By Matt McLaughlin
Candidate for State Senate, 2nd Middlesex District

There is a civil war within the Democratic Party. The establishment is fighting off an insurgency for the soul of the party. As with any war, the victims are everyday working people, caught between factions who claim to fight for them but are in fact causing the suffering.

This is no different in the Second Middlesex District State Senate race. One candidate is backed by State House elites, the other uses working class rhetoric but is detached from their struggles. They represent two factions in the Democratic Party, but ultimately they are both part of the same elite class of politicians warring for power over people who are walking away.

The working class is politically homeless; refugees from factional wars they don’t identify with. This is true even in solid blue Massachusetts, where 65 percent of voters are registered independent. Three percent of Massachusetts Democrats left the party in 2024. Fifty percent of union households vote Republican because they have come to believe that Republicans are fighting for their paychecks. Young people are not voting at all. The diverse, working class coalition Democrats depend on is fracturing, and most Democratic politicians are content to fight each other for the shattered remains of a shrinking electorate.

I am the working class candidate for State Senate. I mopped floors at MIT, joined the army and served two tours in Iraq, worked just about every job this community has to offer, and did everything I can to make ends meet for my family. I dedicated my life not to the Democratic Party, but to serving working people. And I’m one of millions of people disillusioned by the Democratic Party. We are being squeezed out by two factions, two sides of the same coin, who view power as the end in itself, and not a means to improve the lives of working people. I would walk away, like so many have already, if I didn’t truly believe I know the path to lead the Democratic Party out of the wilderness and back into a party of the People.

Every door I knock validates my belief that both factions have completely lost sight of who they serve. Most people in this district are not talking about Beacon Hill inside baseball, foreign affairs, or the culture war of Democratic politicians. They are talking about their wallets, their homes, and their families. They are concerned about their ability to afford to live in the Commonwealth. One in three Massachusetts residents say they think about leaving the state due to the cost of living. I am fighting to keep those people here. I am fighting to make Massachusetts a place where they can afford to stay, and they can afford to dream for something more.

Massachusetts, the State House, and the Democratic Party need something new. We need candidates that are truly OF the people and for the people. We need to fight to get the working class back, and the best way to do that is to run working class candidates for office who aren’t concerned with Beacon Hill infighting and clubhouse politics. I am solely concerned with the well being of working people.

The working class does not want status quo politics, and they don’t want to burn the system down. They want the government to work for them. I’m running for State Senate because I make the government accessible to the people. As a working class person, I fought for my family and my community. As a city councilor and a community leader, I provided pragmatic solutions to address working class issues. As an activist, I advocated for and created transformative change that has impacted the entire region.

There is another way forward, through all the meandering and nonsense of the political elite. The people of the Democratic Party and the people of Massachusetts demand real change that radically improves the lives of working class people. I am laser focused on addressing the cost of living. I will not waiver when I get to the State House because these issues impact me and my community directly.