Here’s where the Massachusetts State House stands after the election
The balance of power on Beacon Hill appears to have swayed little.
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While former Vice President Joe Biden carried the vast majority of votes in Massachusetts Tuesday, local Republicans largely did not face the same scorn from voters’ rejection of President Donald Trump.
Preliminary results late on election night showed the balance of power in the state Legislature’s two chambers will change little — not enough to drastically alter Democrats’ supermajorities, The State House News reports. Notably, only one quarter of the 200 seats up for grabs were even contested.
In the Senate, Democrat John Cronin, of Lunenburg, declared victory over incumbent Republican Sen. Dean Tran for the Worcester and Middlesex District. A win for Cronin reduces the GOP’s clout in the upper chamber to three seats.
“This is a campaign that did the work,” Cronin said in a statement posted to Facebook after midnight Wednesday. “We phone-banked. We text-banked. We stood out. We canvassed. We worked and organized and spread a positive vision for our region’s future.”
https://www.facebook.com/johncronin2020/posts/179807003746032
Results later Wednesday morning showed a tight race: Cronin carried 50.5 percent of the vote to Tran’s 49.5 percent, with 100 percent of the district reporting.
With a Cronin victory, the seat will be returned to Democrats, who held it from 1993 until Tran’s win in a 2017 special election, according to the News Service.
But Republicans were able to make a gain and stave off some Democratic challengers in the House, where Democrats have recently held about 80% of the 160 seats.
In the 4th Hampden District, the GOP flipped a seat left vacant after former Democratic state Rep. John Velis was elected to the state Senate in May.
Kelly Pease, a retired Army Officer and former Republican legislative aide from Westfield, bested Democrat Matthew Garlo and Independent Ethan Flaherty with 49.4 percent of the vote.
“The biggest thing is I’m humbled by the people of Westfield who selected me as their representative,” Pease said, according to The Springfield Republican. “Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat or independent I’m here to represent all of you.”
Republican Steven Xiarhos, Yarmouth’s deputy police chief, defeated Democrat James Dever in the 5th Barnstable District by 1,167 votes, CommonWealth magazine reports. Dever, a lawyer and Sandwich School Committee member, conceded.
“For over a year, we’ve been working together, every one of you, doing our standout and knocking on doors, and you know what? We did it,” Xiarhos told supporters, according to the News Service.
Dever noted to CommonWealth, however, that the race was the closest Democrats have come to winning the district in decades.
“I wish Steven well, he’s a good man,” Dever said.
Republican state Sen. Patrick O’Connor, of Weymouth, held steady to win a fourth term against Democrat Meg Wheeler, carrying the Plymouth and Norfolk District with 55 percent of the vote.
Meanwhile, in the 2nd Essex District, Republican state Rep. Leonard Mirra, of Georgetown, was able to hold off challenger Christina Eckert, a Boxford Democrat, who conceded late Tuesday night, according to the News Service.
Mirra told CommonWealth though that the presidential election “made things more difficult for (local) Republicans this year.”
“Lots of Democrats came out to vote for president and voted straight party line for the blue team,” Mirra said. “I was fortunate to get a lot of those votes.”
Thank you for the trust you’ve placed in me for another term.
To @EckertforRep, congratulations on a hard fought race. Your work in our community has not gone unnoticed.
The fight for our communities begins tomorrow. I’m ready to get to work. pic.twitter.com/byrYL5INB9
— Lenny Mirra (@LennyMirra) November 4, 2020
Democrats flipped a few seats of their own in the House.
Barnstable Democrat Kip Diggs defeated incumbent Republican William Crocker, also of Barnstable, in the 2nd Barnstable District, 52.3 to 44 percent. Diggs is the first Black legislator to represent Cape Cod in the State House, according to Democratic party officials.
That’s another FLIP! Kip Diggs won in the 2nd Barnstable. Congratulations to Kip on a historic win–Kip will be the first Black legislator to represent the Cape in the State House. pic.twitter.com/OozsMomdJA
— MA Democratic Party (@MassDems) November 4, 2020
On Wednesday, Adam Scanlon, a Democratic North Attleboro Town Council member, declared victory against fellow Town Council member John Simmons, a Republican seeking to keep the 14th Bristol District under GOP domain after the retirement of state Rep. Elizabeth Poirier, CommonWealth reports.
Scanlon, who was leading with 53.8 percent of the vote with 83 percent of the district reporting, told supporters in a Facebook post that Simmons conceded the race.
“This campaign has been the experience of a lifetime, I am truly blessed to have met and worked alongside many different grassroots supporters in our Commonwealth,” Scanlon said. “While we won’t know the absolute final result of our race for some time due to technical difficulties and late mail in ballots, we do know that we have won due to current trends in the results we have so far.”
https://www.facebook.com/adamscanlonstaterep/posts/3340438989408147
Danvers Democrat Sally Kerans, who previously served from 1991 to 1997, grabbed her seat again in the 13th Essex District after Democrat Ted Speliotis, her successor, said earlier this year that he will retire.
Kerans notched 46 percent of the vote against Republican Robert May and Independents William Bates, Jason Guida, and Christopher Keohane.
According to the News Service, state Rep. Susannah Whipps, the House’s sole Independent, emerged victorious against Democratic challenger William LaRose in the 2nd Franklin District.
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