Politics of Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is often categorized politically as progressive and liberal. It is generally considered the most left-leaning state in the US, and all of the state’s Congressional representatives and both US senators are Democrats, while Democrats also form the large majority of the state’s legislature, though the state has a history of electing Republican governors. As with most states, the two main political parties are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.

History

Antebellum

In the early 19th century, Boston was a center of the socially progressive movements in antebellum New England. The abolitionist, women's rights,^[1] and temperance movements all originated in New England, and Boston became a stronghold of such movements. Boston also flourished culturally with the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne becoming popular. The belief in social progress was strongly influenced by the Second Great Awakening sweeping the Northern United States at the time, and Boston gained a reputation for radical politics. During the Civil War, the Radical Republicans had strong support from Massachusetts. Tension, however, existed between more moderate and conservative Bostonians and the abolitionists. Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison was almost killed by a mob when his office was raided in 1837.

The state was politically dominated by Federalists from the late 1790s until the late 1820s, a longer period than in other states. Massachusetts voted for the Federalist presidential candidate in 1808, 1812, and 1816. From then until the 1850s, it was dominated by the Whig Party, which presented a socially liberal but pro-business agenda, against a fractured Democratic Party and occasional single-issue third parties. In 1850, the Democrats made common cause with the abolitionist Free Soil Party to gain control of both the governor's seat and the state legislature for the first time. This coalition did not last, and the existing party structures were effectively wiped out by the 1853 landslide victory of the Know Nothing movement, which enacted major reform legislation during its three years in power. The Republican Party was organized in 1854, and came to power in 1857. It would dominate the state's politics until the 1930s, first as the reform party opposed to slavery, then as a pro-business, generally anti-labor and temperance-oriented party. The reorganized Democratic Party remained largely ineffective during this time, typically gaining power only when the Republicans overreached on issues such as temperance.

Gilded Age and Progressive Era

After the Civil War, radical politics faded in popularity. With Reconstruction failing, the progressive climate gave way into a conservative one, and civil rights groups disappeared as Boston melted into the mainstream of American politics. During the first half of the 1900s, Boston was socially conservative and strongly under the influence of Methodist minister J. Frank Chase and his New England Watch and Ward Society, founded in 1878. In 1903, the Old Corner Bookstore was raided and fined for selling Boccaccio's Decameron. Howard Johnson's got its start when Eugene O'Neill's Strange Interlude was banned in Boston, and the production had to be moved to Quincy. In 1927, works by Sinclair Lewis, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, and Sherwood Anderson were removed from bookstore shelves. "Banned in Boston" on a book's cover could actually boost sales. Burlesque artists such as Sally Rand needed to modify their act when performing at Boston's Old Howard Theater. The clean version of a performance used to be known as the "Boston version." By 1929, the Watch and Ward society was perceived to be in decline when it failed in its attempt to ban Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy, but as late as 1935 it succeeded in banning Lillian Hellman's play The Children's Hour. Censorship was enforced by city officials, notably the "city censor" within the Boston Licensing Division. That position was held by Richard J. Sinnott from 1959 until the office was abolished on March 2, 1982. In modern times, few such puritanical social mores persist. Massachusetts has since gained a reputation as being a politically liberal state and is often used as an archetype of liberalism, hence the usage of the phrase "Massachusetts liberal".^[2]

In the 1920s, Democrats Joseph Buell Ely (governor in the early 1930s) and David I. Walsh (governor in the 1910s, then US Senator) successfully organized a wide array of liberal Yankees, Irish Americans, and other immigrant groups (eastern Europeans, Italians, Greeks, and French Canadians among them) into an effective party structure, that has since come to dominate the state's political establishment. This goal had eluded Irish and Boston interests led by James Michael Curley and John F. "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, who were a significant but not always dominating force in the party. Fitzgerald's daughter Rose married Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., beginning the Kennedy family dynasty.

Postwar

In the 1970s and 1980s, Massachusetts was the center of the anti-nuclear power movement, opposition to the continuing Cold War arms race, and Ronald Reagan’s policies of intervention in Central America. Political figures who opposed nuclear power included Senator Edward Kennedy, Senator John Kerry (Vietnam veteran), Tip O’Neill (Speaker of the House), and Michael Dukakis (Governor).^[3] The Montague Nuclear Power Plant was to consist of two 1,150-megawatt nuclear reactors to be located in Montague, Massachusetts. The project was proposed in 1973 and canceled in 1980,^[4] after $29 million was spent on the project.^[5] In 1974, farmer Sam Lovejoy disabled the weather-monitoring tower which had been erected at the Montague site. Lovejoy's action galvanized local public opinion against the plant.^[5][6]

Politics

State

Main article: Government of Massachusetts

Massachusetts has a bicameral state legislature, collectively known as the Massachusetts General Court. It is made of the 160-seat Massachusetts House of Representatives and the 40-seat Massachusetts Senate. The Massachusetts Democratic Party holds large supermajorities in both houses.

