Women are running for office in record numbers, in Massachusetts and nationwide.
Indeed, the 2018 primaries could redefine the face of Congress, as women step up to challenge incumbent politicians.
Nationally, 476 women registered as candidates for the House of Representatives for the 2018 elections — just over 200 more than the 2016 tally, according to the Center for American Women and Politics. Fifty-four women filed to run for the United States Senate, versus the 40 who ran in 2016.
This trend also holds true in Massachusetts, where more women are running for office nationally and statewide this year than ever before. Nearly 100 women are running for seats in the state legislature, close to double the number that ran only two years ago.
And, across the state, in national and local races, more women are challenging long-serving incumbents, many of whom haven’t faced an opponent in years. Twenty-eight women in total are running against an incumbent for a position on Beacon Hill, up from the 18 who challenged incumbents in 2016. These women, many of whom were motivated to run by today’s divisive political climate, argue that they would bring new voices and ideas to a table long occupied by the same people.
Six candidates who are hoping to beat incumbents Nov. 6 share their reasons for running.
Ayanna Pressley
Pressley, a member of the Boston City Council, is stepping out of the smaller scope of municipal politics to take on a Massachusetts Democratic Party giant.
Pressley has attracted national attention for her campaign against Democratic incumbent Rep. Michael Capuano, who has represented Massachusetts’ 7th Congressional District in the House of Representatives since 1999.
Pressley said the nation and her district are “at a crossroads,” and she is challenging Capuano to address key issues including gun violence, systemic racism and inequality.
“I do believe I bring a different lens and a different emphasis to certain issues,” Pressley said. “The 7th Congressional District is an incredibly diverse district, socio-economically, racially, culturally and inter-generationally. It is a diverse district, and yet it is one of the most unequal in the country, and I’m running because I want to do something about that.”
In challenging Capuano, Pressley is bucking a tradition in Massachusetts of unchallenged Democratic incumbents, and she has faced criticism for it. She said she sees her campaign as a way to move the Democratic Party in a new direction and to reach new voters.
“I know there are those that consider my candidacy to be traitorous and perhaps disruptive,” Pressley said. “I think that my candidacy and our campaign is ultimately meeting head-on the challenge and charge we were all given as Democrats in 2016, and that is to ignite this electorate and to expand it.”
Tracy Lovvorn
While the physical therapist and CEO of Evolution Physical Therapy is a newcomer in Massachusetts politics, she is no stranger to government work, having worked in the Department of Health & Human Services and the Assistant U.S. Attorney General’s Office.
Lovvorn, a Republican, hopes to challenge incumbent Rep. Jim McGovern, a Democrat who was first elected in 1996, in November, but she first takes on Kevin Powers in September’s GOP primary.
Having provided home care to many residents of the district across Worcester County, Lovvorn said she has come to understand the needs of her district by speaking directly with its constituents. She claims that McGovern is too extreme to accurately represent all the residents of the centrist district.
“Right now he’s listed as the fifth most extreme member of the House, and our district is a very moderate, conservative district," Lovvorn said. "Even our Democrats, they’re JFK Democrats. They’re conservative Democrats.”
As a healthcare professional, Lovvorn has focused her campaign on improving and ensuring youth health and safety, especially related to mental health and the opioid crisis.
“We’re living in a time where we have kids going into schools and shooting each other with guns, and they’re also shooting themselves up with heroin. We live in a time right now where the life expectancy for our kids is actually less than their parents,” Lovvorn said. “What are some simple fixes that we can do immediately to try to help this? Coming from a healthcare background, and especially as a physical therapist, that’s my primary focus.”
Tahirah Amatul-Wadud
Amatul-Wadud hopes to shift Massachusetts’ 1st Congressional District away from establishment Democratic leadership.
Like many other women running for office this term, Amatul-Wadud was motivated to step into a political role following the 2016 presidential election.
“When I heard that people were waking up feeling like they had an elephant on their chest, and were depressed because there was no bright light at the end of this tunnel for them, I put some time into looking at what our district was experiencing,” Amatul-Wadud said.
Amatal-Wadud claims that the state of her district is “dire,” citing high poverty rates, high inequality rates and low internet connectivity rates as compared to the rest of the state.
