Julia Mejia is an At-Large City Councilor in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. Elected in 2019, Mejia is the first

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elected to the council.

Biography

Born in the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

and raised by a single mother, Mejia came to the United States when she was five years old. She graduated from Dorchester High School and earned a Bachelor of Arts from

Mount Ida College Mount Ida College was a private college in Newton, Massachusetts. In 2018, the University of Massachusetts Amherst acquired the campus and renamed it the Mount Ida Campus of UMass Amherst. History The Mount Ida School for Girls, once a high sc ...

. Mejia worked as a reporter for

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covering the 2000 U.S. presidential election and an organizer with Massachusetts Charter Public School Association. She is the founder of Collaborative Parent Leadership Action Network (CPLAN). Mejia ran for one of four at-large

Boston City Council The Boston City Council is the legislative branch of government for the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is made up of 13 members: 9 district representatives and 4 at-large members. Councillors are elected to two-year terms and there is no ...

seats in November 2019 in a field of eight candidates. After a recount, she won the fourth seat by one vote. Mejia took office on January 6, 2020, becoming the first immigrant to serve on the council. In June 2020, Mejia (along with Ricardo Arroyo,

Andrea Campbell Andrea Joy Campbell (born June 11, 1982) is an American lawyer and politician who is the Attorney General-elect of Massachusetts. She is also a former member of the Boston City Council. On the city council, she represented District 4, which inclu ...

Kim Janey Kim Michelle Janey (born May 16, 1965) is an American politician who served as acting mayor of Boston for eight months in 2021. She served as president of the Boston City Council from 2020 to 2022, and as a member of the council from the 7th dist ...

, and

Michelle Wu Michelle Wu ( zh, t=吳弭, first=t; born January 14, 1985) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the mayor of Boston, mayor of Boston, Massachusetts since 2021. She is a member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

) was one of five members of the Boston City Council to vote against Mayor

Marty Walsh Martin Joseph Walsh (born April 10, 1967) is an American politician and former union official. He has been the 29th United States Secretary of Labor since March 23, 2021. A Democrat, he previously served as the 54th mayor of Boston from 2014, ...

's 2021 operating budget for the city. Mejia wrote, "I am no longer interested in having drip-drop incremental changes that expect us to continue to hope and pray and wait some more about finally having the type of budget that really reflects the needs our people find themselves in today." In 2020, the ''

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'' named Mejia the year's "best city politician", writing that she had, "fought back against racist harassment after taking office in early 2020," and, "also worked to improve bilingual communications in Boston and even made a series of

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videos with her daughter to liven up the mood at City Hall during the early days of the ovid-19/nowiki> pandemic." Mejia lives with her daughter, Annalise, in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston.

Electoral history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mejia, Julia Boston City Council members American politicians of Dominican Republic descent Dominican Republic emigrants to the United States Hispanic and Latino American city council members Hispanic and Latino American women in politics Mount Ida College alumni Politicians from Dorchester, Massachusetts Massachusetts Democrats Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Women city councillors in Massachusetts 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians