Rayla Campbell Gets Enthusiastic Response While Handing Out Stickers on Primary Day

Printed from: https://newbostonpost.com/2020/09/01/rayla-campbell-gets-enthusiastic-response-while-handing-out-stickers-on-primary-day/

red Ford F-350 turns right into the Saint Bernadette Catholic Church Hall parking lot in Randolph.

A middle-aged man with a German shepherd slows down and comes to a stop.

”Are you running the write-in?” he asks Rayla Campbell.

“Yes!” she says enthusiastically, takes a couple steps away from her campaign sign closer to the truck and hands him a sticker. He thanks her and drives a few hundred feet down to park.

Campbell’s not just running the write-in; she is the write-in.

The sticker has Campbell’s name and address in Randolph. She and her campaign volunteers across Massachusetts’s Seventh Congressional District have thousands of them for the state primary election today, Tuesday, September 1. It’s part of the conservative Republican’s push to get on the ballot this upcoming November to run against Democrat U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Dorchester). She needs at least 2,000 votes in the primary to make it happen.

It counts whether a voter writes in Campbell’s name and town or slaps the sticker in the right place on the ballot, as long as the voters fills in the bubble.

The man in the pickup truck was one of many people looking for Campbell during an the hour-and-a-half span this morning when a New Boston Post reporter stood outside the polling place. Most wanted a sticker to place on the ballot. Others already had them and gave her a thumbs up.

A few people asked for signs to put on their lawn. A couple people yelled “Rayla!” while driving down the street.

”This is incredible,” she told New Boston Post on Tuesday morning. “It’s really the voice of the people and that’s what I want to be in Congress is the voice of the people of Massachusetts.”

The Republican primary ballot in Randolph features only one contested race, for U.S. Senate. No Republicans appears on the ballot for the U.S. House of Representatives. But if Campbell gets at least 2,000 votes from registered Republicans and unenrolled voters who take a Republican ballot, she will win the Republican nomination for Congress.

Her biggest obstacle may be the high-profile Democratic U.S. Senate primary between Ed Markey and Joe Kennedy III. Democratic ballots won’t help her win the Republican nomination — though Campbell said she has gotten text messages from a few of her volunteers saying that registered Democrats told them they planned to write in Campbell’s name in their Democratic ballots.

Campbell drew attention this spring as a black conservative Republican woman taking on a well-known left-wing member of The Squad. But her notoriety took off in July, when an ally of Pressley published a video criticizing Campbell and her family in personal, vulgar terms.

Earlier today, Campbell spent from 7 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. outside the church. St. Bernadette’s happens to be where she worships — and she was thrilled to see the support from her neighbors.

They’re not her only supporters, though. Campbell has other volunteers handing out stickers at other polling locations elsewhere in the district, which stretches from north of Boston south through the city and down to Randolph.

She told New Boston Post that she has been encouraged by the turnout on her behalf.

“This is unprecedented times, right? COVID and being a write-in. But I just can’t believe how many people have come out and are supporting me and have endorsed me,” she said. “It’s been incredible and all of the people who are just finding out about me in the cities are coming to rallies and hitting me up on my Facebook page and even working the polls today. I’m truly blessed.”

Before she went to Somerville to hit her next campaign spot, Campbell got some help from former state Representative Geoff Diehl (R-Whitman), the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in 2018. He and Campbell took a video asking people to get out and vote for her.

Campbell said she’s running on a couple of coffees and not a lot of sleep, but she said she felt ready to go as soon as she woke up.

“I probably only got four hours of sleep last night, but it was solid sleep because I was exhausted so when I woke up this morning, I was ready to go,” she said. “I was up at five o’clock this morning and ready to go. It’s game day.”

 

Massachusetts Seventh Congressional District — known a the ‘Minority-Majority District.’ Source: Massachusetts Legislature web site

Massachusetts Seventh Congressional District towns and cities:

Middlesex County:

city of Cambridge (Wards 1, 2, and 3; Ward 4, Precinct 1; Ward 5; Ward 10, Precinct 3; Ward 11) (which includes East Cambridge and parts of North Cambridge)

cities of Everett and Somerville

 

Norfolk County:

town of Milton (Precincts 1, 5, and 10); town of Randolph

 

Suffolk County:

city of Chelsea

city of Boston (Wards 1 and 2; Ward 3, Precincts 7, 8; Ward 4; Ward 5, Precincts 1, 2, 2A, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10; Ward 7, Precinct 10; Wards 8, 9, and 10; Ward 11, Precincts 1–8; Ward 12; Ward 13, Precincts 1, 2, 4–6, 8, 9; Wards 14 and 15; Ward 16, Precincts 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 11; Wards 17 and 18; Ward 19, Precincts 7, 10–13; Ward 20, Precinct 3; Wards 21 and 22);

 

City of Boston Wards

Matching Wards With Neighborhood

Ward 1:  East Boston

Ward 2:  Charlestown

Ward 3, Precincts 7 and 8:  South End and Chinatown

Ward 4:  Fenway and Kenmore Square

Ward 5, Precincts 1, 2, 2A, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10:  Back Bay and Bay Village

Ward 7, Precinct 10:  small southern portion of South Boston

Wards 8 and 9:  South End

Ward 10:  Mission Hill

Ward 11, Precincts 1-8:  Roxbury

Ward 12:  Roxbury

Ward 13:  north Dorchester

Ward 14:  Mattapan and south Dorchester

Ward 15:  Dorchester

Ward 16, Precincts 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 11:  south Dorchester

Ward 17:  south Dorchester

Ward 18:  Hyde Park, south Mattapan

Ward 19, Precincts 7, 10-13:  Roslindale

Ward 20, Precinct 3:  small portion of Roslindale

Ward 21:  Allston

Ward 22:  Brighton