to Capuano’s. It was official that she had defeated Capuano in September 2018 Democratic Primary elections.

She won by a margin of 59% to 41%. This came as a shock to her because she saw at the last poll Capuano had a significant lead of 48% to 35%. She proceeded to become the first African-American woman to be elected to represent Massachusetts in Congress after the Republicans failed to raise a candidate to compete with her. She and Johana Hynes who was elected in Connecticut’s 5th congressional district are the first women of color to be elected to Congress From New England.

Being a member of the Democratic Party, she defeated ten-term incumbent Mike Capuano in the primary election and ran unopposed in the general election. Pressley had been previously elected as an at-large member of the Boston City Council in 2010. She was the first African-American woman elected to the Boston City Council. Pressley is the first black woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts.

Ayanna Pressley Massachusetts Primary

During the Democratic primary election on September 4, 2018, she defeated Capuano by a margin of 59% to 41%. This victory came as a surprise to her since her opponent had the forefront lead during the last poll. It was alleged that 24 % of District 7 voters in the 2018 primary had not voted and they are the ones who caused her tremendous victory.

Ayanna Pressley For Congress

Since she had won the Democratic party nominations for Congress, Pressley was to run in the elections for Congress with a candidate from the Republican party. However, the Republicans failed to present a candidate thus making her the newly elected Representative for Massachusetts in Congress.

Ayanna Pressley Speech

After her victory, Pressley gave a victorious speech on November 7, 2018. She was termed as the first Afro-American woman to represent Massachusetts in Congress. The following video illustrates all that she said in her victory speech.

 Ayanna Pressley Campaign

Pressley campaigned as a Staunch Progressive in which she promoted social reforms through government actions to improve the lot of the majority.

Ayanna Pressley Endorsement

Pressley was endorsed by The Boston Globe and the locals of the hotel workers and also the electrical worker unions. She was also endorsed by many local people in Massachusetts.

Ayanna Pressley District

Pressley is a member of the US House of Representatives from Massachusett’s 7th congressional district. She sits in the congressional house as the representative of the 7th congressional district in Massachusetts.

Ayanna Pressley Capuano

Michael Capuano was the Incumbent United States Representative whom she challenged in the 2018 Democratic primary nomination. Pressley defeated him with a margin of 59% to 41%

Ayanna Pressley Results

Pressley defeated Capuano with 59% votes while he had  41% of the votes.

Ayanna Pressley Boston City Council | City Council

In November 2009, Pressley became elected to the Boston City Council. She was sworn in on January 4, 2010, where she was termed as the first woman of color to serve in the 100-year history of the Boston City Council. Pressley then formed the Committee on Healthy Women, Families, and Communities in her first year as the City Councilor.

Ayanna Pressley Ice

Pressley is one of four House freshmen urging congressional negotiators not to increase spending on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as part of any congressional deal to bolster security and keep the government open.

Ayanna Pressley Equity Agenda

Pressley released her housing section termed Equity Agenda in a series of proposals aimed at reducing the persistent inequities that exist in the 7th District.

Ayanna Pressley Democrat

Pressley is a member of the Democratic party where she won the primary elections for the nomination of the Representative of Congress for Massachusetts.

Ayanna Pressley and Will Smith

During the 2022 Academy Awards, Chris Rock who was the host of the event joked about Will Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett who is suffering from Alopecia and lost all her hair. Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on stage as a way of protecting his wife from the joke that Chris Rock had said, ” Keep my wife’s name out of your mouth.” 

Rep. Ayanna Pressley tweeted a defense of actor Will Smith’s shocking slap of comedian Chris Rock during the Academy Awards, then apparently deleted it after a short period of time. Her tweet had mixed reactions from others supporting her and others stating that she supports Smith for other unknown reasons. Pressly said that she supported Smith’s actions to defend her wife because she also has Alopecia and it’s never easy for her to go through the insults, shame as well as trauma.