Photo: Danielle Allen for Massachusetts
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — A Harvard professor is starting a historic run for the state's highest office. Danielle Allen, Director of Harvard's Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, is the first Black woman to ever run for governor as part of a major party.
Allen made the announcement official on Tuesday morning at a press conference on Boston Common.
She focused, in part, on the disparate experiences of workers in different parts of the state's economy during the pandemic.
"People in the knowledge sector center, they just got to — like me — roll up the drawbridges and telecommute, and start riding the pandemic out. For people in the services sector, the bottom just fell out from under," she said.
Allen said that the state's institutions failed during the pandemic, because "as a society, we don't hold the belief that we are all in it together."
The Harvard political theorist grew up in California and attended Princeton and the University of Cambridge, eventually winning the MacArthur "Genius Grant" at age 29 for her academic work.
Amanda Hunter, Executive Director of the Cambridge-based Barbara Lee Foundation, told WBZ NewsRadio's Laurie Kirby that Allen's run is a positive move for women who want to enter politics, especially for four women already running for Mayor of Boston.
"All of these women, simply by running, are breaking down stereotypes and hopefully will inspire countless women and girls," she said.
Allen already has more than $283,000 cash in her campaign war chest as of June, according to state financial records — much more than the other Democrats that are officially running, former State Senator Benjamin Downing and businessman Orlando Silva.
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Written by Chaiel Schaffel