The State House's golden dome looks down on the Boston Common on Oct. 4, 2023. State House News Service photo
Voters opted to change up the political party of their state representative in at least four districts Tuesday on a night when Massachusetts Republicans showed renewed strength.
Republicans flipped at least three legislative seats in Massachusetts, including one held by a veteran Democrat once in the House’s inner circle. In the other direction, a Democrat claimed at least one House district held by a Republican: the First Plymouth district Rep. Mathew Muratore gave up to challenge for Senate.
Rep. Patricia Haddad, who was first elected during Bill Clinton’s final year in the Oval Office and served as speaker pro tempore under former House Speaker Robert DeLeo, did not earn a 13th term.
GOP challenger Justin Thurber appears to have won his rematch against Haddad after falling short in the same matchup in 2022. The state Republican Party praised Thurber for his victory just after 10:15 p.m. Tuesday, a win that both unseated an incumbent and flipped a longtime blue district red.
MassGOP Chair Amy Carnevale said that in the past four decades, only one GOP candidate has flipped a Massachusetts legislative district during a presidential election year: William Crocker, who in 2016 won a race for a Cape Cod district that at the time had sent Democrats to the House for more than two decades straight. Crocker served two terms and lost in 2020, another presidential year, to Democrat Kip Diggs.
Carnevale said the successes so far “send a clear warning to Democrats on Beacon Hill that the days of ‘business as usual’ are over.”
“If there was any question about the strength of the MassGOP, I think we answered that tonight,” Carnevale said in a statement around midnight.
“Tonight, we flipped three seats including an incumbent Democrat who was the speaker pro tem. All while protecting all of our incumbents that sought reelection,” she added. “The night isn’t over and we’re awaiting further numbers.”
Despite the gains, Republicans didn’t field candidates in many districts and Democrats again easily held on to their supermajority margins.
On the other side of the aisle, Democrat Sen. John Cronin of Fitchburg secured reelection in a race that Beacon Hill insiders dubbed one to watch.
Cronin declared victory a bit after 11 p.m., thanking voters in a Facebook post and describing a “hard fought race” against Republican Nick Pirro of Lunenburg.
“I am overwhelmed by your support and grateful for the opportunity to continue to serve the Worcester and Middlesex district as your Senator for another term,” he wrote. “Voters, thank you for this privilege and the opportunity to build upon our work and progress.”
Cronin closed his post with a more national message.
“We live in a truly special country where our future is decided in no small measure by voters at the ballot box,” he said. “I pray our country unites after all the ballots are counted and we never forget there is far more that binds us together as Americans than divides us. We are in this together.”
While results were still being tallied in many areas, incumbents largely cruised in Tuesday’s election, most of them without even facing any opposition.
All 160 House seats and all 40 Senate seats are up for reelection every two years. In 118 House districts and 28 Senate districts, only a single candidate was on the ballot in the general election.
Democrats have long had an unbreakable grip on both chambers of the Legislature. They gained a majority in the House in 1955 and in the Senate four years later, and since then, the GOP has never won back either chamber. By the late 1960s, Democrats bulked their margins up to veto-proof majorities.
At the start of the day Tuesday, Democrats held 132 House seats and 36 Senate seats, while Republicans held 24 House seats and four Senate seats. The House has three vacant seats, and one rep, Susannah Whipps of Athol, is an independent.
State House News Services staff writers Sam Doran and Michael P. Norton contributed reporting.