The Governor of Massachusetts is the executive of the state government, and is elected every four years. Prior to 1966, governors served two-year terms, and prior to 1920, governors served one-year terms. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is the highest court in the commonwealth. Despite the state's strong Democratic lean, Republicans have been able to win the governor's office. They held it almost continuously from 1991 to 2023 with the only exception being Democrat Deval Patrick (2007–2015). Although, they have mostly been among the most moderate Republican politicians in the nation, especially William Weld. Two of these governors, Paul Cellucci and Jane Swift, took office when their predecessors resigned to take other positions. Massachusetts’ most recent Republican governor was centrist Republican Charlie Baker, who was re-elected to his second term in 2018 with 66.6% of the vote.

Gubernatorial election results

Gubernatorial election results^[7] Year Democratic Republican 2018 33.1% 886,281 66.6% 1,781,982 2014 46.5% 1,004,408 48.4% 1,044,573 2010 48.4% 1,112,283 42.0% 964,866 2006 55.6% 1,234,984 35.3% 784,342 2002 44.9% 985,981 49.8% 1,091,988 1998 47.4% 901,843 50.8% 967,160 1994 28.3% 611,650 70.8% 1,533,390 1990 46.9% 1,099,878 50.2% 1,175,817 1986 68.7% 1,157,786 31.2% 525,364 1982 59.5% 1,219,109 36.6% 749,679 1978 51.2% 1,030,294 46.0% 926,072 1974 53.5% 992,284 42.3% 784,353 1970 42.8% 799,269 56.7% 1,058,623 1966 36.9% 752,720 62.6% 1,277,358 1964 49.3% 1,153,416 50.3% 1,176,462 1962 49.9% 1,053,322 49.7% 1,047,891 1960 46.8% 1,130,810 52.5% 1,269,295 1958 56.2% 1,067,020 43.1% 818,463 1956 52.8% 1,234,618 46.9% 1,096,759 1954 47.8% 910,087 51.8% 985,339 1952 49.3% 1,161,499 49.9% 1,175,955 1950 56.3% 1,074,570 43.1% 824,069 1948 59.0% 1,239,247 40.5% 849,895 1946 45.3% 762,743 54.1% 911,152 1944 53.6% 1,048,284 46.0% 897,708 1942 45.0% 630,265 54.1% 758,402 1940 49.5% 993,635 49.7% 999,223 1938 46.1% 793,884 53.3% 941,465 1936 47.6% 867,743 46.1% 839,740 1934 49.7% 736,463 42.3% 627,413 1932 52.8% 825,479 45.0% 704,576 1930 49.5% 606,902 48.2% 590,238 1928 48.8% 750,137 50.1% 769,372 1926 40.3% 407,389 58.8% 595,006 1924 42.2% 490,010 56.0% 650,817 1922 45.4% 404,192 52.2% 464,873 1920 30.2% 290,350 67.0% 643,869 1919 37.0% 192,673 60.9% 317,774 1918 46.8% 197,828 50.9% 214,863 1917 35.0% 135,676 58.3% 226,145 1916 43.7% 229,883 52.5% 276,123 1915 45.7% 229,550 47.0% 235,863 1914 45.9% 210,442 43.4% 198,627 1913 39.8% 183,267 25.3% 116,705 1912 40.3% 193,184 30.0% 143,597 1911 48.8% 214,897 47.0% 206,795 1910 52.0% 229,352 44.1% 194,173

Federal

 

Treemap of the 2020 United States presidential election in Massachusetts.
Biden:
     50-60%      60-70%
     70-80%      80-90%

Further information: United States Congressional Delegations from Massachusetts

Subsequent to the 2010 national census and the 2011 reallocation of United States House of Representatives districts among the states, Massachusetts has nine seats, all of which are held by Democrats. Republicans have not won a house since 1994. Massachusetts currently has 9 House districts In the 118th Congress, all 9 are held by Democrats. There are as follows:

