> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.newbostonpost.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Massachusetts Legislative Primaries Offer Rare Tests for Incumbents - URL: https://www.newbostonpost.com/massachusetts-legislative-primary-incumbent-races-2026/ - Published: 2026-08-06T21:39:28.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-06T21:39:28.000Z - Description: Most Massachusetts lawmakers face no primary challenge this year, but a handful of contested races could shape the ideological direction of Beacon Hill after the Sept. 1 election. - Author: State House News Service - Tags: News, Politics, Massachusetts, State Government, #lead, #morning-bell, morning-bell, #3 Sam Drysdale State House News Service A wave of anti-incumbent sentiment is putting veteran lawmakers to the test and the Sept. 1 primary elections are setting up as a referendum on whether progressive challengers can notch symbolic victories or if Beacon Hill will tilt further toward its institutional center. "I worry about everybody," House Speaker Ron Mariano said in July when asked if there are any races he's worried about in the upcoming elections. "It's a very strange, very strange year. We have progressives running against more progressives. ... So we don't have the typical alignments that you'd get in a political year." Democrats might feel more threatened by progressives than Republicans, though still only 26 incumbents face opposition on Sept. 1\. In only one district of the state is a fellow Republican running against a sitting GOP lawmaker for his seat. Of the state's 200 legislative districts, 142 have only a Democratic candidate running, and 13 only a Republican, meaning the primary winner is all but assured a seat on Beacon Hill come November's general election. Of the 400 possible primary elections around the state (one for each party, in each district), only 42 are actually contested, according to the finalized [candidate](https://www.statehousenews.com/2026-democratic-state-primary-candidates/pdf%5F758e4fd4-1221-4337-ba32-1f542be7d892.html?ref=newbostonpost.com) [list](https://www.statehousenews.com/2026-republican-state-primary-candidates/pdf%5Ffd2acde2-6975-4ece-bf56-a7a310f15a55.html?ref=newbostonpost.com) from Secretary of State William Galvin's office. Democrats account for 37 of those 42 contested primaries, underscoring that nearly all of the intraparty battles are unfolding on the side of the political aisle that has controlled the Legislature since 1958 and will carry that forward into 2027\. Democrats currently outnumber Republicans 166-30, with Rep. Susannah Whipps of Athol serving as the state's one independent lawmaker. Just 44 districts will feature a candidate from both major parties on the general election ballot. Only one district of 200 feature primaries where both parties have more than one candidate — making the race for the open 9th Bristol District seat the sole opportunity for voters in both parties to actually choose their nominees rather than have them decided by default. The numbers reinforce Massachusetts's status as one of the nation's least competitive legislative states. They also mean the races that are competitive bear watching. Democrats will retain overwhelming majorities in 2027-2028 but contested races may influence the ideological direction of the House and Senate and will test the political standing of several veteran incumbents. The anti-incumbent mood has barely penetrated the Legislature's highest ranks. Of the chamber's top Democratic leaders, the House and Senate Ways and Means chairs, and the top Republican leaders who are actually seeking another term, only two face primary challengers: Senate President Pro Tempore William Brownsberger and Senate Majority Whip Michael Rush. Every Democratic leader in the House, including Mariano, Majority Leader Michael Moran and House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz, drew no primary opposition. Senate President Karen Spilka, Majority Leader Cindy Creem, Senate Ways and Means Chair Michael Rodrigues and the remainder of the Senate Democratic leadership team are also set to advance uncontested through the primary. On the Republican side, Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr and Assistant Minority Leader Patrick O'Connor are unopposed. House Minority Leader Brad Jones and Assistant Minority Leader Kimberly Ferguson are retiring, creating an opportunity for someone in the House GOP caucus to reshape party leadership in that branch. Brownsberger and Rush are the only members of the Legislature's top leadership ranks whose standing with primary voters will be tested this fall. Among the highest-profile primary contests are two open Senate seats north of Boston that have attracted crowded Democratic fields after Sens. Pat Jehlen of Somerville and Jason Lewis of Winchester opted not to run for reelection. Jehlen's departure after two decades in the Senate has produced the busiest legislative primary on the ballot, in a district known for its politically active constituency. Four Democrats are competing for the 2nd Middlesex District seat, which spans