Massachusetts 2026 Primary Preview Part II

This is Part II of the Massachusetts primary preview, covering the state House. Part I can be found here.

In Western Mass legislative primaries, I was aided by local insight from Matt Szafranski, a Springfield-area attorney who runs wmasspi.com, a local political news site with a Western Mass focus.

A note to keep in mind: Massachusetts does not number its state legislative districts sequentially the way other states do. It numbers them by county, which is maddening. As such, I will be going in alphabetical order by county and numerical order within each county (i.e., you will read about the 16th Essex House race before the 10th Middlesex House race.)

As I said in Part I, this will be the last non-paywalled primary preview, so sign up now.

1st Barnstable House

Central Cape Cod | Harris+20.8

Chris Lambton vs. Steven Leibowitz

Incumbent Chris Flanagan is retiring in light of a federal indictment charging him with various financial crimes, including money laundering, false tax returns, and multiple counts of wire fraud, for a scheme to steal more than $40,000 from a homebuilders’ association he worked for, allegedly using the stolen money to fund his campaign and his personal lifestyle. Flanagan, a former Dennis Select Board member, actually flipped this district fairly recently, in 2022; in a sign of how far the Cape Cod GOP has fallen in recent years, they will not have a nominee to win this seat back unless a write-in garners enough votes to get the nomination, because nobody filed to run on the GOP side. The Democratic primary is, realistically, the whole contest here.

The frontrunner appears to be Chris Lambton, a member of the Dennis Select Board and a minor HGTV personality whose whole on-screen deal appears to be landscaping and who kind of looks like Great Value Tom Brady. Running a sometimes-scrappy-sometimes-kooky campaign to Lambton’s left is Steven Leibowitz, a previous Democratic nominee for this seat back in its GOP days. Leibowitz managed to get state Sen. Jamie Eldridge to donate some money, so he still has some connections left from his 2018 run; however, this is clearly Lambton’s race to lose given his financial advantage and wide range of endorsements from politicians and labor unions.

1st Berkshire House

Northern Berkshires | Harris+30

John Barrett III (i) vs. Andrew Fitch

State Rep. John Barrett III is a quiet fixture of politics in the Berkshires, serving as a state representative for just under a decade and in a variety of local roles before that. While a reliable liberal—given that’s all that the liberal Berkshires would ever elect anyway—Barrett is low-key, understated, and 79 years old; he’s also functionally opposed to the idea of auditing the state legislature, harboring a deep and unconcealed dislike for its chief proponent, State Auditor Diana DiZoglio, and the 2024 ballot measure she spearheaded to give herself the authority to conduct the audit, which passed with 72% of the vote. Small business owner and North Adams City Council Vice President Andrew Fitch is a vigorous campaigner whose youth and energy have already propelled the recent transplant to two terms on the North Adams City Council. Fitch, who has raised a good deal of money from supporters in North Adams, is firmly pro-audit and a vocal proponent of better biking and mass transit infrastructure; he has taken to campaigning by bike across the sprawling rural district and promises to be a more visible, energetic, and outspoken state representative.

3rd Bristol House

Taunton and Easton | Harris+5.6

Lisa Field (i) vs. Edward Walsh Jr.

Incumbent Lisa Field and challenger Ed Walsh, the retiring longtime Taunton police chief, are both fairly conservative Democrats; Field even voted against the state’s recent law expanding abortion protections, one of just a handful of Democrats to do so. Unions are backing Field, a nurses’ union organizer from Taunton who narrowly won this seat in a 2025 special—even conservative unions like the Massachusetts Coalition of Police. However, Walsh has his own base of financial support, especially among Taunton city employees (not limited to the police.) As both candidates are from Taunton, Field’s best hope may be to run up the score in Easton, where she has (very recent) incumbency and Walsh has no reason to be particularly well-known.

9th Bristol House

Dartmouth and northern New Bedford | Trump+1.1

Steve Medeiros vs. Ed Pacheco

This South Coast district lurched right and flipped to Trump in 2024 just in time for incumbent Chris Markey to peace out, leaving an open race for the Democratic nomination to defend a suddenly purple seat. Two local community leaders, realtor Steve Medeiros and nonprofit worker Ed Pacheco, are vying for the party’s nod this year. Both are unmistakably running to the center; however, Pacheco has the backing of labor unions and Democratic Bristol County Sheriff Paul Heroux, and is modestly better on policy at forums, expressing openness to rent control and state-level universal healthcare and childcare despite his self-styling as a moderate. Pacheco also has a financial advantage, thanks in large part to labor unions.

