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Representative Ayanna S. Pressley (D-Mass.) endorsed six candidates for Cambridge City Council on Tuesday, just one week before the Nov. 4 elections that will decide the most crowded race for local office in modern history.
The six endorsees — Cambridge Mayor E. Denise Simmons and Vice Mayor Marc C. McGovern, alongside Councilors Sumbul Siddiqui, Ayesha M. Wilson, Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler, and Burhan Azeem — are all incumbents in the race, which has 20 total candidates vying for positions in Cambridge government.
Pressley, the only federal official to publicly endorse candidates in the City Council race, said in a press release announcing her endorsements that each of the candidates lead “with empathy and conviction, rooted in the belief that government must be a force for equity and justice.”
“In a moment that demands courage, compassion, and moral clarity, these leaders have delivered for Cambridge — from fighting for working families to advancing affordable housing, protecting our most vulnerable, and ensuring every voice is heard in City Hall,” said Pressley, who is a prominent progressive voice in the House.
The six candidates were also endorsed in September by A Better Cambridge, a housing advocacy super PAC that supports expanding development in the city. ABC backed the incumbents for their policies to address the housing crisis. But Azeem, one of the endorsees, said he believed Pressley endorsed him and the other candidates for holding “underlying values about justice and trying to make the city more affordable and equitable.”
Simmons, the longtime mayor of Cambridge, wrote in a statement that she was “thrilled” to have Pressley’s support and that she has relied on Pressley for help multiple times over the course of her nearly 30 years in office.
“Rep. Pressley has been a champion for our district and whenever I’ve had the need to pick up the phone and seek out her assistance for our residents, she has always had our backs,” Simmons wrote. “I look forward to continuing working with her heading into the next term, and I truly value our partnership.”
McGovern, another long serving member of the City Council who is running for his seventh term, said Pressley “is a tremendous progressive leader” who has frequently discussed with him how actions by the federal government are impacting Cambridge.
How the city responds to policies made in Washington has become increasingly important in the past year, McGovern added, especially with the federal government shutdown and Donald Trump’s tumultuous second term in the White House.
“The chaos that’s going on in Washington, brought on by the Trump administration, is trickling down to really hurting people,” McGovern said. “Trump doesn’t care about them and the Republican Party doesn’t care about them, and there’s only so much the Democrats can do, so it’s going to fall more and more municipalities to step in.”
Azeem, who canvassed for Pressley when she first ran for office in 2018, said he has “a very productive relationship with the congresswoman as she’s tackled the Trump administration.”
Azeem said his campaign benefits from Pressley’s endorsement because the City Council is “not high drama, and so most people don’t know their city councilors.”
“I think getting help from both our local Congresswoman, but also someone who’s really well known within the district, is very helpful,” he said.
Pressley, who represents the area of Cambridge that includes Harvard’s campus, is rumored to be considering a run for the U.S. Senate in 2026 and previously served for eight years as a Boston City Councilor.
“This is a group that Ayanna supported, it’s a group of us who are really fighting for the most vulnerable families in our community,” McGovern said. “That’s who needs us the most right now.”
—Staff writer Megan L. Blonigen can be reached at megan.blonigen@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @MeganBlonigen.