The domestic relations and civil rights lawyer will face Democratic incumbent Richard Neal in the September primary. Neal, who is the ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee, was first elected to represent the district in 1988 and has maintained a liberal voting record. However, Amatul-Wadud said the party needs to make a change.
“People are resentful that the Democratic party is an establishment that has not moved with the people and has not done better to be inclusive,” Amatul-Wadud said. “And the only way that party survives is to embrace candidates like me who understand, who get it and who are pushing against the status quo.”
Amatul-Wadud said she would prioritize establishing universal healthcare if elected in November.
Margaret Busse
Building relationships with community members and eliminating partisan animosity in state politics are top priorities for Busse.
The Republican state senate candidate from the Middlesex and Worcester district was involved in Acton town politics for eight years, and planned on taking a break from the political scene when she stepped away from her position as the chair of Acton’s Finance Committee last year. But she couldn’t stay away for too long.
“I became increasingly and incredibly frustrated with the very politically divisive climate that we’re in right now in our country,” Busse said. “What I love to do in my town is to try to bring people together and try to look for those opportunities to find common ground, and that’s what I feel like is lacking right now in our political environment. My running for office is my answer to that.”
Busse will take on incumbent state Sen. James B. Eldridge, a Democrat who has occupied the position since 2009, in November. She claims that Eldridge is too extreme to represent all the residents of the district and not focused enough on local issues like improving education in the district.
“The person I’m running against is somebody that is at the very very far end of the ideological extreme, and I think that’s just not the way that people want to be governed,” Busse said. “I think that can create a lot of divisiveness.”
If elected, Busse said she will focus on issues she sees as directly impacting her community, including education, the opioid crisis and job creation.
Nika Elugardo
Jumping into elected office has been a long time coming for candidate for 15th Suffolk State Representative Nika Elugardo.
Elugardo, who has worked in policy and advocacy for 20 years, has been planning to run for office for the last 15, but she said was waiting for everything in her personal life to perfectly align.
But after the 2016 election, her friends and neighbors encouraged her to step forward.
Elugardo is challenging Democratic incumbent state Rep. Jeffrey Sánchez, who was first elected in 2002 and is currently the chair of the state’s House Ways and Means Committee. Elugardo said that Sánchez is not progressive enough to represent the district, and that she would be a better representation of the political leanings of the 15th Suffolk.
“I decided to throw my hat in so that we could have a bold and progressive leader in the most bold and progressive district at the time when Massachusetts needs to lead,” Elugardo said.
She prides herself on being able to bring people of differing ideologies together to defend the marginalized.
“On my campaign, while it’s driven by hardcore progressives, there are Libertarians, there are Republicans, there are socialists, there are atheists, there are social conservatives on my campaign, even though I’m super hardcore on the social issues in the progressive direction,” Elugardo said.
Elugardo’s focus areas if elected in November will be introducing education for all, healthcare for all and affordable housing for all.
Sabrina Heisey
Heisey, a newcomer to the Massachusetts political scene, hopes to make the leap from school committee member to state representative after only a year in office.
The candidate first stepped into the realm of politics after President Donald Trump’s 2016 victory, when she was inspired to run for any political office available. In 2017, Heisey ran and won against a third-term incumbent, Matthew Sheehan, for a position on the Dracut School Committee after undergoing campaign training through Emerge Massachusetts, an organization that supports women running for elected office.
As she learned about the state educational funding system, Heisey expressed her frustration about the system’s flaws to higher ranking elected officials. Less than a year later she announced her candidacy to challenge incumbent state Rep. Colleen Garry.
Garry, who was first elected in 1994, considers herself a conservative Democrat, and has compared her ideology to President John F. Kennedy’s politics. Heisey claims that it’s time for the party to move on.
“I’m challenging a 24-year incumbent Democrat who is so out of touch with what our party represents that she has to be challenged,” Heisey said. “I stepped up because nobody else had the guts to do it, and fear is not something I’m concerned about.”
Heisey hopes to address housing instability and the flaws she sees in state education funding if elected in November.
Madeline Charbonneau is an intern at WGBH News.
