Ayanna Pressley
U.S. Representative for Massachusetts
Ayanna Soyini Pressley was born in February 1974 in Cincinnati, Ohio. She grew up in Chicago, Illinois. Her mother later moved to Brooklyn and then to Boston. Pressley attended the College of General Studies at Boston University and later took courses at Boston University Metropolitan College. She entered the political arena working for the campaigns of U.S. Representative Joseph P. Kennedy II and U.S. Senator John Kerry.
Pressley served nine years as a member of the Boston City Council and was the first woman of color to serve in that position. She ran for and won a seat in the United States House of Representatives, taking her seat there in January 2019.
She is married to Conan Harris. She describes herself as a “woman of faith” who “grew up in the church.”
In the News…
Representative Ayanna Presley of Massachusetts joined with Congressional Oversight Commissioner Bharat Ramamurti in a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, that said, “You have both acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic has had an outsized impact on Black and Brown communities and women. And yet, your design of these programs appears to be widening racial and gender gaps, rather than closing them.”
They pointed to layoffs in state and local governments that face significant budget shortfalls. “A worker laid off in the public sector is 20% more likely to be Black than a worker who loses his or her job in the private sector, and 32% more likely to be a woman,” they wrote. “The solvency of our nation’s states and cities is a matter of racial justice.”
Contact this Leader…
Did you pray for Representative Pressley today? You can let her know at:
The Honorable Ayanna Pressley
U.S. Representative for Massachusetts
1108 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
