State Rep. Receives Racist, Misogynistic Email From Former Tewksbury Resident

TEWKSBURY, MA — State Rep. Tram Nguyen (D-18) received an email filled with racist, misogynistic, and profane language from a former Tewksbury resident.

Nguyen was the first Vietnamese American woman elected to office in Massachusetts in 2018. She represents the 18th District, which includes Andover, North Andover, Tewksbury, and Boxford.

She tweeted the email's contents Monday morning along with the following message.

"For those who want to know what it's like to be a (woman) of color in politics," she wrote. "The interesting thing is this is 1 of 7000 bills filed, and I'm not even a co-sponsor of the bill he's referring to. Yet he felt entitled to write all this. Racism & sexism are alive and well."

Nguyen tweeted the full text of the email, which is available here, though readers should be aware it includes racist, misogynistic, and profane language.

Tewksbury police weighed in with the following on Facebook: "The comments received by State Representative Tram Nguyen are abhorrent and should not be condoned in any way. It’s important to note that this person does not reside in Tewksbury or even in the State. These comments do not represent this great Tewksbury community."

The letter was signed with a Tewksbury address. However, Tewksbury Police Chief Ryan Columbus told Nguyen that the department investigated and found the writer is a former town resident who moved to Atkinson, NH, The Tewksbury Carnation reported.

Columbus also said that there are "severe mental health issues at play." Atkinson police are following up, according to The Tewksbury Carnation.

Several commenters on Tram's tweet noted that these kinds hate-filled communications are disturbingly common.

Bobby Tugbiyele, a Lowell City Council candidate, wrote, "Thank you for your courage in sharing this. Many candidates or electeds of color suffer in silence from all the hatred that comes our way via email, social media or while knocking doors. It's a sensitive subject matter but absolutely needs to be called out."