Massachusetts held its state primary on Tuesday, 9/1. The following are preliminary results.
US Sen. Edward Markey (D) fended off a challenge from Joseph P. Kennedy III (D), although both Fairhaven and Acushnet voted to oust the incumbent. With 76.3% of the precincts counted by press time, the Associated Press called the race for Markey.
In Fairhaven, Kennedy received 1831 votes to Markey’s 1250; in Acushnet Kennedy received 845 to Markey’s 403.
There were no other contested races on the Democratic ballot.
On the Republican side, it was a split decision for the two towns: Shiva Ayyadurai received 354 votes and Kevin J. O’Connor received 424 in Fairhaven; in Acushnet, Ayyadurai nudged out O’Connor 269 to 250. O’Connor was the projected winner by the Associated Press.
Voter turnout in both towns was way up compared to other state primaries, and both town clerks attributed early voting and vote-by-mail as contributing to the larger participation,
In Fairhaven, 3989 voters cast ballots, a whopping 33+%.
Town Clerk Carolyn Hurley said that four years ago, 414 voters cast ballot for a dismal 3.7% of the electorate.
This year was a “fabulous turnout,” said Ms. Hurley.
She said she could not give a breakdown on how many mail-in ballots there were, but clearly it had a huge impat.
“They were coming in right until the end,” she said, with ballots getting dropped in the drop box as late as 7:45 p.m.
In Acushnet, early voting and mail-in voting had an “incredible impact” on voter turnout, according to Town Clerk Pamela Labonte. Normally a state primary would see 1200-1300 voters. This election brought out about 1900 voters.
In a closely watched race eight Democrats and two Republicans ran for a shot at Joe Kennedy’s House seat (4th Congressional District). At press time the race had not been called for either party. On the Democratic side Jesse Mermell had a slight lead over Jake Auchincloss, with the other candidates trailing behing the two leaders. On the Republican side, Julie Hall beat David Rosa by with just about 53% of the vote and 69.55% of precincts reporting by press time.
High profile US Representative from Mass. (6th Congressional District) Seth Moulton (D), easily fended off two challengers.
US Rep. Richard Neal (1st Congressional District), who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, fended off a challenge from Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse, with 61% of the vote with 40% of precincts in. Neal has no Republican challenger.
Long time US Rep Stephen Lynch also easily fended off a challenge in District 8, from Robbie Goldstein, withi 66.97% of the vote of 65.74% of precincts reporting.
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