Julia Mejia is an At-Large City Councilor in Boston, Massachusetts. Elected in 2019, Mejia is the first Latina elected to the council.
Biography
Born in the Dominican Republic 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.
Mejia worked as a reporter for MTV 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 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, Kim Janey, and Michelle Wu) was one of five members of the Boston City Council to vote against Mayor Marty Walsh'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 Boston Magazine 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 TikTok videos with her daughter to liven up the mood at City Hall during the early days of the [Covid-19] pandemic."
Mejia lives with her daughter, Annalise, in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston.
Electoral history
References
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