State senators who represent parts of Boston will likely have to defend their seats in next year’s election as several potential challengers have created campaign accounts in recent weeks.
In Sen. Nick Collins’s First Suffolk district, two individuals have registered with the state’s Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF): Dorchester-born Malik Shaw, a Navy veteran and former Boston Fire Department alarm operator who is a political science major at UMass Boston, and social entrepreneur Latoya Gayle, who has launched several nonprofits and is senior director of advocacy and family partnerships at the organization Neighborhood Villages.
Both are planning to run against Collins and cite the high cost of living in the district as motivating factors in their decisions.
Collins has made headlines with his opposition to Mayor Wu’s proposed rebalancing of tax increases from Boston homeowners to commercial real estate owners as city officials estimate residential tax rates will increase 13 percent, resulting in a bump of roughly $780 a year for the average homeowner.
“People are talking about it,” state Rep. Christopher Worrell said of the impending tax increase. “Every meeting I’ve been to in the past two months — more than 20 meetings — everyone has been talking about their taxes. And I’m getting calls, too.”
While the House of Representatives has approved Wu’s proposal, senators have opposed the shift, including Sen. Will Brownsberger, who represents Belmont, Watertown, and part of Boston.
Brownsberger is now facing a challenge from Daniel Lander, a senior aide to Wu. Nomination papers aren’t due until May and Wu has not yet endorsed in that race, though she is backing Sen. Mike Rush of West Roxbury, who is facing a challenge from Persis Yu, a progressive-leaning Hyde Park resident who heads a nonprofit aimed at protecting borrowers from predatory lending.
“As senator, I will fight for policies that drive down costs including universal childcare and free college, hold corporations accountable, and ensure that Massachusetts is on the forefront progressive policies that champion working families,” Yu said as quoted in the Jamaica Plain News website.
Landers and Shaw cited their opponent’s opposition to Wu’s tax shift as the factors behind their candidacies. In a statement sent to The Reporter, Shaw listed high rents, utility bills, and persistent homelessness and pledged to tackle affordability problems quickly.
“This is in contrast to the incumbent Nick Collins, who aligning with the interest of real estate developers, blocked Mayor Michelle Wu’s 2024-2025 commercial property tax shift multiple times which I would have voted in favor of,” he wrote.
In her statement to The Reporter, Gayle wrote more generally about a lack of affordability in the district.
“I hear from so many in our community, including seniors, who are worried about whether they will be able to afford to remain in the communities they worked their entire lives to build,” she said.
Collins cites his work in the senate, noting that he supported tax cuts, the Affordable Homes Act, and fought for state funding for fuel assistance and SNAP benefits during the federal shutdown.
“While there is more work to be done on affordability, we will continue that work in the Senate throughout the remainder of this year and into the next,” he said in a statement sent to The Reporter.
“It is still early, but when the time is right,” he wrote, “I look forward to taking our message of delivering for the First Suffolk District directly to the people.”
Progressive Massachusetts Political Director Jonathan Cohn said many voters could forget the tax issue by the time campaigns get underway next summer.
“It would have to fit into a larger story about to what extent are senators standing up for their constituents,” he said. “They have to articulate what are the problems facing the district and how they would address them.”
At the national level, Democrats have been hammering away at President Trump, who ran on a pledge to make America more affordable, but has presided over increased consumer costs stemming from his tariff regime and health care costs that are set to increase substantially with the end of Affordable Care Act subsidies.
Dorchester resident Ann Walsh, who ran for the District 3 council seat in 2023, said affordability could be an important campaign issue in the 1st Suffolk as well.
“It’s a complex issue that creates opportunities for conversation about a lot of factors that influence people’s ability to stain in this city,” she said. “It would be great for the district to have that conversation.”
