Around New England

Left-Wing Candidates Win Milton School Committee Seats Amid Flap Over Race-and-Sexuality Survey of Students

April 27, 2021

Left-of-center candidates won two open seats on the Milton School Committee in a hotly contested race Tuesday.

Elizabeth Carroll and Beverly Ross Denny, who ran as a tandem, each took about 28 percent of the vote, beating out Susannah Hegarty and Kristin Kociol.

The school district’s response to coronavirus and a school survey that asked students at the high school and middle school questions about their sexuality, gender identity, and experiences with racial differences were among the issues in the campaign.

Carroll got 2,778 votes, or about 28 percent. Ross Denny got 2,745 votes, or about 28 percent. Both candidates used the left-friendly term “equity” in their campaign platforms. Each won a three-year term on the school committee.

Kociol got 1,949 votes, or about 20 percent. Hegarty got 1,321 votes, or 13 percent.

Susan Galvin, the Milton town clerk, announced the annual town election results at about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 27.

Turnout was 24.7 percent, Galvin said.

Milton leans left, even by Massachusetts standards. Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in Milton in November 2020 by a margin of 73 to 25 percent. (Statewide, Biden won Massachusetts by a margin of 66 to 32 percent.)