Amid attacks on Republican women, Democrats' silence is deafening

July 23, 2020

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:

Evan Lips, communications director

617-523-5005 ext. 245

WOBURN -- Massachusetts Republican Party Chairman Jim Lyons said Wednesday that no amount of intimidation or outright threats lodged by Democrats will prevent Republican women from running for public office in the commonwealth.

“The abuse that’s been directed at several of our female candidates is nothing short of shameful, and the Massachusetts Democratic Party’s stubborn silence on the matter should alarm everyone, regardless of political persuasions,” Lyons said.

Over the past weekend, a video emerged in which a campaign organizer for Democratic U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley unloaded off a half-hour’s worth of unprintable racist and sex-based attacks directed at Pressley’s African-American Republican challenger, Randolph resident Rayla Campbell. The video features Pressley campaign organizer Monica Cannon-Grant, known for her high-profile endorsements of prominent Massachusetts Democrats, including Attorney General Maura Healey, U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, and dozens of others.

Campbell told the Boston Herald that the number of threats she’s received has forced her family to move out of their Randolph home.

“Racism is racism, no matter where it comes from,” Campbell told the newspaper. “I was horrified and absolutely terrified. I had to uproot my family and just stay elsewhere.”

Lyons noted that the Boston Globe, which has promoted Cannon-Grant in the past with fawning coverage and coveted front-page op-ed space, has chosen to ignore the episode altogether.

Meanwhile, Duxbury Republican candidate Tatyana Semyrog, walking door-to-door earlier this week in Hanson as part of her campaign for state representative, recalled being chased away and screamed at by several angry residents “all because of my political beliefs.”

Semyrog said she won’t be intimidated.

“I’m more energized now than ever,” said Semyrog. “I’ve received an incredible outpouring of support from the community since that happened, the encouragement has been heartwarming.”

The spate of ugly incidents comes on the heels of a state Supreme Judicial Court ruling granting Republican Congressional candidate Helen Brady a position on the 2020 ballot, despite the Democrats’ best efforts to use the current health emergency in an effort to silence her campaign.

“Republican women in Massachusetts are refusing to be silenced by this kind of ugly stuff,” Lyons said. “Voters should take note of this type of behavior, and call on the Massachusetts Democratic Party to stop enabling it.

“What is it about strong Republican women that drive the Democrats to resort to this type of behavior?”

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