Ayanna Pressley

Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley shocked the Massachusetts political class this winter by launching an insurgent bid to challenge Democratic Rep. Mike Capuano in November — and taking on a state’s entrenched political culture that largely shuns challenges to incumbents.

“Ultimately, we will never have a more inclusive and representative delegation, we will not change the complexion, the culture, or the representation, if we do not primary Democrats,” Pressley said.

Pressley is no newcomer to the state’s political scene. Not only has the 44-year-old worked in politics for a Kennedy and John Kerry, she has crisscrossed the state and the country as a surrogate for high-profile Democratic candidates like Hillary Clinton, Gov. Deval Patrick and Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

But for Pressley, a run for higher office beyond the Boston City Council, where she has served since 2009 when she was the first black woman elected to the body, had been a long time coming. And Pressley traces her connection to the seat back to interning for Rep. Joe Kennedy (who previously represented parts of what is now the 7th District in the ‘90s), followed by working as a senior aide for Sen. John Kerry.

Pressley said buzz from those around her to run for higher office began as soon as she topped the ticket in the City Council election in 2011.

Capuano, the 18-year congressman representing one of the deepest-blue districts in the country, skipped Trump’s inauguration — showing he’s hardly the prototype of an incumbent worthy of a challenge within his own party.

Pressley acknowledges that there are fewer policy differences between her and Capuano, but that, as a black woman born in Ohio, raised in Chicago, who came to Boston for college, and with experience from family members in the criminal justice system, she approaches things differently.

These types of challenges to incumbents — much less any in Massachusetts — are rare.

“I think culture is a very challenging thing to reverse,” Pressley said. “The conventional wisdom is that it isn’t something that we don’t do nor is it necessary since, for the most part, there is a monolith of opinion.”

In 2014, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) became the first candidate in the state to dislodge an incumbent Democratic member of Congress in 22 years, when he ousted scandal-plagued nine-term incumbent John Tierney.

That bottleneck of political ambition can play out in other ways. Rep. Niki Tsongas (D-Mass.), stepping down after nearly a decade representing Merrimack Valley, currently has a field of a dozen candidates vying for her now-open seat.

Now, the Pressley-Capuano race has garnered national attention and is seen as a harbinger for the new wave of Democrats.

Pressley acknowledges that things like the Women’s March has activated a base of support for, as she puts it, this “disruptive run.”

“I think peoples’ openness to a disruptive run like this laid the groundwork for that to be something that more people could embrace. And a movement that they might want to be a part of. That is not the prompt for me because I have already been an elected official for eight years and already leading within the 7th Congressional District since 70 percent of Boston is in this district.”

Pressley is also interested in having a hand in the future of the Democratic Party.

“I think arguably I have been a faithful soldier for this party, nationally, I’m already a strong voice, which is why I have been engaged as a surrogate for our party locally and nationally, a tremendous honor,” she said. “I love this party, I love our party. I think that we have an opportunity to get closer to who we say we are.”

And like Moulton, Pressley is ready to hit the ground running in shaping the party where it matters: financially.

“I’d like to set up a PAC immediately and get to work in making sure we’re electing Democrats all over,” Pressley said.

Pressley frequently fields questions around the value of a family fight now playing out in the 7th District. “I’m an only child so I don’t come from a big family. But it has been my observation from friends who do come from big families that usually when you have a family fight, on the back end you come out better and stronger for it. And I think that is going to be true for this race.” — Lauren Dezenski

Headshot by Kris Connor/Getty Images for EMILY's List. Story photo by Elise Amendola/AP Photo.