Around New England

Pro-Life Independent Michael Manley To Appear On Ninth Congressional District Ballot This November

July 21, 2020

There will be at least three candidates on the general election ballot in Massachusetts’s Ninth Congressional District this upcoming November.

They include the incumbent Democrat Bill Keating; Republican Helen Brady, who won her appeal after the ballot commission attempted to invalidate all of her signatures; and independent Mike Manley.

Manley announced that he qualified for the ballot n a text message to New Boston Post on Tuesday morning, July 21.

Debra O’Malley, a spokesman for Secretary Bill Galvin’s office, confirmed the information to New Boston Post. She noted that his political designation will be “Coach Team America,” as he previously told New Boston Post.

Unlike the other two candidates, Manley had to gather 2,000 certified signatures from registered voters to get on the ballot, as New Boston Post previously noted. He had until July 28 to turn them in to the state. For party-affiliated candidates, the deadline was May 5 and the signature requirement was cut in half to 1,000, because of the coronavirus emergency.

Manley says he has never considered himself a Democrat or Republican, but is pro-life, supports President Donald Trump, is a former union member, and as a former educator supports an increased focus on literacy in public schools. He also supports school choice.

A Brewster resident, Manley served as the St. John Paul II head softball coach up until this year. This would’ve been his 50th and final year coaching sports — primarily baseball and softball in the New York City area — but there was no spring sports season in Massachusetts this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Ninth Congressional District includes much of the South Shore and South Coast of Massachusetts, and all of Cape Cod and the Islands. It is the most Republican-friendly congressional district in Democratic-tilting Massachusetts.