Somerville, Medford and parts of Cambridge and Winchester: Reps. Christine Barber and Erika Uyterhoeven, Somerville City Councilor Matt McLaughlin and Cambridge City Councilor Burhan Azeem. Former Winchester School Committee member Thomas Hopcroft dropped out of the race last week, though he is still on the ballot. The race has ripple effects beyond the Senate. The Senate bids of Barber and Uyterhoeven — the latter of whom has urged her party's leadership to open up legislative processes — have opened competition for their House seats. They are vying for one of the Senate's most progressive seats, with the two sitting representatives looking to expand their constituency and local elected officials arguing they would bring a different governing style to Beacon Hill. Lewis's decision to not seek another term prompted a three-way Democratic contest in the 5th Middlesex District among Rep. Kate Lipper-Garabedian, Carey McDonald and Ryan O'Malley. Like the Jehlen race, there is no Republican candidate, meaning the Sept. 1 winner will almost certainly head to the Senate in January. Several senators also face meaningful primary tests. Brownsberger, a longtime member of Senate leadership, is defending his Suffolk and Middlesex seat against Democratic challenger Daniel Lander, who was a senior policy adviser in Boston Mayor Michelle Wu's administration. The district is a mix of urban Boston neighborhoods and the suburban communities outside the city. Lander is positioning the campaign in the terms of that divide. Lander lives in Boston's Fenway neighborhood and Brownsberger in the town of Belmont. The contest has become a proxy for broader tensions between the mayor and Senate leaders following the Senate's rejection of Boston's property tax-classification proposal, which Brownsberger helped oppose. A similar dynamic is playing out in the 1st Suffolk District, where Sen. Nick Collins of South Boston faces Democratic challengers Latoya Gayle and Juwan Skeens. Gayle is also aligned with Wu's political orbit, creating a second closely watched race between an incumbent senator and a challenger backed by many of the mayor's supporters. Rush also faces an unusual challenge. The West Roxbury Democrat has not faced either a primary or general election opponent since 2012, but will appear on a contested primary ballot this year against Democratic challenger Persis Yu. Yu is a civil rights attorney and consumer protection advocate, a second generation immigrant who lives in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston. After more than a decade without an electoral test, the race offers one of the few opportunities this cycle to gauge whether voters remain satisfied with an incumbent whose district has experienced significant demographic change over that period. Democratic leadership, which wants to protect incumbents within its party, often helps those facing a challenge with legislative wins to tout on the campaign trail. Rush scored a major win for his district last week when the Legislature passed a bill giving Massachusetts the authority to take the property occupied by the under-construction Norwood Hospital by eminent domain. In a district right next door, Sen. William Driscoll rounds off the list of four Senate incumbents with primary challengers. Senate Republicans face no intraparty challenges. In the race to represent Braintree, Easton, Milton, Randolph, Stoughton and West Bridgewater, Driscoll faces two opponents from his hometown of Milton: local business owner Tony King and attorney Michael Zullas. Milton has been one of the battlegrounds for the MBTA Communities Act, which forces denser zoning mandates near transit in communities with MBTA access. Milton has resisted implementing the law, arguing that a trolley, not the subway, runs into the town. King says he would "oppose low-impact, high-burden developments" on his website. Driscoll has advocated reclassifying the trolley under the law, to reduce the required zoning density. Zullas's campaign site focuses on "legislative transparency," saying he is "committed to deep reform, accountability, and the openness that every voter deserves." The incumbent senators facing primary challenges form a nearly unbroken chain of districts clustered around greater Boston. Starting to the south, Collins' First Suffolk district borders Driscoll's Norfolk, Plymouth, and Bristol district, which in turn connects directly to Rush's Norfolk and Suffolk district. From there, only Brookline — represented by Creem in the Norfolk and Middlesex district — stands between Rush's district and Brownsberger's Suffolk and Middlesex district. In the House, one of the [most closely watched rematches](https://www.statehousenews.com/news/legislature/cambridge-democrats-spar-in-rematch-of-tight-2024-election/article%5F5244adc7-c698-4e11-81a8-155af1e3f597.html?ref=newbostonpost.com) returns to Cambridge, where Rep. Marjorie Decker again faces Evan MacKay after surviving the 2024 Democratic primary by just 41 votes following a recount. House leadership has rallied behind Decker, while MacKay has portrayed the Legislature as insular and insufficiently transparent — a repeated theme challengers have brought against incumbents. Transparency and institutional reform have also emerged as central themes in another House primary involving an incumbent progressive. Rep. Mike Connolly of Cambridge faces Harvard Kennedy School student and data scientist Neil Miller. Meanwhile, Rep. Samatha Montaño of Boston's Jamaica Plain and Roslindale neighborhoods is being challenged by Democrat Steven Berry. Neither Connolly nor Montaño fits the profile of the moderate or establishment incumbent often targeted by progressive insurgents. They're widely regarded as members of the Legislature's progressive wing, with records supporting labor priorities and criminal justice reform and Connolly occasionally voting against leadership. Miller argued in a debate covered by the Cambridge Day that even legislators who [share many policy positions](https://www.cambridgeday.com/2026/07/10/connolly-miller-agree-transparency-accountability/?ref=newbostonpost.com) can become too closely tied to an institution they view as insufficiently accountable — making the contest less of an ideological fight than a test of whether some voters in some Massachusetts's safest Democratic districts are looking for generational change. "There are some very strange races that are sort of hard to predict because you have people coming from the same end of the spectrum," Mariano said in July. "So we just have to give them the support that they ask for and hope to get them all back." On the other side of the coin, a Democrat promising to bring a "progressive agenda" to Beacon Hill has set up a primary challenge against one of the party's most moderate representatives, Rep. Jeffrey Turco of Withrop. Local paramedic LeeAllen Meyer, also of Winthrop, has argued that Turco should not represent the district where Kamala Harris took 56% of the 2024 major-party presidential vote, as Turco himself has said he [voted for Republican President Donald Trump in 2016](https://www.wbur.org/news/2021/03/11/jeff-turco-bob-deleo-seat-state-representative?ref=newbostonpost.com), according to [the Winthrop Pilot](https://winthroppilot.com/2026/03/19/winthrop-paramedic-meyer-challenges-turco/?ref=newbostonpost.com). Turco was also one of the few Democrats who voted broke with his party last month and voted against advancing a bill to expand abortion access. "I stand against politicians that will impose their religious beliefs onto people's healthcare accessibility" Meyer said of Turco's stance on abortion policy, according to the Pilot. "EMS providers often see first-hand the negative effects on the ground of bad public policy." Turco has amassed a massive campaign war chest, entering the summer with the most cash-on-hand of any representative other than Michlewitz, with $359,475\. Meyer had $6,336 in the bank as of June. Another incumbent, Rep. John Lawn of Watertown, will also face an opponent in September. Newton City Councilor Alison Leary is taking on the powerful chairman of the Health Care Financing Committee, who has long had the ear of Mariano — but was [bypassed](https://www.statehousenews.com/news/healthcare/house-health-care-chair-bypassed-for-major-healthcare-talks/article%5Fcac3ffd5-1477-4e2e-ac64-79f3c213425e.html?ref=newbostonpost.com) last week to lead negotiations on a major health care reform bill, after serving as the chamber's point person on that issue for years. Lawn and Leary faced off in a fiery debate in July, during which Leary said residents in Newton's Nonantum neighborhood "don't want housing, they don't want immigrants." Lawn publicly called out her remarks, and Leary has since given a formal [apology](https://www.wgbh.org/news/politics/2026-07-27/newton-city-councilor-apologizes-after-saying-her-constituents-dont-want-immigrants?ref=newbostonpost.com). Gov. Maura Healey [endorsed](https://www.newtonbeacon.org/healey-endorses-lawn-in-10th-middlesex-primary/?ref=newbostonpost.com) Lawn in the escalating battle for the 10th Middlesex seat. Longtime Springfield-area Rep. Angelo Puppolo Jr. faces one of the most serious primary challenges of his two-decade legislative career from Democrat Michael Lachenmeyer. Lachenmeyer, a 27-year-old progressive, has argued the district needs more aggressive action on housing and affordability, while casting Puppolo as emblematic of an entrenched establishment. Puppolo also entered the summer with one of the Legislature's largest campaign accounts, and the race has drawn attention as another test of whether anti-incumbent sentiment can overcome the institutional advantages enjoyed by veteran lawmakers. Western Massachusetts also has an open-seat contest in the 1st Franklin District, where former Rep. Natalie Blais's resignation has produced a Democratic primary between Greenfield City Council President Lora Wondolowski and former Blais aide Corinne Coryat. Independent Amy Lavalle has already secured a spot on the November ballot. At a recent Sunderland Democratic Town Committee forum, per [the Daily Hampshire Gazette](https://gazettenet.com/2026/08/01/1st-franklin-district-candidates/?ref=newbostonpost.com), Wondolowski emphasized her decades of