State senator Will Brownsberger has kept his Suffolk and Middlesex seat in a recount of last week’s Democratic primary against first-time candidate Daniel Lander.
The winner advances to the Nov. 3 general election against conservative Brandon Wood of Watertown. The district, which Brownsberger has held since 2009, includes the cities of Watertown and Belmont and parts of Cambridge and Boston.
Lander conceded Thursday as recount results came in, showing a 35-vote difference between the candidates.
“I sincerely wish him the best because the people of our district are counting on him to fight for them,” Lander said of Brownsberger. “While this race did not end as we’d hoped, I am so deeply proud of the campaign we built. I know we have woken up the state Senate and sent a message loud and clear that the days of delay and inaction must end now … This race has already shaken up the broken status quo. From Beacon Hill and beyond, we have put our state Senate on notice. Residents are tired of excuses and ready for real action.”
As a Democrat in a district painted in blue, especially one that hasn’t faced a challenger within his party in more than a decade, Brownsberger has not had to do much to stay in power. The 69-year-old senator – now the body’s president pro tempore, who supports the president and steps in if they are absent – campaigned as a public servant for the people who put him on Beacon Hill to fight for affordable housing, immigrant protection and redistricting that increases representation for people of color in the state.
The primary was good for incumbents. Most notably, state representative Marjorie Decker beat second-time challenger Evan MacKay to keep her seat in the 25th Middlesex District, and district attorney Marian Ryan won over her onetime employee, David Solet. U.S. senator Ed Markey, 80, gave a sound electoral beating to challenger U.S. representative Seth Moulton, 47, and U.S. representative Katherine Clark, 62, won reelection against Jonathan Paz, 32, and Tarik Samman, 27. Terrence Kennedy defeated challenger Diann Baylis in the Sixth Governor’s Council District. Other lopsided races in the incumbent’s favor: State representative Mike Connolly beat first-time challenger Neil Miller in the 26th Middlesex District, and state representative Dave Rogers beat first-time challenger Nomita Ganguly in the 24th Middlesex District.
Yet on election night, Brownsberger foresaw his own defeat. “Update: not looking too good tonight,” Brownsberger said at a watch party in Watertown, according to reporters for The Harvard Crimson. “I’m talking like I’m losing, because I do believe I am.”
In a count of official ballots from the four communities, there were 25,654 ballots cast districtwide for either Lander or Brownsberger, who came out barely ahead as chosen in 12,291 ballots, or 47.91 percent of the total. Lander got 12,257, or 47.78 percent of the total.
On Friday, the Lander campaign released a statement: “After more than 24,000 votes cast across the district, this race has come down to a handful of votes. This is an incredible result for a campaign that nobody believed was viable when we launched in December, and exceeded expectations in every way, winning three of the four communities in the district. These results already make clear the district is hungry for change.”
The official initial counts for the district communities are here: Cambridge; Belmont; Boston; Watertown.
In Cambridge, an official count of the ballot gave 1,862 votes out of a total 3,662 for 51 percent of the vote; Brownsberger got 1,614 votes, or 44 percent of the total. There were 186 blank and invalid ballots. There was no change in Thursday’s recount.
It might be no surprise that Lander, 35, a former aide to Boston mayor Michelle Wu, led in Cambridge: He grew up in Cambridge’s Huron Village and Central Square. He announced in December that he hoped to unseat Brownsberger and campaigned to end stagnation in the Legislature and bring a sense of policymaking urgency to solving issues that plague Cambridge, Boston and the state – high costs of living, gaps in public transportation service and a lack of housing, among others.
Lander also had the lead in Boston – where there were 9,001 total ballots cast and an official count gave Lander 57 percent of the vote (5,135 ballots) to Brownsberger’s 38 percent (3,373 ballots) – and in Watertown. There, 7,003 total ballots were cast Sept. 1 and an official count gave Lander 49 percent of the vote (3,451 ballots) to Brownsberger’s 47 percent (3,294 ballots).
In Boston’s recount on Thursday, four votes were lost by each candidate: Lander ended with 5,131 to Brownsberger’s count of 3,369.
“Despite the establishment’s best efforts, this campaign won three of the four communities of this district. After being outspent two to one, our grassroots coalition made clear this district is hungry for change,” Lander said Thursday.
But Brownsberger led by far in Belmont, where he lives, with 67 percent of the vote on the Sept. 1 primary night, or 4,010 ballots cast of a total 5,988. That left Lander with 30 percent of the votes cast, or 1,809 ballots. In the town’s Thursday recount, Brownsberger claimed two more votes, rising to 4,012 from 4,010; Lander found three more votes, rising to 1,812 from 1,809.
Watertown’s recount figures weren’t available before Lander conceded.
