Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven defeated Kathleen Hornby in the Sept. 3 Democratic primary for Somerville’s 27th Middlesex District, winning 69% of the vote. Uyterhoven earned 5,705 votes, while Hornby earned 2,571 votes.
As there is no opponent expected to be on the ballot for the general election this November, Uyterhoeven will most likely win another term to serve in the Massachusetts State House. Uyterhoeven cited her progressive politics as a driving force in her campaign and a reason for her victory.
“I ran, and have continued to run, as a bold progressive fighting for transformational change,” Uyterhoeven said. “I wasn’t surprised that I had the support I did.”
Hornby, a former legislative staffer on Beacon Hill, said that both her uncertainty of whether or not Uyterhoeven would run again and her desire to continue a career in public service influenced her decision to run.
“[I] was talking to folks and realized how exciting [the candidacy] was as a prospect, not only for Somerville but for [the] next steps for me as a public servant, somebody who knows the legislature inside and out and somebody who’s really dedicated to this community,” Hornby said. “Once I had decided to explore running, I had to come to a decision about whether I would do it if there was an incumbent. That took a lot more thought as well, and I decided I wanted to stay in it no matter what.”
Hornby explained that she initially believed she might be running unopposed, saying that when she joined the race, no other candidates had officially joined. Uyterhoeven, however, disputed claims that she ever planned on not seeking reelection.
“I heard a rumor back in December that people heard that I wasn’t going to run. And I was, like, ‘that’s not true,’” Uyterhoeven said. “When I asked, ‘Hey, who did you hear that rumor from?’, it always came back to [Hornby] … I think it was a convenient rumor.”
Despite her loss, Hornby said she was proud of the work that she and her team had done to spread the word about the importance of public service.
“I think we started a really good conversation, which hopefully will continue, about what the job is,” Hornby explained. “I have worked for two different state representatives, and that very much informs my understanding of what the job is … I see this role as the role of a public servant which means, first and foremost, meeting the needs of your constituents and of the district.”
One of the Hornby campaign’s criticisms of Uyterhoeven was a lack of legislative efficacy during her time in office. Somerville Democrats, who endorsed Hornby on Aug. 16, criticized the fact that none of the bills Uyterhoeven had sponsored had actually passed. Uyterhoeven dismissed these claims as untrue.
“I think her critique about efficacy is just not true. That’s what I think voters looked into. I think she made a lot of claims … based on [a] lack of context,” Uyterhoeven said.
Jack Perenick, a Tufts alumnus and the chairman of the Somerville Democratic Party, described how rare it is for a local race between two progressive Democrats to be competitive.
“It was a rare opportunity to have two qualified people on the ballot together, and it certainly made for what I hope was a more thought-provoking race for Somervilians because they had… a meaningful choice,” he said.
Perenick also acknowledged the innate difficulties that come with galvanizing Somerville residents to turn out and vote in a local election between two very ideologically similar candidates.
“[In] single-member districts, people have no contemporaneous representative to really compare [the incumbent] with, other than members of the other chamber,” Perenick said. “My guess is that probably an astonishingly small number of people are able to do a compare-and-contrast between state legislators in their head. I think that is something that played into this race where people don’t necessarily know what the options are.”
As for next steps, Hornby detailed her commitment to staying in the field of civic service and working to improve the lives of Massachusetts citizens.
“One of the things that I have been really grateful for working in the State House is the opportunity to work with coalitions working on important policy issues. I see my role over the next year or two as just continuing to stay engaged with those coalitions,” she said. “One thing that I would like to keep working on both locally and at the state level is moving towards overdose prevention centers.”
Uyterhoeven described her policy priorities as she begins to prepare for the next legislative session.
“There’s affordable housing, reproductive justice and transportation, particularly public transportation,” Uyterhoeven said. “Something that I’m really excited to help work on is [the] expansion of the MBTA, and I think that’s something that is extremely needed and very much closely tied to the climate crisis, because our biggest emission in the Greater Boston area is transportation.”
Tufts senior Cosmo Curtatone, who interned on the Hornby campaign, shared what his experience in campaign work taught him about the political process.
“It’s taught me that local politics are definitely more [about] bread-and-butter issues,” Curtatone said. “People were worried about housing, sidewalks, streets, things that affect them on a day-to-day basis.”