1st Essex House

Newburyport to Merrimac | Harris+27.6

Dawne Shand (i) vs. Stephen Roth

Dawne Shand flipped this district in 2022 after the Republican incumbent resigned to accept an appointment from Republican then-Gov. Charlie Baker, and has never had trouble in an election since. Local immigration attorney and public defender Stephen Roth is looking to change that. Roth is running on a generally progressive platform with a focus on supporting the controversial audit of the state legislature, while Shand, a low-key liberal backbencher, is focusing on her seniority and legislative achievements.

5th Essex House

Cape Ann | Harris+33.5

Andrew “Dru” Tarr (i) vs. Sarah Wilkinson

Dru Tarr won a special election to succeed his late boss, state Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante, in 2025. Former longtime Rockport Select Board member Sarah Wilkinson is running a campaign that focuses heavily on supporting the audit of the state legislature, which she accuses Tarr and the legislature of working to neuter. Wilkinson clearly has some amount of juice locally, as she managed to get nearly a third of the vote as a write-in candidate in the Democratic primary in that 2025 special—and she’s actually on the ballot this time around.

9th Essex House

Saugus, Lynn, Wakefield | Harris+2.3

Peter Meaney vs. Zosia VanMeter

After the party left Republican state Rep. Donald Wong uncontested for three straight cycles, two Democrats are now fighting for the right to challenge him in this light-blue suburban district north of Boston. Lynn City Councilman Pete Meaney, a dentist and disabled Navy veteran, is a clear favorite; he has an overwhelming financial advantage (his opponent isn’t a really bad fundraiser, Meaney has just raised and spent a whopping six figures), and is a sitting elected in the bluest piece of the district. Progressive groups are backing underdog Zosia VanMeter, who has served in a variety of administrative roles in Lynn City Hall, and the race has grown incredibly acrimonious. VanMeter has repeatedly called for a debate and been rebuffed, and she has gone so far as to say she wouldn’t campaign for Meaney if he won the primary, leading Meaney to needle VanMeter on the candidates’ respective personal Facebook pages. Cursed race; I just hope the national environment is blue enough to carry whoever the winner is despite the nasty primary.

16th Essex House

Lawrence and Methuen | Harris+12.1

Francisco Paulino (i) vs. Celina Reyes

Francisco Paulino has had a short and colorful career in Massachusetts politics. Paulino first entered the scene with the backing of Lawrence Mayor Brian DePeña in a successful campaign to unseat state Rep. Marcos Devers in 2022; the two then had a falling out, and DePeña backed Devers in a rematch in 2024, though Paulino won the rematch by a greater margin than the initial race. In office, he’s opposed abortion rights and generally been one of the more conservative Democrats in the Massachusetts House. Now, Paulino faces twin challenges at the ballot box and, as of late, the courthouse.

Lawrence City Councilor At-Large Celina Reyes is an SEIU organizer turned politician running with the backing of progressive organizations like WFP and Progressive Mass, as well as (perhaps unsurprisingly) SEIU and the Massachusetts Teachers Association. Reyes hopes to shift the balance of power in the state capitol towards the left and the working class, and generally represents a clear opportunity for an upgrade over the moderate, business-friendly Paulino. But Reyes isn’t Paulino’s only problem anymore.

A sweeping federal indictment released last week charged Paulino with committing COVID relief fraud to the tune of $700,000, diverting the ill-gotten federal funds to his campaign and his personal fortune. (The indictment of Paulino came just weeks after an unrelated indictment charged DePeña for a similar scheme, so the issue of crooked public officials stealing pandemic relief funds is already fresh in the news in Lawrence.) It’s just about the last headline Paulino could possibly want in the final week of a contested primary; tomorrow night, we’ll see whether it’s enough for Reyes to sink him.

1st Franklin House

Greenfield and rural western Massachusetts | Harris+44

Corinne Coryat vs. Lora Wondolowski

This seat is vacant after incumbent Natalie Blais resigned to take an administrative role at UMass Amherst. Her choice to succeed her is her own legislative aide, Corinne Coryat, and Coryat has won over a lot of local elected officials, as well as the Western Massachusetts Building Trades Unions. Coryat, who is also an attorney, doesn’t seem awful or anything; however, progressive groups are going with Greenfield City Council President Lora Wondolowski, as are more left-leaning unions like SEIU and a fair number of local elected officials. Wondolowski is the founding executive director of the Massachusetts League of Environmental Voters, but her main policy focus is rural school funding, which makes perfect sense in this very rural district. She also emphasizes her ties to progressive groups as part of her campaign messaging, so it’s not hard to see who she'll align with if she wins.

