Why is Evan running against the incumbent? 

Evan is running because all our lives should be easier. We care about our communities, our neighborhoods, and our progressive values, and we live in Massachusetts, where it’s often assumed that our majority-Democrat state government shares our values. Unfortunately, our Massachusetts State House is much more conservative than many voters realize. It is dominated by a small group of insiders who are beholden to corporate and wealthy lobbyists and oppose policies which would help everyday people.

 

One of the biggest obstacles to passing progressive policy at the state level is government transparency and accountability. Massachusetts currently has the least transparent, least effective government of all fifty states. This profound lack of transparency means that the vast majority of the time that the policies we want don’t get passed, we can’t even see which representatives in the House voted against them.

 

Lots of people in our district want our government to be more transparent and accountable. 94% of our district voted “yes” on a nonbinding ballot question instructing the incumbent to support public committee votes. Yet our current state representative, Rep. Decker, opposes making votes available to the public, along with other transparency measures such as public committee meetings.

 

We live in abundance here in MA—yet we are one of the least equal states. Politicians keep cutting taxes for the wealthiest people, which makes existing inequalities worse and expands the racial wealth gap. In 2022, our district voted overwhelmingly to create $1 billion in new progressive tax revenue to fund public transportation, infrastructure, and education. Less than a year later, our state representative voted to give a billion dollars in tax cuts to large multistate corporations and the ultrawealthy. We’re now seeing these tax cuts lead directly to a state budget deficit of over $1 billion dollars, and in response, our government is slashing budgets for social services.

 

Meanwhile, the percentage of people experiencing housing insecurity is increasing rapidly, and we are no closer to passing rent control and needed tenant protections.

 

It’s also long past time for us to get serious about protecting our climate and ensuring our planet’s longevity. When it comes to climate justice, top officials like the incumbent are content to keep kicking the can down the road—they publicly state that they support policies such as 100% renewable energy, yet we can’t get them to actually vote for these policies. As our state representative, Evan will fight for a moratorium on fossil fuel infrastructure and a rapid transition towards a renewable economy that lifts up working class people under the framework of a Green New Deal.

 

You can read more about how lack of transparency and centralization of power in state leadership blocks climate policy and environmental protections here.