It was certainly a blue wave this week, but some Mainers may be seeing red about NBC News chief data analyst Steve Kornacki referring to southern Maine as "kind of like the Boston suburbia extended." Let's blame it on exhaustion and forgive him? Now, let's go full Kornacki with WBUR's Gin Dumcius and dive deep into the data for some Massachusetts election results takeaways: 1. What a blue wave in Massachusetts looks likeParts of Massachusetts shifted red in 2024 when Kamala Harris faced off against Donald Trump in the presidential election. Fall River, for example, narrowly went for Trump in 2024 — the first time the city had gone for a Republican presidential candidate in 100 years. Meanwhile, Harris won but underperformed in the state’s cities with the most Hispanic voters, such as Lawrence, Lynn and Holyoke. But this year, Fall River snapped back to the Democrats. Democratic Gov. Maura Healey beat GOP nominee Mike Minogue in the city 52% to 44%. And she dominated in Lawrence, Lynn and Holyoke with around 73%, 68% and 67% of votes in those cities, respectively, similar to past levels of Democratic support. Rich Parr, an election analyst and vice president of MassINC Polling Group, told Gin it’s a part of the same story nationally — as seen in redder states like South Carolina, Georgia and Texas — where Black and Hispanic voters came back to Democrats. 2. The silver lining for MinogueTuesday’s map for Minogue bore similarities to 2022, when Healey, then the attorney general, crushed Trump supporter Geoff Diehl in her first run for governor. The bad news for Minogue is that he does not appear to have expanded the map — despite putting nearly $20 million into his own campaign. (With over 90% of precincts reporting, Minogue has 34.7% of the vote; Diehl got 34.6% in 2022.) According to Parr, the good news for Minogue is that, if he runs in 2030 (something Minogue did not rule out Tuesday), Trump won’t be the president. Parr said voters tend to forget about the losing candidates in these types of races, giving them the opportunity to reintroduce themselves, like former Gov. Charlie Baker did in 2024. 3. The urban-suburban divide of Question 7There was a clear divide on Question 7 between urban and suburban/rural. Cambridge, Somerville and Boston all overwhelmingly voted for the measure, an attempt to rein in housing prices by making it easier to build single-family homes on small lots. “You could say people who live in cities that are used to density and are not as afraid of it,” said Parr. “They don’t have these big lots at risk of being subdivided or reduced.” But the big margins that the “yes” campaign won in cities was canceled out by the “no” side’s dominance in smaller communities. The “no” side on Question 7 won in 265 of the 337 cities and towns that had reported results as of Wednesday night. Read Gin's full takeaways here. What they're saying: Now that Democrats are preparing to take control of Congress, local representatives are starting to lay out their top priorities after the power change takes effect. - Rep. Katherine Clark: Expected to become the first woman to serve as the House majority leader, Clark said Democrats' short-term goal will be to reverse recent cuts to federal assistance programs like Medicard, Medicare, veterans' benefits and food stamps. "We're going to do quick things, small things, and also start to work on big transformative policies, but all focused on making sure that we are fighting for those families who feel like they are drowning in this cost of living crisis," Clark told WBUR Morning Edition host Tiziana Dearing. Clark also did not rule out another effort to impeach President Trump. Read the full highlights of the interview here.
- Rep. Richard Neal: After winning his 20th term in Congress, the Springfield Democrat told supporters that he hopes to reclaim his chairmanship on the House Ways and Means Committee to push to restore those benefits. "We intend to push back on $1 trillion of cuts to Medicaid," Neal said. "Let the ACA enhanced credits be returned so people can enjoy health insurance as promised."
- Rep.-elect Dan Koh: Massachusetts' new incoming congressman told Tiziana that the main focus for his first 100 days in office will be to "get to the bottom of Donald Trump's corruption" and to introduce bills to lower costs. Read more about Koh's political role model and how he said he will differ from his predecessor in the seat, Rep. Seth Moulton.
P.S.— The "yes" campaigns on both Question 5 and Question 7 in Massachusetts are now both narrowly behind, but remain too close to call, according to the Associated Press. With 90% of precincts reporting, Question 5 is down 48% to 52%, with supporters already conceding defeat. Question 7 is even closer, 49.4% to 50.6%. Keep an eye on our election results maps as more votes come in. |
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