BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts Republicans will pick candidates to challenge U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch in the state primary on Tuesday. The competitions top the list of federal, state and local competitions held throughout the Commonwealth.
Warren is seeking a third term and is not opposed to the Democratic nomination. Possible Republican candidates include industrial engineer Bob Antonellis, Quincy City Council President Ian Cain and attorney John Deaton.
Deaton is by far the best-funded candidate in the GOP field, thanks mostly to the $1 million he loaned his campaign. He more than doubled Cain’s spending and had about $975,000 in the bank at the end of June. By comparison, Cain had about $22,000 left in his war chest.
Warren faced a competitive race in her first U.S. Senate bid in 2012 when she unseated Republican incumbent Scott Brown. He received over 60% of the vote in 2018. Biden won 66% of the state’s vote in the 2020 presidential election.
In the 8th Congressional District in eastern Massachusetts, U.S. Democrat Stephen Lynch faces no primary challenge in his race for the 12th full term. Vying for the Republican nomination are videographer Rob Burke, healthcare worker and retired Verizon employee Jim Govatsos and bar owner Daniel Kelly.
Burke challenged Lynch in the 2022 general election, receiving 30 percent of the vote to Lynch’s 70 percent. Biden won this Boston area in 2020 with 67 percent of the vote. Lynch had about $1.1 million in the bank at the end of June. None of these Republican challengers have reported raising any money.
Democrats have a lock on the Bay State’s congressional delegation, with both U.S. Senate seats and all nine U.S. House seats firmly up for grabs. They also have lopsided supermajorities in both houses of the state legislature, where all seats are up for election in November. Even so, Republicans hope to build on their toes in the state Senate, where they carried a vacant Democratic seat in 2023.
