Suffolk DA Kevin Hayden appears to have a new primary challenger. She used to work in his office.

Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden appears to have a challenger as he prepares to seek reelection this year. That challenger, attorney Linda Champion, served as a member of Hayden’s leadership team only a few years ago. 

Champion filed paperwork with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance last week indicating that she is gearing up for a run against Hayden. Champion has not officially launched her campaign yet. She and Hayden are the only two candidates who have pulled papers to collect signatures with the secretary of state’s office so far. 

Champion did not return a request for comment Tuesday. Neither did a person listed as her campaign committee chair. 

Champion previously ran for Suffolk district attorney in 2018, placing a distant fifth in the Democratic primary behind eventual winner Rachael Rollins. 

Rollins was sworn in as U.S. Attorney in January 2022, and Hayden was tapped to take her place. He won a full four-year term later that year and named Champion as his municipal and district court legal counsel in early 2023. 

Champion earned her legal degree at Suffolk University and began her career working as an assistant district attorney in the Suffolk District Attorney’s office. She has experience as a private attorney with the firm Murphy, Hesse, Toomey & Lehane, as an adjunct professor at New England Law, and as a lecturer at Suffolk University. 

Champion will need to collect at least 1,000 certified signatures by an April 28 deadline in order to get on the Democratic primary ballot. 

She listed her address as being in Milton when she dissolved her previous campaign. In the new paperwork, she listed her home address as being in Hyde Park. 

Hayden has recently been facing a new wave of scrutiny from police officers and others in the law enforcement community over his decision to charge a Boston police officer with manslaughter. That officer fatally shot an alleged carjacker in Boston last month, authorities said. 

The officer told investigators that he believed another officer was in danger of being run over, but Hayden’s office alleges that the shooting was an “unlawful killing” and that body-worn camera footage shows neither officer was in danger of being struck when the shots were fired. That footage has not yet been released to the public. 

The officer’s attorney said that the manslaughter charge may be tied to the fact that Hayden is running for reelection. Hayden said that the charge has nothing to do with politics. 

The Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association blasted Hayden’s office for its handling of the officer’s arrest and urged members of the public to run against Hayden. 

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