GOP’s Matthew Muratore Joins Democrat Dylan Fernandes In Open Massachusetts Senate Seat Race On Cape and Plymouth Area

“It’s a very purple district now. And I see myself as fitting that mold,” Muratore told State House News Service on Tuesday. January 23.

The district stretches from Pembroke down to Mashpee, including the towns of Plymouth and Falmouth. Prior to Moran, it was represented by Republican state Senator Viriato “Vinny” deMacedo of Plymouth. State Representative Dylan Fernandes, a Falmouth Democrat, announced his Senate candidacy in December 2023.

Muratore said he’s consulted with “dozens” of people and has put together a plan.

“Now we’re starting to talk about the issues, and the issues are what we’re seeing right now,” Muratore said. “It’s about the economy. It’s about affordability, with regard to housing, with regard to health care, education. It’s about the Right To Shelter law, the 9C cuts that we’re doing, there’s a lot of revenue issues that we’re having.”

Citing his budgetary experience both as a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and as a private sector nursing home administrator, Muratore called the current fiscal landscape “a concerning time.”

He planned to formally kick off his state Senate campaign at an event Tuesday night in his hometown of Plymouth. He also has events lined up Wednesday, January 24 and Thursday, January 25 in Sandwich and Falmouth, respectively.

“The people of Plymouth have been very, very good to me all throughout,” Muratore said, referring to his time as a selectman and state representative. “And I think transferring what I’ve done in Plymouth as a state rep to other communities on this side of the bridge and the other side of the bridge, I think will bode well for us. I think we’ll do very well.”

The race could prove a test of the MassGOP’s efforts to compete in moderate districts under new party leadership, following Republican then-state representative Peter Durant’s (R-Spencer) special election win in 2023 that flipped an open Worcester-area Senate seat.

Governor Maura Healey has endorsed Fernandes, who served as political director on Healey’s first campaign for state attorney general in 2014, then worked for the attorney general’s office before joining the House.

Fernandes’s campaign account had a balance north of $120,000 at the close of 2023, according to campaign finance records. He said January 2 that he had raised nearly $84,000 in four weeks to support his Senate bid.

Muratore had around $21,000 in his campaign war chest at the end of December 2023.