5th Hampden House

Holyoke | Harris+28.5

Patricia Duffy (i) vs. Dori Dean

It’s unclear why political operative Dori Dean is running against state Rep. Pat Duffy. Both generally find themselves on the progressive-ish side of Holyoke politics; Dean used to be a top aide to former Mayor Alex Morse, and Duffy was one of two progressive options in the 2020 primary that she won to get her first term in this seat. Dean has raised a little money, but gotten no endorsements and little press.

11th Hampden House

Central Springfield | Harris+44.9

Bud Williams (i) vs. Nicole Coakley vs. Johnnie McKnight

This is the first of two cleanly ideological challenges in Western Massachusetts legislative primaries, both of them centered on the city of Springfield. Bud Williams is a moderate-to-conservative Democrat (with a particularly bad history on abortion rights, having opposed the original bill to codify a right to abortion in anticipation of the then-merely-likely overturning of Roe v. Wade) representing a chunk of Springfield’s urban core, and he faces a rematch with progressive schoolteacher and union rep Johnnie McKnight, who held Williams to a 54-46 victory in 2024. Also in the race is former Springfield City Council candidate Nicole Coakley, who narrowly lost a bid for an at-large seat last year; Coakley seems vaguely progressive but has little money to work with and even less of an online presence. McKnight’s union, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, has endorsed him and ran an aggressive field operation, hoping to get one of their own in the legislature—and knock out a more conservative Democrat in the process. Progressive groups are also backing McKnight to the extent they’re involved, while Williams is backed by less left-leaning unions, business groups, and allies in the legislature.

12th Hampden House

Springfield, Wilbraham, East Longmeadow, Monson | Harris+11.1

Angelo Puppolo Jr. (i) vs. Michael Lachenmeyer

State Rep. Angelo Puppolo Jr. represents an awkwardly-shaped district that takes in Springfield’s whiter outlying neighborhoods as well as chunks of the surrounding suburbs and exurbs, including the entire town of Wilbraham. He’s the dean of the Western Massachusetts legislative delegation, serving since 2006; he’s also one of the more conservative Democrats in the region’s delegation—Puppolo, like Williams, voted against the Massachusetts ROE Act, and also consistently voted against the state’s now-enacted millionaire’s tax in varying forms back when it was just a legislative proposal. He’s also the other Western Massachusetts legislator facing an ideological primary. Activist and former educator Michael Lachenmeyer, 27, is running to Puppolo’s left; Lachenmeyer, a democratic socialist, has the backing of his local DSA chapter as well as progressive groups and some unions, including the Massachusetts Teachers Association, which has even spent a bit of money promoting Lachenmeyer’s campaign. (Full disclosure: Lachenmeyer once interned for Matt Szafranski’s website.) Lachenmeyer would be the first democratic socialist elected from outside the Boston area, and his victory would be a major upset which would send shockwaves reverberating through Western Mass and Beacon Hill. Republicans failed to field a candidate here, so the primary is the ballgame.

10th Middlesex House

Newton, Watertown, Waltham | Harris+43.7

John Lawn (i) vs. Alison Leary

Rep. John Lawn is a mostly unremarkable member of the state House who chairs the powerful Joint Health Care Financing Committee, and is thus a close and proud ally of state House leadership. That makes him an obvious target for progressives, sitting as he does in a bright-blue district in the inner Boston suburbs, situated in between several MBTA lines. Lawn didn’t help his case when he crashed his car while driving drunk in Boston in 2025, leading to a no-contest plea and a temporarily suspended license. Enter Newton City Councilor-at-large Alison Leary, a 13-year city councilor and environmental activist backed by progressive groups and left-leaning labor unions. In her own telling, Leary’s primary policy concern throughout her time in public office has been climate change, and that is a throughline in some of her policy proposals: aggressive upzoning to get more people living in dense, climate-friendly housing and transitioning away from residential natural gas hookups both stick out. She also zeroes in on Lawn’s chairmanship, casting him as a key gatekeeper in any consideration of state-level single-payer healthcare, which she supports. However, her campaign has also been overshadowed by a personal scandal, though hers is funnier: in a moment of either unintentional bitterness or accidental candor, Leary trashed Newton neighborhood associations that had endorsed Lawn, saying “They don’t want housing, they don’t want immigrants, many of them are Republicans.” (She later apologized, but neighborhood association types are still mad.) Leary also, as with many progressive candidates, faults the legislature for its lack of transparency and rigidly top-down mode of operations; Lawn cursorily dismisses the attacks as inaccurate without responding to the substance of any complaints about legislative secrecy and subservience to leadership.

