Massachusetts races mostly already set

STATE STATS

Voter makeup: As of February, Massachusetts had 4.9 million registered voters. About 1.3 million of these are registered Democrats, while only about 400,000 are registered Republicans. The Bay State has the largest percentage of independent voters in the United States: about 3 million people, or 62 percent of the state’s voters, are not enrolled with any political party. However, this may be due to the state’s automatic voter registration system; nearly all of those independents tend to vote for Democrats.

Voting: Only first-time voters and those who have changed their name or residence need to show identification to vote. All residents with a state-issued ID are automatically registered to vote.

In Massachusetts, anyone may vote by mail for most primary, local, and state elections. However, for federal and general elections, voters may only vote absentee if they meet certain requirements and apply ahead of time.

PRESIDENTIAL

During the March 5 presidential primary, President Joe Biden, 81, received about 81 percent of the Democratic vote. Former President Donald Trump received 59.8 percent of the Republican vote, with Nikki Haley trailing him at 36.8 percent. After Biden dropped out of the race in late July, all 116 Massachusetts delegates to the Democratic National Convention switched their support to Vice President Kamala Harris.

Presidents Ronald Reagan and Dwight Eisenhower have been the only Republicans to carry the state since 1956. In 2020, Biden won Massachusetts by a 33-point margin, the largest since Lyndon B. Johnson’s landslide victory in 1964.

A Suffolk University poll from July, before Biden dropped out, showed him leading Trump in Massachusetts with 47.2 percent. Since Harris became the Democratic nominee in early August, no new Massachusetts poll has been conducted, but an average of national polls by The Hill’s Decision Desk shows her ahead by about 4 percent.

U.S. SENATE

One Senate seat, currently held by Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, is up for grabs this November. Massachusetts has only elected Democrats for Senate since 1972, with the exception of Republican Scott Brown, who won in a special election and held office from 2010 to 2013. Brown ran for a full Senate term in 2012, but lost to Warren.

• Incumbent Warren ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination. She has held the office since 2013. One of Warren’s biggest campaign issues is her proposed “Real Corporate Profits Tax,” first introduced in 2019, which would tax big corporations on their overall global profits, not allowing for tax deductions or credits. Warren has also proposed a wealth tax on households earning over $50 million a year, first introduced as part of her unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign. Warren opposes the growing ownership of U.S. farmland by foreign entities, has introduced plans to stringently regulate big tech companies to promote increased competition by smaller companies, and has repeatedly worked to increase the minimum wage.

• Republican John Deaton won the Republican nomination with about 64 percent of the vote. He will face Warren in November. Deaton, a trial attorney and Marine veteran, campaigned on tougher immigration policies, reducing government spending, and increased transparency in lobbying and campaign finance.

U.S. HOUSE

Most of the races for the U.S. House are already determined in the solidly-Democratic state. Massachusetts’ nine House seats have been held by Democrats for at least 20 years. In this year’s primary, nine Democrats ran unopposed in each district. In all but two districts, they will also win their general elections unopposed. In Districts 8 and 9, two Republicans, Robert Burke and Dan Sullivan, will challenge Democrats Stephen Lynch and Bill Keating, respectively, but both are considered long shots.

• In District 7, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, 50, who has served in Congress since 2018, won her party’s nomination unopposed. Pressley is a member of “the Squad,” the most liberal group in the chamber. She faces no Republican challenger in the general election. Pressley is the first black woman elected to Congress from her state. She is known for supporting the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness plans, the creation of a federal right to abortion, affordable housing initiatives, and expansion of the child tax credit. In 2021 and 2024, she introduced a congressional resolution calling for a federal job guarantee, which would create a legal right to a government-funded job. Pressley said the guarantee “would create a pathway to stable employment and begin to close the gaping income and wealth gap for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous workers.”

BALLOT MEASURES

As of Sept. 1, five statewide ballot measures have been certified for the November 5 election. They are all indirect initiated state statutes, meaning that citizens gathered enough signatures to present them to the state legislature, which then chose to place the measures on the ballot rather than adopt them into law via the legislature. Two Oct. 2023 polls showed voters most divided over Questions 2 and 4.

• Question 1 would give the state auditor authority to audit the state legislature.

• Question 2 would remove the current requirement that high school students must achieve a certain competency level on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exam to graduate.

• Question 3 would give drivers for transportation networks such as Uber and Lyft the right to collective bargaining procedures overseen by the state.

• Question 4 would allow limited personal use of some psychedelics and create additional taxes and oversight boards for these substances.

• Question 5 would gradually increase the wage of tipped employees—currently set at $6.75 plus tips—to meet the $15.00 minimum wage for non-tipped employees by 2029.

Dig deeper:

• Read Lauren Canterberry’s coverage of a recent Massachusetts bill expanding access to midwives.

• Read Catherine Gripp’s breakdown of Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey’s ban on immigrants sleeping in the Boston Airport.

Visit the WORLD Election Center 2024 to follow our state-by-state coverage between now and November.