US Rep. Ayanna Pressley already launched her re-election campaign on April 3, but that didn’t prevent her from throwing what she called a “campaign rally and celebration” last Saturday at the headquarters of IBEW Local 103 on Freeport Street.

Speaking to a roomful of union members, educators, students, families, and neighbors, the congresswoman - who to date faces no opposition - congratulated supporters for championing the causes they cared about and thanked them for voting her into office six years ago.

“You defied the odds, built coalitions, challenged the status quo. You made history,” she said. “You did that.”

Pressley was first elected to the US House in 2018 after serving nearly ten years as a Boston city councillor. Her campaign against the 7th district’s incumbent representative, Michael Capuano, who had held the seat since 1999, was part of a historic wave of women of color elected to the House that fall, which included Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York City.

Local residents and community activists, using the hall from which Pressley began her first congressional campaign, talked about how policies that Pressley has supported have benefited them, in particular, her steady support of labor. Their words were accompanied several times by her supporters chanting, “Get up, get down, Boston is a union town.”

One speaker, Suzy Depina-Correia of Dorchester, an apprentice at IBEW Local 103 who dealt with crushing student debt after dropping out of school to care for her mother, took notice of Pressley’s influence on her life.

“Even now, with an IBEW income, which most of you know is pretty generous for a third-year, I’m still straining to pay back my student loans on top of the regular household bills that I have to worry about,” she said. “I’m an example of why we need people like Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley on our side. She’s battling to forgive those student loans for all of us so we can stand with a little less weight on our shoulders.”

Another Dot native, Darius Hines, a member of Local 223, noted how his presence at the event was far removed from the 17 years he spent in federal prison. Now a homeowner with two young daughters, he credited Operation Exit, the re-entry program set up by former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and his union – for getting him onto the right path.

“(Local) 223 gave me that chance,” Hines said. “It put the belief in me that I didn’t have to go back. I didn’t have to look over my shoulder. Now I just try to put forth what they put in me; everybody just needs a second chance.”

Other speakers spoke to reproductive care and access to abortion, housing access, and equality of education opportunities as issues that Pressley has taken on.

At the close of the event, the drumline from Hamilton-Garrett Center for Music & Arts on Elm Hill Avenue hyped up the gathering before the candidate came on stage to thank her friends and supporters and to urge everyone to keep the momentum going.

“Our movement is strong,” Pressley said, “and change can’t wait.”