A closely watched race in the liberal stronghold of Cambridge remained uncalled on Tuesday night, as state Rep. Marjorie Decker, backed by top Democrats like Gov. Maura Healey and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, faced off against Evan MacKay, a political newcomer and Harvard University graduate student.
MacKay declared victory after polls closed, though Decker did not officially concede. Just before 1 a.m., the Associated Press reported that MacKay led Decker by the razor thin margin of 40 votes — 3,354 to 3,314, or 50.3 to 49.7 percent.
The primary battle between Decker and MacKay shaped up to be a classic race between a hard-charging insider and an outside organizer, and stood out as a race to watch in Massachusetts, where competitive elections are few and far between. Most incumbents are returning to Beacon Hill in January.
Decker racked up endorsements from a variety of Democratic-leaning interest groups, including unions and environmentalists, the Boston Globe editorial board, as well as Beacon Hill leaders such as House Ways and Means Chairman Aaron Michlewitz.
But MacKay mounted an aggressive campaign effort, criticizing Decker, running for a seventh two-year term in Cambridge, as too close to legislative leaders inside the State House.
“She goes right alongside with whatever leadership wants,” MacKay, a 27-year-old democratic socialist who goes by “they/them” pronouns, told CommonWealth Beacon in the weeks before the September 3 election. “She will not stand up for our values in Cambridge, up against State House leadership. She will choose relationships with other lawmakers instead of championing our values.”
Decker, 52, bristled at MacKay’s attack, which focused on her vote for a tax cut package championed by Healey. She pointed to her key role, as co-chair of the Legislature’s Public Health Committee, in getting an omnibus maternal health bill signed into law.
“I have been really successful at working closely with advocates, bringing people to the table and working really closely with my colleagues and the leadership to tell the story of why the priorities I brought forward should be the priorities that we have done,” she said.
She added, “I have stayed true to my district’s values and my record shows that.”
Decker was a longtime Cambridge city councilor before winning the state representative seat in 2012, taking over from her late mentor and boss Alice Wolf.
Decker consistently received more than 80 percent of the vote in Democratic primaries when challenged by Lesley Phillips, an activist from the Bernie Sanders wing of the party.
MacKay said they modeled their campaign on Nika Elugardo’s 2018 ouster of Jeff Sanchez, a Jamaica Plain Democrat who chaired the House Ways and Means Committee at the time, and Pressley’s victory over longtime Congressman Michael Capuano.
“This is a very progressive district and we need more than the status quo,” MacKay said ahead of the primary.
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