• Massachusetts's 1st congressional district represented by Richard Neal (D)
• Massachusetts's 2nd congressional district represented by Jim McGovern (D)
• Massachusetts's 3rd congressional district represented by Lori Trahan (D)
• Massachusetts's 4th congressional district represented by Jake Auchincloss (D)
• Massachusetts's 5th congressional district represented by Katherine Clark (D)
• Massachusetts's 6th congressional district represented by Seth Moulton (D)
• Massachusetts's 7th congressional district represented by Ayanna Pressley (D)
• Massachusetts's 8th congressional district represented by Stephen Lynch (D)
• Massachusetts's 9th congressional district represented by Bill Keating (D)

Massachusetts is part of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts in the federal judiciary. The district's cases are appealed to the Boston-based United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

Massachusetts has two Democratic U.S. Senators, belonging to Class 1 and 2, they are Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, respectively, both serving since 2013.

In presidential elections, Massachusetts supported Republicans from 1856 through 1924, barring 1912, where due to vote splitting between former Republican President Theodore Roosevelt running as a Progressive against incumbent Republican President William Howard Taft, Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson ended up becoming the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Massachusetts, though only winning with a plurality of only 35.53% of the vote. From 1928 up until the 1960s, it was considered a Democratic-leaning swing state. During the 1972 presidential election, Massachusetts was the only state to give its electoral votes to George McGovern, the Democratic nominee (the District of Columbia also voted for McGovern). Following the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974, two famous bumper stickers were sold in Boston, one saying "Don't blame me, I'm from Massachusetts," and the other read "Nixon 49, America 1". Since 1928, the state has been carried by a Republican presidential candidate four times, for Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956, and in 1980, when Ronald Reagan unseated incumbent Jimmy Carter and in his 1984 landslide. However, in the latter two elections, Reagan's margin of victory in Massachusetts was the smallest of any state he carried.

More recently, it has shifted to the Democratic Party further, voting for the Democratic presidential candidate in every election since 1988. Republicans have not carried any county since that election. In the 2004 election, Massachusetts gave native son John Kerry 61.9% of the vote and his largest margin of victory in any state.^[8][a] Barack Obama carried the state with 61.8% of the vote in 2008^[9] and 60.7% in 2012. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the state with 61.0% of the vote, with Massachusetts trending to the left, opposite the nation. In 2020, Massachusetts was the second-most Democratic state, following Vermont.^[a] Joe Biden won 65.6% of the vote, the highest share for any candidate since Lyndon Johnson's landslide victory in 1964.

The Democratic shift is also evident on the congressional ballot. In 2020, four of Massachusetts’ nine U.S. House Representatives ran unopposed. In the same year’s U.S. Senate election, incumbent Ed Markey received two-thirds of the vote, even slightly surpassing Biden’s vote percentage.

United States presidential election results for Massachusetts^[10]

