In response to Joan Vennochi’s column “Lewis endorses status quo’’ (Opinion, May 22): Although Ayanna Pressley and her supporters make many valid points in support of her candidacy, in my view they seriously underestimate the grave dangers posed to all of us, and to the country itself, by the current administration and Congress. For those of us who are alarmed and appalled by what has been happening in Washington, nothing should now be more important than putting the brakes on Donald Trump and the Republican Congress through a Democratic majority, at least in the House and preferably in the Senate.

The time, energy, and money being expended in support of Pressley’s race against incumbent Michael Capuano in the Seventh District would be infinitely better spent helping Democratic candidates — many of them young, female, and/or members of underrepresented minorities — in swing districts around the country get elected in November. The Pressley supporters, I fear, are fiddling while the republic burns.

Daniel Penrice

Cambridge