Miranda wins Democratic primary for state Senate seat; newly drawn voting maps tested
“To some extent, it depends on who does get elected; I think you will see better representation.”
Democratic primary voters in a newly reshaped state Senate district chose state Representative Liz Miranda to represent the heart of Boston’s Black communities, according to unofficial returns early Wednesday morning. With 100 percent of districts reporting, Miranda led the contentious five-way race with 6,541 votes; fellow state Representative Nika Elugardo was in second place, with 5,297 votes.
The vote shut down former state Senator Dianne Wilkerson’s attempt at a political comeback years after she served prison time for attempted extortion. She finished third in the race, with 4,243 votes, followed by the Rev. Miniard Culpepper, a recently retired federal housing attorney, and community activist James Grant. Community organizer Samantha Montaño won a four-way Democratic primary race to fill Elugardo’s House seat, and Christopher J. Worrell, who’s held various roles in local government, prevailed in a three-way Democratic primary contest to succeed Miranda, according to the AP.
Only a small fraction of the state’s 200 legislative seats had competitive races on Tuesday, a testament to the power of incumbency and lopsided strength of the Democratic Party in Massachusetts. Just four contested elections were held for Republican candidates. Across the state, the primary election was also an early test of newly redrawn voting maps that have increased the number of majority-minority districts in the state Senate and House of Representatives — changes put in place after the latest census showed Black, Hispanic, and Asian residents were driving the state’s population growth.
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