MASSACHUSETTS WOKE UP – if it slept at all – facing a second Trump administration and the looming prospect of being even more at odds with a national rightward swing than it was eight years ago.
Former president Donald Trump is poised to return to office, culminating his campaign of broadsides against the Biden administration’s immigration and economic landscape, fueled by mistruths, personal attacks, and rants about pet-eating migrants. This time, he’ll head to the White House with Republican control of the US Senate and a right-leaning Supreme Court. The House of Representatives has not yet been called.
In the deep blue Bay State, where its US Senate race and presidential votes were called for the Democrats within minutes of polls closing, dawn broke on November 6 with a grim light for many of its residents.
“You know, I think of it this way: We’re going to do a lot of unpacking over the next many, many days,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who cruised to a third term, said in an interview with WBUR. “But it’s clear that there were many people who were attracted to what Donald Trump was offering, and that means my job in the United States Senate will be to be in there to fight for the people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and fight for our shared values.”
The first Trump administration and its fallout was marked, in Massachusetts, by a scramble to shore up protections for marginalized groups and double down on commitments to Democratic priorities that looked imperiled. Gov. Maura Healey built a national brand as state attorney general by challenging the Trump administration in court over issues as diverse as immigration policy, census counts, and gun regulations.
Andrea Campbell, Healey’s successor as attorney general, will face an even rockier climb with a Trump-friendly high court. The US Supreme Court, currently a 6-3 conservative majority, concluded this year that the president has a broad grant of immunity from actions taken in the course of or related to official duties.
Despite the impression of an enthusiastic groundswell for Vice President Kamala Harris’ candidacy after President Biden announced he would step out of the race, a tight national contest left open the real possibility of a narrow popular vote gap but a lopsided electoral college victory for one side or the other. That victory was clinched far sooner than many expected, with the race called early Wednesday morning.
Indicted four times, criminally convicted on 34 counts related to hush money payments, found liable of sexual abuse, and still facing charges for trying to overturn the 2020 election and mishandling classified documents, Trump is projected to win the popular vote for the first time in his three runs for president.
The rightward shift didn’t entirely miss Massachusetts. After years of Republican erosion on the state level, the party notched a handful of legislative wins, flipping three seats, including Republican Justin Thurber unseating Rep. Patricia Haddad as the veteran Democrat sought a 13th term. Overall, however, the power dynamic on Beacon Hill didn’t change.
Attention will now turn to what Massachusetts can do with its three Democrat-controlled branches of government. Healey has argued that the state’s LGBTQ-friendly policies are a competitive draw and responded to worries of attacks on abortion medication by stockpiling mifepristone.
Abortion and climate change have been key policy concerns during the Trump-Biden years. According to exit polls, 95 and 96 percent of Massachusetts voters who say abortion and climate are, respectively, the most important issues facing the country voted for Harris.
“Massachusetts in some ways was a left-leaning microcosm of the country,” said Steve Koczela, president of the MassINC Polling Group, which shares a parent company with CommonWealth Beacon. “The two issues that seem to benefit Trump the most were the economy and immigration,” he said.
In Massachusetts, 73 percent of people who said immigration was their top priority voted for Trump, according to exit polling.
Trump has promised an aggressive immigration regime including mass deportations and floated the idea of ending birthright citizenship. Yet one of the biggest shifts in voting demographics over the decade has been movement toward Trump from Latino men.
Trump has also vowed to shut down the offshore wind industry, which is Healey’s primary vehicle for meeting the state’s climate goals. “He’s going to shut down the move toward renewables. And if that were to happen, we would end up with a sicker, less healthy population,” Healey said in August. “The consequences on our economy would be devastating. Look what we’re dealing with already in terms of the disparity of storms and weather due to climate. We can’t afford to go backward on climate and so many other things.”
The past years have been marked by an influx of migrants seeking asylum that have further strained Massachusetts’ shelter system, to the point that Healey sent people to the southern border to discourage incoming migrants from traveling to Massachusetts.
Facing a severe housing and cost of living crisis, and the MBTA Communities housing law aimed at relieving some of the pressure tied up in the Supreme Judicial Court, the existing conundrum of where to house the people attracted to Massachusetts’ open-arms reputation will likely become even more of a flashpoint in the coming years.
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