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State primary

Updated September 22, 2026

What's happening

Erika Uyterhoeven won the Democratic nomination for the open 2nd Middlesex Senate seat on September 1, and two sitting Somerville city councilors, Ben Ewen-Campen and Will Mbah, won the two House seats that the Senate race opened. The city's official totals, dated September 4, moved every number up a little and changed no winner: 17,440 ballots were cast in Somerville, 16,742 of them Democratic, out of 54,377 registered voters, a turnout of about 32 percent.

Uyterhoeven took 12,335 votes district-wide, 37 percent, to 10,142 (30.4 percent) for Rep. Christine Barber, 6,073 (18.2 percent) for Cambridge Vice Mayor Burhan Azeem and 4,171 (12.5 percent) for Ward 1 Councilor Matthew McLaughlin. Somerville alone gave her 6,886 to Barber's 4,446, Azeem's 2,531 and McLaughlin's 2,224. "We scared the s*** out of the status quo tonight," Uyterhoeven said. Barber had the institutional support, including endorsements from retiring Sen. Pat Jehlen, Gov. Maura Healey and two Somerville councilors, Emily Hardt and Kristen Strezo, and it was not enough.

Ewen-Campen, the Ward 3 councilor, won the 27th Middlesex over Olivia Gilligan-Corsetti 7,195 to 3,108 in Somerville. At-large Councilor Mbah won the 34th Middlesex with 54.1 percent district-wide, 3,745 votes to 1,924 for Medford School Committee member Paul Ruseau and 1,250 for Chris Oates; in Somerville's precincts it was Mbah 2,518, Oates 764, Ruseau 648. Rep. Mike Connolly beat Neil Miller 1,221 to 276 in the East Somerville precincts of the 26th Middlesex. Somerville went for Ed Markey over Seth Moulton 13,112 to 3,293 for U.S. Senate. No Republican appeared on Somerville's ballot in any legislative race, and the November 3 sample ballots confirm that Uyterhoeven, Ewen-Campen, Mbah and Connolly are all unopposed in the general.

The Council consequences are bigger than the primary implied. Ewen-Campen resigned Ward 3 effective December 31, 2026, in a letter sent September 3; Ward 2 Councilor JT Scott, who was not on any ballot, resigned the same day for the same date so the two wards can share one special election; and Mbah resigned the at-large seat effective December 31 by letter on September 11, handing it to Marianne Walles. McLaughlin lost and keeps Ward 1. See three Council seats turn over for the mechanics and the candidates.

The story

Jehlen has held the 2nd Middlesex, all of Somerville and Medford plus parts of Cambridge and Winchester, since 2005. When she retired, both House members jumped, opening the 27th and 34th. Mbah, at-large since 2017 apart from one term, ran on the limits of city power: "Almost everything that we've been trying to do at the city level is all stuck at the State House," citing Somerville's blocked asks on tenant right to purchase, transfer fees and rent control (Cambridge Day, July 17). Ewen-Campen, a Ward 3 councilor since 2017, was unopposed until Gilligan-Corsetti filed on April 22. Uyterhoeven ended July with more cash on hand than anyone in the Senate race, $143,400, per OCPF filings; in both House races the sitting councilor out-raised the field.

What the charter does about the vacancies

Mbah's at-large seat does not go to a special election. Under charter section 2-12, the defeated at-large candidate with the next-highest vote total from the last municipal election takes the seat; in November 2025 that was Marianne Walles, with 7,900 votes. Ward seats work the opposite way: a vacancy with more than 180 days left on the term requires the Council to "immediately order a special election," which Scott expects in late January or early February 2027. Derrick Rice and Serena Taylor are already in the Ward 3 field; see Three Council seats turn over.

What's next

  • November 3, 2026 — state general election. The city's sample ballots show 12 offices and nine statewide questions. Uyterhoeven, Ewen-Campen, Mbah and Connolly are unopposed; the only contested down-ballot race is Register of Probate. Three questions reach into Somerville. Question 7 would allow a single-family home by right on any residentially zoned lot of at least 5,000 square feet with 50 feet of frontage and public water and sewer, which touches the city's zoning fights. Question 3 would replace party primaries for state and federal offices with an all-party, top-two preliminary, the system Somerville already uses for mayor; WBUR reported September 21 that at least 10 of the state's 46 elected mayors back it and that exactly two officially oppose it, Somerville's Jake Wilson and Gardner's Michael Nicholson (WBUR). Question 8 would end recreational marijuana sales statewide in 2028 and leave the medical program in place; Cambridge Day reported September 22 that Cambridge and Somerville together took in about $765,000 in local cannabis tax revenue in fiscal 2025, that Michael MacNeil of The Boston Garden, with dispensaries in both cities, calls the measure "a major concern," and that GreenSoul Dispensary has put a planned Davis Square store on hold until after the vote, while a Union Square hemp retailer said he wants the dispensaries closed (Cambridge Day).
  • December 31, 2026 — Ewen-Campen, Scott and Mbah leave the Council. The at-large seat passes to Walles; Wards 2 and 3 go to a combined special election in late January or early February 2027, date not yet set. See Three Council seats turn over.
  • Early January 2027 — Uyterhoeven, Ewen-Campen and Mbah are sworn in at the State House. McLaughlin stays in Ward 1.
  • 2027 session — a reshuffled delegation inherits Somerville's stalled home-rule asks: rent stabilization, tenant right to purchase, the transfer fee, automated enforcement. See the Beacon Hill bill tracker and who is who.