Positioning herself as outside the mainstream.

Why Ayanna Pressley is not Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Ayanna Pressley has been involved in politics for much of her adult life, but is positioning herself as outside the mainstream.

By REENA FLORES

Ayanna Pressley, the Boston City councilor running against incumbent Rep. Mike Capuano (D-Mass.), is positioning herself as the outsider looking to change the game in the Massachusetts 7th District.

With headlines pronouncing her the next Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Pressley acknowledges their similarities as women of color who fought against 10-term congressmen: “Her candidacy — like mine and that of so many throughout the country — challenges conventional narratives and wisdom, disrupts status quo thinking about who has a right to run, when they should run, and whether or not they can win,” she told POLITICO’s Women Rule podcast earlier this summer.

But Pressley’s campaign also allows for this truth: She’s not that much of an outsider.

“If politics is like dog years, you know, I’m probably 80 right now,” Pressley said on the podcast. “Even though I’m only 44.”

Though Pressley isn’t the 19-year congressman that Capuano is, she’s been involved in politics for much of her adult life — and even before.

“I’ve been a Democrat proudly since I was in utero,” Pressley is fond of saying on the campaign trail. And on the podcast, she recounted how her mother took her into the voting both when she was as young as 5 years old to show her that “though there were a lot of reasons that we felt small and invisible … on Election Day, we were powerful.”

At 22, she interned for Rep. Joe Kennedy II and later signed on to his full-time staff. She went on to serve as a senior aide to then-Sen. John Kerry. And for most of the past decade, she’s served on Boston’s City Council — the first black woman in history to do so.

Before challenging Capuano, Pressley’s time in elected office marked her as a Democratic darling. She’s campaigned across Massachusetts for former Gov. Deval Patrick and Sen. Elizabeth Warren. And in 2015, Emily’s List gave her their Gabrielle Giffords Rising Star award, putting her in the national limelight.

Pressley has also racked up endorsements from some of the state’s power players, like Massachusetts’ Attorney General Maura Healey.

And just this weekend, at least one huge establishment voice gave Pressley their backing: On Sunday, the Boston Globe’s editorial board published their full-throated endorsement.

“Her creative approach to reducing inequality is the mindset the district needs,” the Globe wrote. “Pressley represents the present of the Seventh District and the future of the Democratic Party. She will serve the district well in Congress.”

Despite these establishment bona fides, Pressley is campaigning on being a “disruptive” presence in Washington.

“If folks are going to be about the business of rolling back every civil right protection bit of progress that we’ve made, decades of progress, what I’m going to be focused on is fighting like hell to make it very hard for them — and very painful — every step of the way,” she said on the podcast.

And that sort of thinking, she said, is why she hasn’t gotten coveted endorsements from other power brokers in the Democratic establishment, like the Congressional Black Caucus PAC, which gave its backing to Capuano. Emily’s List, despite its prior recognition of Pressley, has chosen to stay out of the House race.

“I knew this was going to be lonely,” Pressley told POLITICO. “And so, I don’t take any of this personally. Again, it’s not surprising. It is in keeping with sort of the cultural status quo and also people’s longstanding history and relationships with a colleague — completely understandable.”

Throughout her primary race, the city councilor has handled such developments with deft rhetoric.

“When you are shifting culture and ushering in new paradigms and challenging thinking, and people are still stuck in a very specific way of doing things, you can’t be mad at them,” she said. “But I just think, given what’s happening in Washington, that we have to be disruptive.”