By Reporter Staff
State Senator Nick Collins has defeated challenger Latoya Gayle in a very competitive election for the Democratic nomination in the First Suffolk Senate.
The outcome remained too close too call until shortly after 10 p.m. on a relatively low-turnout election night as challenger Gayle gave the incumbent Collins a real run for his money.
Gayle conceded in a short address to supporters at Sweet Teez Bakery on Dorchester Avenue just after 10 p.m.
“The results are not what we wanted,” Gayle said. “I am still so grateful that we all came together, and we voted our values, and we lived our values, and we sent a message.
“It was not a landslide victory. And we made him work,” she said.
Latoya Gayle addressed supporters at her campaign gathering on Tuesday night. Cassidy McNeeley photo
Gayle said she spoke to Collins and “he said that I made him be a better state senator. I hope that he means that.”
“We ran a hell of a race. I’m a first-time candidate. I’ve never run for any office. And we managed to put up an amazing fight, right?”
Moments later, across the neighborhood at Florian Hall, a visibly-relieved Nick Collins arrived to cheers from his supporters gathered at the firefighters union hall.
The victorious Collins was introduced by Sam Dillon, the head of the firefighters 718 union.
After thanking his family and friends, Collins said:
“When you’re in a competitive race, it tests what you’re doing this for. People say, “What is motivating you to run?” That’s the first question you have to answer. To me, I love this city. I love this state. And I want to make sure that it has the type of representation that can represent everybody.”
Collins later said: “I just want to say how humbled and grateful I am to be able to do this work with your support. I don’t take it lightly. It is a seven-day-a-week job.”
He closed his remarks by saying: “With that, drinks are on the senator.”
Collins supporter Donna Blythe McColgan of Savin Hill said she was gratified that the senator was re-nominated.
“This job, as a public official, can be thankless because it’s really hard to work within the system to get what the constituency needs,” she said. “Nick has been tireless and effective at doing that. So I think the community said thank you. I think his voters said thank you. I think the community said thank you.”
The full margin of victory for Collins is not yet clear.
The First Suffolk district, which is entirely within Boston, includes South Boston and Chinatown, most of Dorchester, and portions of the South End and Roxbury.
Gayle performed very well at the polls in Dorchester on Tuesday, according to unofficial results from select precincts collected by staff and contributors for The Reporter.
Collins won two precincts at the Adams Street library by clear margins. But Gayle won the double-precinct Lower Mills Library, 325-223. She also beat Collins at the Codman Square Library double-precinct, 179-102.
Collins won a key victory in Savin Hill, besting Gayle 277-144. But Gayle countered by winning In Ward 13, precinct 7 — the Kit Clark Apartments, 106-80.
In the South End, the two candidates were seen splitting the vote.
Collins narrowly beat Gayle 165-154 in a key precinct at Cathedral’s Ward 3, precinct 16, for example.
Whatever the final result, the contest was the most serious electoral challenge Collins has faced since winning the Senate seat in 2018.
State Rep. Dan Hunt, a Collins supporter, said the win “shows the faith that the First Suffolk has in Senator Collins, his relationships across the district, his hard work ethic, and his deliverables over the last” number of years in office.
Hunt added: “I think Latoya ran a great campaign, as evidenced by her surge in the last two weeks. She went from a relative unknown outside of her community work in the St. Mark’s area and otherwise — but in the rest of the district, went from a relatively unknown community worker to someone that was a household name by Election Day.
“And that’s a tribute to her and her campaign,” said Hunt.
City Councillor John FitzGerald, also a Collins backer, said “the votes are reflective of what’s going on in the community. Nick has always delivered…He’s always fought for the residents of his district. And so I think people showed up and paid him back today.
“His opponent is a great individual, but at the same time, Nick has a proven record. And I think overall what we’re showing is that that’s what’s key today — that history matters, politics matters, experience matters.”
Gayle, a Dorchester resident and senior director of advocacy and family partnerships at an early education nonprofit, has the backing of Mayor Michelle Wu in the race, while Collins— who has held the seat for eight years— enjoys the public support of many of his colleagues in city and state government.
Wu and Collins had been increasingly at odds over the last two years, particularly over the mayor’s proposal to temporarily shift a greater share of Boston’s property-tax burden onto commercial property owners as downtown office values declined.
Gayle made Collins’s opposition to the Wu tax plan a centerpiece of her campaign, arguing that the senator had stood in the way of relief for Boston homeowners. Collins countered that the mayor’s proposal would place too much pressure on businesses and pointed to his own tax-relief legislation and record of delivering state funding to neighborhoods throughout the district.
Juwan Skeens, a former City Council staffer, was also on the ballot, making his second run against Collins. In the 2024 Democratic primary, Collins defeated him by a vote of 10,386 to 2,792. Skeens subsequently ran unsuccessfully for the District 4 City Council seat in 2025.
-Developing story-
Bill Forry, Seth Daniel, Yawu Miller and Cassidy McNeeley contributed to this report.
