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Male Write-In Candidates Sexist for Running Against Woman

June 11, 2018

Four male write-in candidates who emerged after state Senator Stanley Rosenberg resigned last month are being called sexist for running against a woman who is the only candidate appearing on the Democratic primary ballot.

Rosenberg resigned May 4, after the deadline for getting on the ballot had passed. But five write-in candidates have emerged, and four of them are men.

One left-wing observer says white men shouldn’t be challenging activist Chelsea Kline, who challenged Rosenberg in the Democratic primary before the filing deadline and is therefore now the only candidate on the ballot.

“If you are committed to this progressive cause, just step aside,” said Joe Kopera, of Montague, who is himself a white man, according to the Hampshire Daily Gazette.

Kline is a founding member of Badass Activists of the Pioneer Valley, a local chapter of Indivisible, an anti-Trump organization.

She is also an administrator at The American Women’s College at Bay Path University in Longmeadow.

Critics say she isn’t qualified to be a state senator.

But supporters find it upsetting that so many write-in candidates are challenging her.

“For a lot of people, among them many feminists, there was a lot of frustration at what seemed to be a wave of men jumping in to take out the woman the minute they thought they had an opportunity,” said Rachel Gordon, a Greenfield resident and campaign manager for a candidate in another race, according to the Hampshire Daily Gazette.

The candidates are running in the September 4 Democratic primary for the Hampshire and Franklin and Worcester District of the Massachusetts Senate, which includes Amherst and Northampton. No Republicans are running.