advocacy and nonprofit leadership, while Coryat pointed to her experience handling constituent issues in Blais's office and argued she could deliver "a new generation of leadership" for the district. On Cape Ann, newly elected Rep. Andrew "Dru" Tarr is defending his seat almost immediately after winning it. Tarr captured the 5th Essex District in a spring special election following the death of Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante. Less than six months later, he faces Democrat Sarah Wilkinson in the primary before a possible November rematch with Republican Christina Delisio, making him one of the few freshmen legislators navigating both a primary and general election in the same year. Wilkinson, a longtime Rockport Select Board member, has centered her campaign on school funding, local decision-making and economic development on Cape Ann, giving Democratic voters an early opportunity to decide whether to stick with the new incumbent who worked for nearly a decade in Ferrante's office, or opt for a municipal leader with local government experience. One of the most unusual races on the ballot is unfolding in the 2nd Plymouth District, where Rep. John Gaskey is the only Republican incumbent in Massachusetts facing a primary challenge from within his own party. Mark Townsend, a Carver Select Board member and Housing Authority chair, is challenging the first-term lawmaker, while Democrat Sarah Hewins waits in the general election. Although Republicans have other contested primaries this year for open seats and in the First Middlesex for the chance to challenge incumbent Rep. Margaret Scarsdale, Gaskey stands alone as the only sitting GOP legislator with a Sept. 1 opponent. The race also highlights ideological differences within the Massachusetts Republican Party. Gaskey has frequently broken from both Democrats and Republicans on high-profile votes, including issues involving vaccines and transgender athletes, while Townsend has emphasized constituent services, local aid and State House accountability. Several primary races in Bristol County could shape political momentum in the southeast part of the state. Democrat Rep. Lisa Field is seeking a full term in the 3rd Bristol District after winning last year's special election by just 15 votes following a recount against Republican Larry Quintal. Before she can prepare for another November matchup with Quintal, however, Field must get past Taunton Police Chief Edward Walsh in the Democratic primary. Walsh entered the race after a dispute surrounding legislation to extend his mandatory retirement age stalled on Beacon Hill, adding a personal layer to the contest over one of the state's few truly competitive swing districts. Walsh pulled Democratic nomination papers shortly after Field declined to take a position on the home-rule petition that would have allowed him to remain police chief beyond the mandatory retirement age, according to [reporting by the Taunton Daily Gazette](http://www.tauntongazette.com/story/news/local/2026/04/02/taunton-police-chief-ed-walsh-primary-state-representative-democrat-lisa-field-elecition/89434105007/?ref=newbostonpost.com). The district has alternated between Democratic and Republican representation in recent years. Another Bristol County contest worth watching is the open 9th Bristol District, where Rep. Christopher Markey's retirement has created the only race featuring competitive primaries in both parties before a November showdown. Democrats Edward Pacheco and Stephen Medeiros are competing for their party's nomination, while Republicans Chester Tam and Henry Bousquet are vying for theirs in a district viewed as one of the GOP's better pickup opportunities. The Dartmouth-New Bedford seat is a test of the Republican Party's effort to build on gains in Bristol County, where Republican Sen. Kelly Dooner flipped a Senate seat last cycle and Trump approached half the vote in the 2024 presidential election. For all of the importance an individual race may be to a certain district, the broader picture remains largely unchanged. Most incumbents are cruising to reelection, and legislative control is not in question. The scarcity of contested races also raises broader questions that extend beyond this year's election results and have lingered throughout a legislative session marked by sharp criticism of Beacon Hill. Supporters of proposed statewide ballot questions have sought to overhaul legislative stipends that critics describe as "loyalty pay," subject the Legislature to the public records law and replace Massachusetts's party primaries with an all-party primary system. Many lawmakers have pushed back forcefully, arguing the proposals unfairly characterize the institution. They have also pointed to their repeated electoral success as evidence that constituents approve of their work. But with most incumbents facing no opponent at all — and many districts offering voters only one major-party candidate — this year's primary elections provide only limited evidence of how broadly voters are willing to translate dissatisfaction with the institution into challenges against the people who run it.