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Bernie Sanders Endorses Six Democrats In Massachusetts Legislature Races

November 3, 2020

Bernie Sanders, the democratic socialist U.S. senator from Vermont, put out a list of candidates he endorses last month, including a handful in Massachusetts.

The list from Sanders included three candidates for state representative, and three for state Senate. Here is a look at it:

First Essex: Sanders endorsed Amber Hewett (D-Newburyport) who is running against state Representative James Kelcourse (R-Amesbury). First elected in 2014, Kelcourse has ran in some competitive races including in 2014 when he beat Democrat Edward Cameron by 10 votes.

20th Middlesex: Sanders selected Democrat Michelle Mullet (D-North Reading) in her longshot bid against House minority leader Bradley Jones Jr. (R-North Reading). Mullet is the first candidate to run against Jones since 2008.

Fourth Worcester:  Sanders chose state Representative Natalie Higgins (D-Leominster) over city councilor Frank Ardinger (R-Leominster). Higgins won her 2018 race by double digits (56.2 percent to 43.7 percent), but ran a tight race in 2016 against Republican Richard Marchand. Higgins won that one by 37 votes (50.6 percent to 49.3 percent).

Norfolk, Bristol & Middlesex:  Sanders backed state Senator Becca Rausch (D-Needham), who defeated former state senator Richard Ross (R-Wrentham) in the 2018 general election 51.2 percent to 48.6 percent. Rausch faces Matthew Kelly (R-Franklin), a town councilor, this November.

Plymouth & Norfolk:  Sanders picked Meg Wheeler (D-Cohasset) over state Senator Patrick O’Connor (R-Weymouth), a pro-abortion and anti-school choice Republican. O’Connor won re-election in 2018 with 50.6 percent of the vote to his main opponent’s 43.9 percent.

Worcester & Norfolk:  Sanders went with Christine Crean (D-Milford) over state Senator Ryan Fattman (R-Sutton). Fattman won his 2018 race with 57.9 percent of the vote to his opponent’s 42 percent. Crean got on the November ballot via a write-in campaign, receiving 684 votes out of 25,033 ballots cast in her district’s Democratic primary this past September.


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