16th Middlesex House

Chelmsford, Lowell | Harris+17.4

Lorena Betts vs. Corey Robinson

Incumbent Rodney Elliott, a former mayor of Lowell, is retiring after just two terms, opening up this seat, which straddles the border between Lowell and its liberal suburb of Chelmsford. Progressive groups and the area’s UAW and major SEIU branches are backing former legislative aide Lorena Betts, who is also outraising and outspending the moderate option here, Lowell City Councilor Corey Robinson. Robinson has name recognition, but he also has a bunch of his former supporters going to the local paper to endorse Betts, so…

17th Middlesex House

Lowell, Tewksbury | Harris+23

Harini Aiyer vs. John Drinkwater vs. Anthony Leite

This district was left vacant by the election of progressive state Rep. Vanna Howard to the state Senate, making this a rare defensive race for Massachusetts state legislative progressives. Progressives have two candidates to choose from, career union political operative John Drinkwater (also a former Lowell City Councilor) and cancer researcher Dr. Harini Aiyer. Aiyer is running further to the left, supporting rent control and moratoria on the construction of prisons and pipelines, but Drinkwater is also a progressive with a background in the labor movement, which is why progressive groups have split between Drinkwater and Aiyer in this race. The only conservative or moderate option is firefighters’ union leader Anthony Leite, who is thankfully the brokest of the three candidates for this seat by far.

18th Middlesex House

Lowell | Harris+27.5

Tara Hong (i) vs. Sokhary Chau

In 2024, progressive now-state Rep. Tara Hong succeeded on his second try for this heavily Cambodian Lowell district, unseating incumbent Rady Mom. Now, Hong faces another challenger from within the Cambodian community: city councilor and former mayor Sokhary Chau. (Chau, Mom, and Hong were all born in Cambodia, like thousands of Lowell residents.) Chau is quietly but clearly running to Hong’s right, with the biggest giveaway being a donation from the Lowell Police Association. Progressive groups and left-leaning unions like SEIU and the Massachusetts Teachers Association are sticking with Hong, and Hong has slightly outraised Chau, though the two have spent similar sums on their campaigns.

24th Middlesex House

Belmont, Arlington, Cambridge | Harris+63.3

David Rogers (i) vs. Nomita Ganguly

State Rep. Dave Rogers is running on small-ball policy solutions he’s been able to deliver by working within the strictures of the conservative Massachusetts legislature, including increased funding for local public schools. Attorney and community advocate Nomita Ganguly is, like many challengers, running against the controversial audit-weakening law, as well as a general slate of liberal-to-progressive policy positions, and she’s raised a modest but real amount of money to fund her campaign. Ganguly has a few prominent supporters, including Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui and Cambridge Councilor Jovan Sobrinho-Wheeler, but most local figures and organizations are sticking with Rogers; while a loyal foot soldier for state House leadership, he’s not uniquely conservative or personally scandalous.

25th Middlesex House

Cambridge | Harris+84.2

Marjorie Decker (i) vs. Evan MacKay

Marjorie Decker, a close ally of state House leadership and foe of the Boston left, narrowly survived a challenge from democratic socialist grad student union organizer Evan MacKay in 2024, winning by just 41 votes. MacKay is back, once again with the backing of Massachusetts progressives and some left-leaning labor unions, and they're hoping the second time will be the charm as MacKay attempts to become the next democratic socialist—and only the second openly nonbinary person, after Boston state Rep. Sam Montaño—elected to the Massachusetts legislature. Given how close MacKay came last time as a first-time candidate, I’m inclined to think that a combination of experience, extra time, and a much, much angrier Democratic primary electorate make them at least a slight favorite over Decker for the right to represent this extremely blue district centered around Harvard University’s campus. In the closing days of the race, a super PAC has sprang up to drop six figures on efforts to defend Decker—a sign her allies are worried if ever there was one.

