- Thanks for coming out.

- Thanks for voting.

- All right.

- So I agree that all Black people are definitely not the same.

We shouldn't have to, as a people, get behind one candidate, we are all very different, have different needs but I think that we have a lot of shared experience.

And while it's unfortunate and it's not fair that as Black people we're kind of lumped together, it's almost vital in order for us to get anywhere that we do kind of come together in order to get ahead.

Right now I don't necessarily see another way for us to get the political power that we need.

[David Paleologos] The lack of a smoke-filled room potentially hurt here.

The smoke-filled room would really be activists and players in the Black community.

You'd be getting together in the morning to make the decision about which one Black candidate was gonna run for mayor.

And they say, "Janey is the mayor, "Janey has already made history.

"Andrea, bigger fish to fry, "you're gonna run for a statewide office and we're gonna back you for that."

That's how it used to work.

That's how the Irish, right?

It's how the Irish rose as a dominant political force.

You had the O'Neills and you had the old, you know, the Fitzgeralds and you had the old Irish families that kinda made those calls.

And obviously, you know, an African American could leave the smoke-filled room and say, "I don't care, I'm still running."

But that just would spoil the statistical probability of the outcome.

- Many of those candidates were on the city council together, they were a sisterhood because they were changing Boston.

But when they're running for mayor, the sisterhood breaks up because isn't it great women are allowed to be competitive?

- And I think that's good.

Yes, like I wanna win.

You wanna win?

I wanna win.

- Absolutely.

That sort of thing.

So we saw that break up and this race allowed us, I think, to have a more complicated discussion of race and ethnicity.

It wasn't, there's a white candidate and one candidate of color and everybody has to get beyond that one candidate of color.

That there was nuance and difference amongst these women.

I think that's real progress because we all ought to have choice.

[Erin OBrien] Yep.

We ought to have choice, and I think it makes our candidates better, it's going to produce stronger candidates and that's the way it should be.

- Yep.

It speaks to one of the ironies I think of Boston, that outsiders think it's run by Democrats, it must be better here.

And when it comes to electing women and people of color, that simply hasn't been the case.

And that's because the Democratic Party only has to reinvent itself when it faces electoral instability, when they fear losing.

And they haven't feared losing until Ayanna Pressley.

[Reporter] And we begin tonight with a historic upset in the race for Congress.

Boston City Councilor, Ayanna Pressley, defeating longtime incumbent, Michael Capuano, in the seventh Congressional district.

Pressley will become the first Black woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts.

(crowd applauding) - I think Ayanna's election rocked this city.

It rocked the region.

Change is on the way.

(audience cheering and applauding) - First, you don't challenge incumbents in Massachusetts, you know?

Yes, as a general rule, but like in Massachusetts like that's just like a non-starter, right?

And then tradition is that city councilors don't run for Congress.

And third, can I remind you, you're from Chicago, you're not actually really from here.

It doesn't matter how many decades you spend, people will hold that over you.

So let's make this official, y'all.

Are you ready to come to Congress with me?

(audience cheering) Similar to, you know, Michelle and Kim and Andrea, they all did it by tapping in and inspiring people like me that the establishment never looked at either.