Keller: Why one Mass. congressman is cruising without competition

The midterms are just 13 weeks away, and there is still no obvious answer to the question: what do Massachusetts voters want?

OK, not Republicans. But beyond that, it’s not clear what we’re shopping for. Old hands or young blood? Insiders or outsiders? Socialists, capitalists, lovers, muggers, thieves? We love that (allegedly no longer) dirty water, but what else?

Maybe there’s a clue in that most rare phenomenon, a member of Congress facing absolutely no competition for reelection. No Democratic primary challengers. No Republican general election foe. Not even a stray independent or third-party wingnut who flits onto the ballot like a fly seeking purchase on a dog’s leavings, pending certain disposal by the voters.

Among the nine members of the Massachusetts delegation up for renewal, Second District Congressman Jim McGovern is unique. But why?

“I have no idea,” he says. “I would like to think it’s because I’m doing a good job and I have Democrats, Independents, and Republicans who appreciate that and believe I deserve another term.”

This is the eighth time since taking office in 1997 that McGovern has had a free ride, an eyebrow-raising feat considering the seat in 1996 — then known as the Third CD and destined for two rounds of redistricting since — was one of two held by a Republican (Peter Blute). According to some of the right-wing trolls on one Worcester-area Facebook page (“the state is a communist state”), the explanation is the Second CD was redistricted out of reach of the GOP. 

But like most everything else you read on Facebook, that’s false. McGovern’s narrow 1996 margin of victory came from Worcester and Fall River; he lost the Spindle City (which voted Republican for president in 2024 for the first time in a century) in the 2010 redistricting but picked up Leominster, no left-wing haven. As recently as 2018, the Second CD went for Republican Charlie Baker for governor by a healthy 68-32% spread, Baker’s second straight win there. They liked Scott Brown over Martha Coakley in the 2010 Senate special too.

So why does this relatively moderate district rally so persistently and conclusively behind a perennial top-ten finisher in the National Journal’s ranking of most-liberal House members? 

Jon Keller is a MASSterList columnist.

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