State Representative Josh Cutler (D-Pembroke) was able to secure another two-year term when the election results came in on Tuesday night, fending off pro-life Republican Tatyana Semyrog of Duxbury in the Sixth Plymouth District.
Cutler, who supports legal abortion, received 59 percent of the vote while Semyrog got 41 percent. Cutler received 15,810 votes and Semyrog got 11,006.
Semyrog, a breast cancer survivor, and widowed mother of three who came to the United States as a Soviet Union refugee, campaigned as a pro-police candidate and in support of lower taxes. She heavily criticized Cutler for voting in favor of a police reform bill that would restrict “no-knock warrants,” eliminate qualified immunity for decertified officers, and prevent school officials from giving information about students to law enforcement agencies. Semyrog often said during her campaign that she wanted to “defend, not defund” the police. She heavily campaigned throughout her district, knocking on 8,000 doors during the election cycle.
This was Semyrog’s first run for public office, although she had previous experience in politics. When she was younger, she worked as a congressional aide in constituent services for three members of Congress: U.S. Senator Scott Brown (R-Massachusetts, at the time), U.S. Senator Kay Hagan (D-North Carolina), and U.S. Representative John Olver (D-Massachusetts).
Semyrog worked out of Olver’s office in Holyoke from December 2002 to August 2005; Hagan’s office in Charlotte, North Carolina from July 2009 to May 2010; and Brown’s Boston office from May 2010 to May 2011.
If Cutler serves out his full term, it means he will have been in the Massachusetts House of Representatives for a decade.
First elected to represent the Sixth Plymouth District in 2012, Cutler won on his third attempt running for state representative. In 1998, he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Party’s nomination in the Third Plymouth District, receiving 45.1 percent of the vote in the primary to former state Representative Garrett Bradley’s (D-Hingham) 49.9 percent. Then in 2010, he lost to then-incumbent Republican Daniel Webster in the Sixth Plymouth, 51.3 percent to 48.6 percent. Cutler won the Sixth Plymouth seat in 2012 when Webster decided to not seek re-election. Cutler won with 55 percent of the vote in 2012, 54 percent in 2014, 64 percent in 2016, and ran unopposed in 2018.
The district includes Pembroke, Hanson, and most of Duxbury.
