Career Center offers trip to NYC for students interested in arts careers see WEEKENDER / PAGE 4
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Jumbos defeat Cougars to kick off season
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THE
VOLUME LXXVI, ISSUE 3
INDEPENDENT
STUDENT
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T HE T UFTS DAILY tuftsdaily.com
Thursday, September 6, 2018
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.
Pressley wins Democratic primary for Seventh Congressional District in historic upset by Connor Dale
Assistant News Editor
Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley defeated Rep. Michael Capuano in Tuesday’s Democratic primary for Massachusetts’ Seventh Congressional District, which comprises most of Boston and Cambridge and all of Somerville. The unseating of Capuano, a 10-term incumbent, paves the way for Pressley to become the first African-American woman to represent Massachusetts in Congress. Capuano conceded the race early Tuesday evening. “I’m sorry it didn’t work out, but this is life, and this is okay — America’s going to be okay,” Capuano said. “Ayanna Pressley is going to be a good congresswoman, and I will tell you that Massachusetts will be well served.” With all precincts reporting on Wednesday morning, election results reported by the New York Times showed that Pressley had beaten Capuano handily, capturing 58.6
percent of the voters compared to Capuano’s 41.4 percent, a margin of more than 17,000 votes. According to Somerville’s unofficial election results, Capuano narrowly surpassed Pressley in the city, receiving 8,386 votes to her 8,252. Inside the Pressley campaign’s election night party, held at IBEW, Local 103’s headquarters in Dorchester’s Freeport Hall, cheers erupted as supporters watched Capuano concede on live election feeds shown throughout the venue. Shortly thereafter, Pressley appeared onstage to celebrate with a lively crowd estimated at more than 150 people. “It seems like change is on the way,” Pressley said to commence her victory speech, inciting a roar of applause from her supporters. The race for the seventh district had garnered national attention, partially due to the perceived unlikelihood of a Pressley victory. A WBUR poll conducted in the beginning of August found Capuano leading by 13 points.
COURTESY CAROLINE ENLOE
Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley addresses a crowd of supporters at IBEW, 103 Local union headquarters in Dorchester following her historic win in Massachusetts’ Seventh Congressional District, on Sept. 4. Through the lens of policy, not much set the two progressive candidates apart. Pressley and Capuano have both admitted that they share
a progressive agenda and that they would likely vote quite similarly in the House. see PRESSLEY, page 2
Massachusetts 2018 primary election results by Charlie Driver News Editor
Massachusetts state primaries on Tuesday saw both parties build on the rejection of centrism that defined the previous election cycle and has defined the current one elsewhere in the nation. On the Democratic side, the upset victory of Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley in the Seventh Congressional District, which covers much of Boston, Cambridge and Somerville, over incumbent Rep. Michael Capuano was one of a number of challenger victories that selected progressive Democrats and unseated much of the leadership in the Massachusetts State House. For Republicans, a victory by centrist incumbent Gov. Charlie Baker was undercut by strong support for his controversial opponent Scott Lively as well as the nomination of a pro-Trump candidate State Rep. Geoff Diehl as Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s general election opponent. The State Senate races were free of any upsets, although Samantha Hammar came close to unseating incumbent Sen. Jason Lewis in the
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Fifth Middlesex District, which covers the lower portion of Tufts’ Medford/ Somerville campus. Lewis ultimately held on to his seat with 56 percent of the vote, according to unofficial election results published by The New York Times. In the State House, however, two members of the Democratic leadership who represent the Boston area were unseated by younger and more liberal challengers. Assistant Majority Leader Byron Rushing, representing the South End of Boston, was beaten by Jon Santiago, whose campaign website bio states he is a former emergency room doctor, as well as a former member of the Peace Corps. As reported by The Boston Globe, Rushing was the most senior AfricanAmerican state representative on Beacon Hill, having first been elected to serve the district in 1982. House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jeffrey Sánchez lost to Nika Elugardo, who positioned herself to the incumbent’s left. According to WBUR, Elugardo, who has a background in local and state advocacy groups, criticized Sánchez for failing to follow through on promised progressive
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reforms, notably the Safe Communities Act, which would have limited local police’s ability to share information with federal immigration officers, and for being more beholden to House Speaker Robert DeLeo than his constituents. Tufts Progressive Alliance ( TPA) praised the ousters of Rushing and Sánchez, and told the Daily in an email that the Massachusetts voters are “hungry for progressive leadership.” “The victory of Nika Elugardo and Jon Santiago over two high ranking members of the obstructionary conservative State House shows a desire for bold progressive change in the commonwealth,” TPA wrote. Sánchez’s defeat means the coming legislative session will see a new Ways and Means chairperson in both chambers of the Massachusetts State Legislature. According to WBUR, the Senate Ways and Means Chair was left vacant when its former holder, Karen Spilka, replaced Stan Rosenberg as Senate President. Vacancies in the leadership of Beacon Hill’s Ways and Means Committees have major ramifications for Tufts as well as the cities of
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Medford and Somerville. The committees are in charge of managing and writing the budget, which, as seen in the recently-approved 2019 Fiscal Year budget, provides funding to local governments as well as the Department of Higher Education, which oversees, among other things, some financial aid support. State Sen. Pat Jehlen, who represents the Second Middlesex District, and State Reps. Denise Provost and Christine Barber, who represent the 27th and 34th Middlesex Districts, respectively, all ran unopposed in their primaries, according to the Times’ unofficial results. They received their respective Democratic nominations. On the congressional level, Ayanna Pressley’s primary victory all but guarantees her ascension to the United States House of Representatives; she will run unopposed in November, according to Ballotpedia. Incumbent Rep. Katherine Clark retained the Democratic nomination for the Fifth Congressional District, which includes the upper part of the Medford/Somerville campus. She see MASSACHUSETTS PRIMARY, page 2
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