Ayanna Pressley’s stunning victory in the Seventh Congressional District over 10-term incumbent Michael Capuano highlighted a night of unlikely victories by up and down the ballot. Pressley didn’t make history alone last night. Rachael Rollins, the former general counsel for the Massachusetts Port Authority, won the Democratic primary for Suffolk district attorney. While she will face an opponent in the general election in November, she has to be considered a heavy favorite to become the county’s first female DA, not to mention the first woman of color.
Their victories were a stunning — and unexpected — rebuke to the political establishment, to the people who always seem to win.Make no mistake, the upstarts were expected to fail.And for women and people of color, Boston has simply never had a night like it.

“It’s everything,” said Tanisha Sullivan, president of the Boston branch of the NAACP. Her voice was choked with emotion. “For so long we’ve had to be the ones in the background, really holding our communities together. We’ve been the ones who’ve been faithful civic servants, and today, really, I think, is a symbol of a new day. We finally have a voice.” Adrian Walker Boston Globe