26th Middlesex House

Cambridge, Somerville | Harris+73.4

Mike Connolly (i) vs. Neil Miller

Progressive state Rep. Mike Connolly and his challenger Neil Miller, a local YIMBY activist and Harvard Kennedy School student, broadly agree on the issues. Miller and Connolly agree that the legislature needs to overhaul its transparency rules and laws, that Massachusetts needs to build more housing, and that the state’s recent moves towards taxing the rich are a good thing. Where Miller stands out is his background: he resigned his job as a data scientist for the federal government in January 2025, refusing to work for the Trump administration, and he brings a civil servant’s eye for the nuts and bolts of government services to the race. Connolly should be absolutely fine, but Miller is running a spirited race (and raising a little bit of money, too) and could show up again in the future.

27th Middlesex House

Somerville | Harris+76.9

Olivia Gilligan-Corsetti vs. Ben Ewen-Campen

This seat is open due to Erika Uyterhoeven’s run for state Senate, and there’s a clear choice to keep the seat in progressive hands: Somerville city councilor Ben Ewen-Campen. Formerly affiliated with DSA before Boston DSA decided to dump most of its electeds for inscrutable reasons, Ewen-Campen is still firmly on the leftward end of politics in Somerville and in Massachusetts writ large. He’s also a clear favorite here, backed by a broad spectrum of labor unions and progressive groups as well as numerous Somerville elected officials. Former Maura Healey aide Olivia Gilligan-Corsetti doesn’t have much money and is, in her own telling, only running because she discovered Ewen-Campen would otherwise go uncontested. Ewen-Campen should win this one in a walk, especially considering Somerville’s strong progressive bent.

30th Middlesex House

Woburn, Reading | Harris+21.9

Richard Haggerty (i) vs. Jadon Wilson

State Rep. Rich Haggerty should be safe against Jadon Wilson, whose ultra-low-budget campaign mostly consists of a website and an Instagram page, but Wilson did manage to get CAIR onboard.

32nd Middlesex House

Melrose, Malden, Wakefield | Harris+39.1

John Higgins vs. Leila Migliorelli

The primary for Kate Lipper-Garabedian’s open seat is a relatively sleepy affair. Former Melrose City Council President Leila Migliorelli has progressive groups, unions, and local electeds united behind her, and she has a large financial advantage to boot. Congressional caseworker Jay Higgins seems nice enough—and also seems headed for a decisive defeat, despite his attempts to appeal to progressive and anti-establishment voters with nods towards the audit and single-payer healthcare.

34th Middlesex House

Somerville, Medford | Harris+60.1

Will Mbah vs. Christopher Oates vs. Paul Ruseau

The open seat of state Senate candidate Christine Barber seems decently likely to fall into the hands of someone to her left. Chris Oates is the most vague of the three candidates, and he’s also the least likely to win, with the fewest endorsements and the least money of anyone in the race. Medford School Committeeman Paul Ruseau and Somerville City Councilor Will Mbah are each backed by plenty of local officials in their hometowns, though Mbah has more labor support (though by the same token, Ruseau, backed by the Massachusetts Teachers Association, is not without labor support himself.) Either Mbah or Ruseau would be an upgrade on Barber and less likely to side with legislative leadership; the more moderate Massachusetts establishment seems to have fumbled this one.

6th Norfolk House

Canton, Avon, Stoughton | Harris+22.1

Stephen Cavey vs. Lisa Lopez vs. Michael Loughran

The incumbent here, state Rep. Bill Galvin, is not to be confused with Secretary of the Commonwealth Bill Galvin (and not related to him, either.) Thankfully, Galvin, a conservative Democrat friendly with Republicans who had survived prior attempts to primary him out, is hanging it up this year, giving this stretch of Boston suburbia a chance to elect someone better.

Galvin and most labor unions are backing Canton Select Board member Michael Loughran, who is vague on policy. Progressives—and a majority of Loughran’s current colleagues on the Canton Select Board—are instead backing former Canton Select Board member Lisa Lopez, who has progressive groups in her corner because she is at least somewhat committed to progressive legislation and state House reform (and, moreover, she's the only candidate interested in signaling she’s a progressive.) Rounding out the field is Stoughton Select Board chair Steve Cavey, who has the least money, the least endorsements, and probably the least chance of winning. (Lopez’s campaign has a modest financial advantage over Loughran’s; both have raised and spent a lot more money than Cavey.)

7th Norfolk House

Milton, Randolph | Harris+43.9

Richard Wells Jr. (i) vs. Clinton Graham

Longtime Milton police officer Richard Wells was one of the more conservative options when he won his first term in 2024, though he’s mostly been a party-line vote in his single term in office. Clinton Graham is a local community activist backed by local and statewide Black leaders in this heavily Black district. (Wells is white.) Graham is clearly not a progressive (see his endorsement from Bud Williams) and has raised very little money in this race, but demographics may prove problematic for Wells—or he could win comfortably because Graham is not a very strong candidate.

