Ayanna Pressley: “… everything about this election is extraordinary.”

Congresswoman Pressley on campaigning for Kamala Harris

Ronald Mitchell

As the campaign for president draws to a close, Vice President Kamala Harris has sent surrogates from every corner of the Democratic network to share her message of unity and prosperity, along with the consequences of what another Donald Trump presidency would look like.

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Boston, a former Congressional Black Caucus colleague of the Democratic nominee during her stint as a California senator, has been driving that message as a top surrogate in key swing states like Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina, among others.

The Banner recently had a chance to conduct a Zoom interview with the three-term congresswoman and former Boston city councilor to chat about her work with Harris and her impressions along the campaign trail going into the last two weekends before the Nov. 5 final election. Portions of the interview will soon be available on the Banner’s website. A second interview, looking forward to Pressley’s next term — she is running unopposed — will be printed next week, and the full sit-down interview with publisher Ron Mitchell filmed at the streaming studio in the Banner’s new offices this week will also be available for streaming on the website.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley campaigns for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz alongside childcare providers, entrepreneurs and campaign volunteers in Erie, Pennsylvania. PHOTO: OFFICE OF CONGRESSWOMAN AYANNA PRESSLEY

Pressley, who has hosted Harris in her 7th Congressional District four times in the last four years, said she has been struck by the surge of support for the nominee since President Biden’s unprecedented July decision not to run and the addition of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to the ticket as her running mate.

“Everything about the season we find ourselves in and everything about this election is extraordinary. If you consider the very short runway that Kamala Harris has had to make a case to the electorate,” said Pressley, “she has had such an infusion of enthusiasm and excitement and hope and optimism. So it’s been wonderful, as a surrogate, traveling to see that energy and optimism that translates into the things that are essential in this election.”

Pressley, among the first members of Congress to endorse Harris after President Biden dropped out, visited Pennsylvania to highlight the vice president’s record on abortion justice and reproductive rights. She visited small businesses in the Pittsburgh area to talk about her work with Harris on Capitol Hill to advance policies to advance entrepreneurship. In Georgia, she spoke about gun-violence prevention.

Pressley said Harris’ experience and vision — and the possibility of electing the first woman and the first woman of color to serve in the Oval Office — have especially animated younger voters since locking up the nomination quickly, with Biden’s blessing.

“I am very encouraged by what I’ve seen in the 18-to-35-year-old demographic, where prior to Kamala being at the top of the ticket, there was a real enthusiasm gap. I’m very encouraged by the number of people I’ve met on the trail that this is the first time they have donated to a campaign, knocked doors or phone-banked or got this intimately involved.”

Pressley’s use of passionate oratory, an aggressive ground-game, emotional ads and appealing policy proposals to turn out voters who usually don’t bother to cast ballots dates back to her first campaign for Boston City Council. She continued to shine as a campaigner in her upset victory over Democratic incumbent Michael Capuano in the 2018 congressional primary.

The Harris campaign is following a similar playbook, using her platform to push home-ownership opportunities, small business assistance and a promise to protect democracy and voting rights from an opponent who still claims the 2020 election was stolen. That has translated, said Pressley, into broadened support for Harris, who is vying for every last vote in a tight election.

“It’s been wonderful to see all the different constituency groups that have emerged” in support of Harris, said Pressley. “Black men, Black women — I even saw a group called neurodivergents for Kamala. So everyone is standing in their respective lived experience and saying that they have seen themselves reflected and represented in Kamala Harris.”

But Harris’ core appeal, said Pressley, is “her vision for a more just and inclusive America, one that will cater to the humanity and dignity for every person and every worker and every family model in this country.”

In contrast, she said, former President Trump’s plan for the country hinges on mass deportation, politicizing the civil service, reversing climate change policies, limiting environmental regulations and giving tax breaks to billionaires. The Republican nominee’s blueprint, she said, is outlined in Project 2025, an exhaustive policy manifesto compiled by some of Trump’s closest allies. Trump has tried to distance himself from the document, but both he and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, have close ties to key authors.

“One of the things I continue to make sure people understand is Project 2025 — I’m a cofounder of the Stop 2025 Task Force,” said Pressley. “We’ve been leveraging every Congressional tool available to us to educate the public about this far-right-wing 922-page manifesto written for a Trump White House to advance Trump’s agenda, which is to institutionalize Trumpism.”

According to Pressley, that includes “a complete dismantling of the federal government as we know it, enlisting the Supreme Court as co-conspirators. In this extremist march they want to defund programs of diversity, equity and inclusion, ban books, ban our bodies, ban words.”

Chillingly, she added, Trump aims to conduct “mass firings and layoffs.”

“He’s coming for actual Black jobs,” said Pressley. “There are three million federal jobs, and one out of every five of them is held by Black folks — so we’re talking about 600,000 Black Americans that stand to have their livelihoods impacted because Project 2025 calls for using executive action from Schedule F for massive firing of dedicated public servants to replace them with Trump loyalists and sycophants.”

In the dozen days or more before the Nov. 5 general election, Pressley said the electorate in support of Harris is more focused than ever, because the stakes are so high.

“People are very clear about the stakes and that it’s going to be a very tight election,” said Pressley, who vowed to continue the fight. “We still have a lot of work to do making our case to the electorate and combatting the mis- and disinformation that abound out there.”