Year	Republican / Whig		Democratic		Third party
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
2020	1,167,202	32.14%	2,382,202	65.60%	81,998	2.26%
2016	1,090,893	32.81%	1,995,196	60.01%	238,957	7.19%
2012	1,188,460	37.52%	1,921,761	60.67%	57,546	1.82%
2008	1,108,854	35.99%	1,904,098	61.80%	68,117	2.21%
2004	1,071,109	36.78%	1,803,800	61.94%	37,479	1.29%
2000	878,502	32.50%	1,616,487	59.80%	207,995	7.70%
1996	718,107	28.09%	1,571,763	61.47%	266,915	10.44%
1992	805,049	29.03%	1,318,662	47.54%	649,863	23.43%
1988	1,194,635	45.37%	1,401,415	53.23%	36,755	1.40%
1984	1,310,936	51.22%	1,239,606	48.43%	8,911	0.35%
1980	1,057,631	41.90%	1,053,802	41.75%	412,865	16.36%
1976	1,030,276	40.44%	1,429,475	56.11%	87,807	3.45%
1972	1,112,078	45.23%	1,332,540	54.20%	14,138	0.58%
1968	766,844	32.89%	1,469,218	63.01%	95,690	4.10%
1964	549,727	23.44%	1,786,422	76.19%	8,649	0.37%
1960	976,750	39.55%	1,487,174	60.22%	5,556	0.22%
1956	1,393,197	59.32%	948,190	40.37%	7,119	0.30%
1952	1,292,325	54.22%	1,083,525	45.46%	7,548	0.32%
1948	909,370	43.16%	1,151,788	54.66%	45,988	2.18%
1944	921,350	46.99%	1,035,296	52.80%	4,019	0.20%
1940	939,700	46.36%	1,076,522	53.11%	10,771	0.53%
1936	768,613	41.76%	942,716	51.22%	129,028	7.01%
1932	736,959	46.64%	800,148	50.64%	43,007	2.72%
1928	775,566	49.15%	792,758	50.24%	9,499	0.60%
1924	703,476	62.26%	280,831	24.86%	145,530	12.88%
1920	681,153	68.55%	276,691	27.84%	35,874	3.61%
1916	268,784	50.54%	247,894	46.61%	15,154	2.85%
1912	155,948	31.95%	173,408	35.53%	158,701	32.52%
1908	265,966	58.21%	155,543	34.04%	35,410	7.75%
1904	257,822	57.92%	165,746	37.24%	21,541	4.84%
1900	238,866	57.59%	156,997	37.85%	18,941	4.57%
1896	278,976	69.47%	105,711	26.32%	16,881	4.20%
1892	202,814	51.87%	176,813	45.22%	11,401	2.92%
1888	183,892	53.42%	151,590	44.04%	8,761	2.55%
1884	146,724	48.36%	122,352	40.33%	34,307	11.31%
1880	165,198	58.53%	111,720	39.58%	5,347	1.89%
1876	150,064	57.80%	108,777	41.90%	779	0.30%
1872	133,455	69.20%	59,195	30.69%	214	0.11%
1868	136,379	69.76%	59,103	30.23%	26	0.01%
1864	126,742	72.22%	48,745	27.78%	3	0.00%
1860	106,684	62.80%	34,370	20.23%	28,822	16.97%
1856	108,172	63.61%	39,244	23.08%	22,632	13.31%
1852	52,683	41.45%	44,569	35.07%	29,851	23.49%
1848	61,072	45.32%	35,281	26.18%	38,395	28.49%
1844	67,062	50.79%	53,039	40.17%	11,936	9.04%
1840	72,852	57.44%	52,355	41.28%	1,618	1.28%
1836	41,201	55.13%	33,486	44.81%	45	0.06%

Party registration

Main articles: Political parties and political designations in Massachusetts and Political party strength in Massachusetts

Party registration as of February 2021^[11]
Party		Total voters	Percentage
	Unenrolled	2,717,293	57.42%
	Democratic	1,459,663	31.71%
	Republican	494,980	9.59%
	Other	60,004	1.27%
Total		4,731,940	100%

Unenrolled voters make up a majority of the state. The only county with a plurality of Democratic registered voters is Suffolk, home to the state’s capital and most-populous city, Boston. The percentage of Unenrolled voters statewide is on the rise while both Democratic and Republican registration are in decline.^[12]

See also

• Government of Massachusetts
• Elections in Massachusetts
• Political party strength in Massachusetts
• Law of Massachusetts
• List of politics by U.S. state

Notes

1. However, the greatest margin of Democratic victory was in the District of Columbia.

References

1. "Timeline of Woman Suffrage in Massachusetts". Primary Research. 14 November 2009. Retrieved February 20, 2021.
2. Susan Page and Jill Lawrence (2004-07-11). "Does 'Massachusetts liberal' label still matter?". USA Today. Retrieved 2009-10-17.
3. Robert Surbrug (2009). Beyond Vietnam: The Politics of Protest in Massachusetts, 1974-1990. University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 9781613761687.
4. Some of the Major Events in NU's History Since the 1966 Affiliation 2013-12-24 at the Wayback Machine
5. Utilities Drop Nuclear Power Plant Plans Ocala Star-Banner, January 4, 1981.
6. Anna Gyorgy (1980). No Nukes: Everyone's Guide to Nuclear Power South End Press, ISBN 0-89608-006-4, pp. 393-394.
7. Leip, David. "General Election Results – Massachusetts". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
8. "Federal Elections 2004 (page 22)" (PDF). Federal Election Commission. Retrieved 2009-10-17.
9. "2008 Presidential Popular Vote Summary" (PDF). Federal Election Commission. Retrieved 2009-10-17.
10. Leip, David. "Presidential General Election Results Comparison – Massachusetts". US Election Atlas. Retrieved October 26, 2022.
11. "Registration Statistics". Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth. Retrieved February 20, 2021.
12. "Enrollment Breakdown as of 10/19/2016" (PDF). Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth. Retrieved February 20, 2021.

External links

• Politics of Massachusetts at Curlie
• Massachusetts at Ballotpedia
• Elections in Mass on U.S. Election Atlas website
• Election results and OurCampaigns.com