Cambridge Vice Mayor Burhan Azeem (center) is seen during a campaign launch event at the Somerville Armory on Feb. 25, 2026. Photo by James Sanna | Banker & Tradesman Staff

One half of the duo that shepherded Cambridge’s citywide upzoning to passage in 2025 wants to bring a YIMBY message to Beacon Hill.

Cambridge Vice Mayor Burhan Azeem gathered supporters at the Somerville Armory Wednesday night to celebrate the launch of his campaign for the Second Middlesex state Senate seat. Among them: a number of Azeem’s colleagues on the Cambridge City Council, Somerville Mayor Jake Wilson and Cambridge state Rep. Mike Connolly.

Medford and Somerville make up the district’s core, plus North Cambridge, Porter Square and the western half of Winchester.

With incumbent Sen. Pat Jehlen stepping down after 20 years, the Democratic field to succeed her is already crowded. At least four candidates including Azeeem have declared – Somerville City Councilor Matt McLaughlin, Winchester School Committee member Tom Hopcroft and state Rep. Christine P. Barber – and more are possibly to come, potentially including Somerville state Rep. Erica Uyterhoeven.

Azeem is the most unabashedly pro-housing voice in the race to date, and one with some of the strongest credentials. After getting involved in local politics as an undergraduate student at MIT in the 2010s, he co-founded Abundant Housing MA and still sits on the group’s board while helping it lobby for housing policy changes at the state level.

In addition to co-leading the push to legalize multifamily buildings up to 6 stories anywhere in Cambridge, Azeem was also a pivotal figure in pushing the council to legalize all-affordable buildings up to 15 stories tall along the city’s major corridors. In an interview with Banker & Tradesman, he said those victories, plus ones expanding the city’s pre-kindergarten program, reflected his ability to create coalitions that can pass contentious policy.

“There’s so much more that needs to be done” at the state level, Abundant Housing Executive Director Jesse Kanson-Benanav said. “To have more folks in office who actually understand that from the beginning and don’t need to be convinced and who can step into leadership on these issues would be huge.”

Born in rural Pakistan, Azeem immigrated to America at age six, and grew up relying on public assistance programs like food stamps, he told supporters Wednesday night, before winning a full scholarship to MIT. He said he plans a campaign focused on delivering “practical results” that can help rein in housing costs and other cost-of-living issues, and improving transit.