NewBostonPost gave conservatives six races to watch in the state Tuesday night. Most of the races featured a conservative challenger running on something different from what most candidates in their respective races were running on, while a couple of other races were notable for different reasons.
No conservatives won in any of the races.
Here is a look at how those six races went:
1. Worcester
Shanel Soucy finished eighth out of eight candidates running for six school committee seats in the city; she got 5,079 votes (8.5 percent).
She gained notoriety earlier in the year for her opposition to Worcester’s new graphic sex education curriculum and for her support for the opt-out campaign that resulted in about 3,000 children ditching it — about one-in-eight K-12 public schoolers in the city.
Soucy will not be joining the Worcester School Committee, however.
2. Amesbury
Incumbent Democratic mayor Kassandra Gove had no problem defeating liberal Republican state representative James Kelcourse. Grove got 3,611 votes (61 percent) and Kelcourse got 2,304 votes (39 percent).
Kelcourse irked conservatives when he voted for the ROE Act abortion expansion bill last year. The American Conservative Union gave him a 41 percent rating in 2020.
The result is that Kelcourse remains a liberal Republican state representative. No special election will be needed to replace him.
3. Boston
Former state representative and city councilor Althea Garrison finished eighth out of eight candidates for at-large city councilor race, with 23,720 votes (7.07 percent).
Garrison, who is black, transgender, and conservative, previously served as a Boston city councilor in 2019. That’s because Garrison came in a distant fifth place in the 2017 race and at-large city councilor Ayanna Pressley ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018 and won. The rules said that the next highest vote getter would serve the rest of the term.
Garrison isn’t in position for that to happen now this upcoming term. Three other candidates who didn’t win one of the four at-large seats finished higher than Garrison did.
4. Franklin
Dashe Videira finished 12th out of 12 candidates running for seven seats on Franklin’s school committee with 1,053 votes (3.4 percent).
She spoke out against the use of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye in a class in the town’s public high school; it’s a controversial book banned by many school districts in which the 11-year-old protagonist is raped and impregnated by her father, amid romance-novel-level language. She also supports parents having more say in their children’s education.
Videira will not be joining the town’s school committee.
5. Fitchburg
Olivia Tran, daughter of former state Senator Dean Tran, ran a competitive race in Ward 6 for city council. She lost by 36 votes.
Derrick James Cruz got 390 votes (52.4 percent) against her 354 votes (47.6 percent).
Tran didn’t run on any socially conservative issues. Rather, he focus was on maintaining roads, parks, schools, and trying to attract businesses to the city. She graduated from high school earlier this year.
While she didn’t win the race, the competitive result potentially sets her up for runs for office in the future.
6. Waltham
Renee Arena finished in fourth place out of four candidates running for three seats. She got 2,190 votes (14.1 percent).
She wanted to help students find pathways other than college to make a living as an adult, opposed critical race theory, and wanted parents to have more control over their children’s education.
Arena will not be joining the city’s school committee.
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