Rayla Campbell has a chance to do something virtually unprecedented in Massachusetts politics.
She will likely find out if she was successful on either Thursday or Friday this week.
The Republican from Randolph ran a sticker/write-in campaign in Massachusetts’s Seventh Congressional District in the state primary election, which concluded on Tuesday, September 1. She needs at least 2,000 votes to make it happen and if she is successful, she will run against Democratic U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Dorchester) this November.
If successful, Campbell will have done something that no major party candidate has done in at least 50 years, according to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s web site.
Before primary day, Campbell told New Boston Post that nearly 1,000 people requested stickers for her campaign. On election day, she said she had about 30 people volunteering for her at various polling places throughout the district. She said she likes her chances of being successful in this effort.
“I’m feeling pretty good,” she told New Boston Post on Tuesday night. “We had a good showing out there, and a lot of support with the thumbs-ups and the beeps from everybody, the MBTA, the police, firefighters, just normal constituents. It was completely amazing.”
“We had people bouncing to different locations,” she continued. “We did find out that some polling locations were closed, so people didn’t know where to vote. Again, that’s the Democrats’ attempt at voter suppression. We got as many people as we possibly could. We had people who already had their stickers. And we had a lot of WalkAways.”
By “WalkAways”, Campbell is referring to the WalkAway Campaign that encourages people to leave the Democratic Party — but not necessarily to join the Republican Party.
Campbell said she is happy to connect with people in an area that typically doesn’t have Republican candidates — especially in a district represented by one of the members of “The Squad.”
“Nobody should ever be unopposed,” she said. “In Massachusetts, we need to stand up and make sure that we have our voices and what we believe as the core people of Massachusetts are represented. Liberty was born here, we’re not going to let it die here.”
“It’s all about the voice and having a choice,” she added. “For people to be able to go out there and to see they have an actual choice that means their voice will be represented, I think that’s what’s made us so successful. We feel really confident going forward.”
The last time a U.S. House candidate won a party’s nomination using a write-in campaign was Silvio Conte, who represented western Massachusetts, in 1982. An incumbent Republican, he got 9,258 votes in the Democratic primary as well as winning his party’s nomination. Records from the Clerk of the House of Representatives list Conte as a Republican and Democrat in the 1982 general election. Ultimately, Conte stuck with the Republican Party — albeit as a liberal.
Other notable efforts include Republican Steven Adam in the state’s First Congressional District in 2004 and Louise Hart in the state’s Fifth Congressional District in 1982, both of which were Republicans. Adam got 660 write-in votes and Hart got 1,230 votes.
Massachusetts Seventh Congressional District — known a the ‘Minority-Majority District.’ Source: Massachusetts Legislature web site
Massachusetts Seventh Congressional District towns and cities:
Middlesex County:
city of Cambridge (Wards 1, 2, and 3; Ward 4, Precinct 1; Ward 5; Ward 10, Precinct 3; Ward 11) (which includes East Cambridge and parts of North Cambridge)
cities of Everett and Somerville
Norfolk County:
town of Milton (Precincts 1, 5, and 10); town of Randolph
Suffolk County:
city of Chelsea
city of Boston (Wards 1 and 2; Ward 3, Precincts 7, 8; Ward 4; Ward 5, Precincts 1, 2, 2A, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10; Ward 7, Precinct 10; Wards 8, 9, and 10; Ward 11, Precincts 1–8; Ward 12; Ward 13, Precincts 1, 2, 4–6, 8, 9; Wards 14 and 15; Ward 16, Precincts 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 11; Wards 17 and 18; Ward 19, Precincts 7, 10–13; Ward 20, Precinct 3; Wards 21 and 22);
City of Boston Wards
Matching Wards With Neighborhood
Ward 1: East Boston
Ward 2: Charlestown
Ward 3, Precincts 7 and 8: South End and Chinatown
Ward 4: Fenway and Kenmore Square
Ward 5, Precincts 1, 2, 2A, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10: Back Bay and Bay Village
Ward 7, Precinct 10: small southern portion of South Boston