4th Plymouth House

Scituate, Marshfield, Norwell | Harris+14.9

Patrick Joseph Kearney (i) vs. Kathleen “Katie” Baxter

State Rep. Patrick Joseph Kearney, a fisherman and Navy Reserve officer, faces his own former legislative aide, Katie Baxter. Baxter, a librarian and educator, hasn’t raised much or garnered any notable endorsements or press coverage, and Kearney, the son of former Democratic state Rep. turned conservative independent congressional candidate Maryanne Lewis, is a low-profile backbencher who votes with the party. There’s no reason to think Kearney is in any particular danger.

10th Plymouth House

Eastern Brockton | Harris+39.3

Michelle DuBois (i) vs. Tony Rodrigues

State Rep. Michelle DuBois is a low-profile backbencher representing parts of the city of Brockton. Brockton School Committee Member Tony Rodrigues’s campaign seems to consist of a Facebook page and some news articles about his ongoing beef with the Brockton Boys & Girls Club. DuBois and Rodrigues have gotten intensely personal, with Rodrigues calling DuBois a member of the old guard and DuBois calling Rodrigues a misogynist, but the policy stakes here are hard to suss out and likely low since neither of these candidates is a progressive by any stretch.

15th Suffolk House

Boston: Jamaica Plain | Harris+77.9

Sam Montaño (i) vs. Steven Berry

Rep. Sam Montaño has been a very reliable progressive ever since winning their first election in 2022 and becoming the first nonbinary Massachusetts legislator. It makes sense: Jamaica Plain is one of Boston’s most left-leaning neighborhoods, and that’s how you win here. It’s good news, then, that unsuccessful 2025 Boston City Council candidate Steven Berry got just 12% last year and is plainly not even bothering to run a campaign this time around.

19th Suffolk House

Winthrop and coastal Revere | Harris+14.9

Jeffrey Turco (i) vs. LeeAllen Meyer

Jeffrey Turco is very literally just a Republican. He has voted for Donald Trump, donated to several Republican candidates and PACs, and made a bunch of wild off-color Facebook posts (of the Your Racist Uncle variety) about Democratic politicians. He opposes abortion rights and votes like it. The tragedy is that he’s been able to stick around in the state House despite that, ever since winning a slim plurality in a 2021 special election after two candidates running to his left split the vote. Some progressive groups are hoping to take him down with paramedic LeeAllen Meyer. Meyer’s campaign is focused on Turco’s odious conservatism above all else, highlighting his opposition to abortion alongside the Trump support, but Meyer is also clearly running to align with the state House’s progressive bloc, with legislative transparency being a recurring topic. Turco has a base of support, particularly in affluent, mostly white Winthrop; Republicans can pull Democratic ballots to reelect him as well. However, Turco’s Trump support means he’ll never be truly safe in a Democratic primary, and this is somehow his first primary since winning that 2021 special.

14th Worcester House

Northeastern Worcester and West Boylston | Harris+26.7

James O’Day (i) vs. Barur Rajeshkumar

Worcester’s conservative Democratic old guard has lost just a bit of its grip on local politics, and they’re mad as hell about it and trying to clean out anyone who isn’t in the club. That includes longtime state Rep. James O’Day, a quiet liberal stalwart who sponsored Massachusetts’s Fair Share Amendment, which hiked taxes on the rich to fund education and transit. Stepping up to challenge him from the right, with the backing of Worcester Mayor Joe Petty and much of the city council, is West Boylston Select Board Member Barur “Raj” Rajeshkumar. Rajeshkumar’s entire issues page was very obviously written by an LLM, which is disqualifying clown shit; if you outsource your policy positions to a chatbot, what’s the point of voting for you?

15th Worcester House

Central Worcester | Harris+31.4

Mary Keefe (i) vs. Ron Waddell

Nonprofit founder Ron Waddell is another candidate of the Worcester old guard (this time also backed by the New England PBA.) His website is also clearly AI slop. Can you people please be so fucking serious right now. I’m so tired. Write your own websiiiiiiiiiiiiittrjejgksjdjaksjffjjfhaaaaaAAAA

Anyway, state Rep. Mary Keefe is another normal liberal who is vastly better than whatever this shit is.