In the First Suffolk and Middlesex district, two women of color are making big plays for the state house and garnering attention. Lydia Edwards, a public interest lawyer with Greater Boston Legal Services with a focus on labor issues, and Diana Hwang, co-founder and executive director of the Asian-American Women’s Political Initiative, have been collecting endorsements and voters as they campaign for the state senate seat that represents North End, Beacon Hill, East Boston, Revere, Winthrop and parts of Cambridge.
Only one Republican has entered the race, thus shifting focus to the April 12 Democratic primary. Edwards and Hwang will be up against each other as well as Dan Rizzo, former Revere mayor; Steve Morabito, current Revere City Councilor; Joseph Boncore, an attorney from Winthrop; and Jay Livingstone, 8th Suffolk District state representative, as they compete to nab the Democratic party nomination. The field may change as the March 8 candidate filing deadline nears.
Whoever wins will face off with Republican candidate Donald Willyard — a member of the board on the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education — in the May 10 election.
The race is a special election, which poses an added challenge to candidates of who must submit to an accelerated campaign schedule, with far less time to build support and get their names out.
Contested district
First Middlesex and Suffolk is a district with a strong and diverse immigrant population, which means success will depend, in part, on being able to connect across many communities, said former Cambridge vice mayor Dennis Benzan, who initially entered the race before opting out in late January.
“This district is representative of an immigrant community from all over the world — an Italian community, Columbian community, Asian community — and it’s a very hardworking immigrant community,” Benzan said. “Really understanding the different immigrant groups that live within the district and serving as a bridge among those communities will be an important characteristic for anyone that’s elected to this particular seat.”
According to Ballotpedia, the district is majority white, 10.5 percent Asian and nearly 5 percent black. Approximately 23 percent of the population is Hispanic.
Hwang and Edwards both tout their experience with immigrant advocacy.
Asian-American Women’s Political Initiative
When Diana Hwang, the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, graduate from Dartmouth College, she became a legislative aide to the late State Rep. Debby Blumer. She said that at the state house, she was struck the lack of diversity — something that reminded her of the isolation her dad experienced as an immigrant in America, she said.
“I noticed there was no one who looked like me and how little diversity there was,” she said. According to the Asian-American Women’s Political Initiative, only 37 of the nation’s 8,000 state legislative seats are held by Asian-American women.
One of her formative memories, Hwang said, was as a young child watching a grocery store clerk overcharge and talk down to her father, who spoke with stilted English. Seeing this kind of disempowerment stuck with her.
“I want to ensure that everyone has a voice in government. I think there needs to be more diversity in ours state house,” she said.
Women of color feel the most disconnected from government, Hwang said, and she has sought to bridge that gap. Her past work includes serving as executive director for the Massachusetts Caucus of Women Legislators and co-founding the Asian-American Women’s Political Initiative, the nation’s first political leadership and mentoring organization for Asian American women.
Domestic Workers Bill of Rights
For Lydia Edwards, running for office is a natural progression, bringing her current immigrant and domestic worker advocacy to a larger scale, she said. In recognition of her efforts, she won 2015 Bostonians of the Year honorable mention.
“[Running] had a lot to do with the trajectory I was on in terms of already organizing in the immigrant community on a lot of issues,” she said. Edwards learned Spanish and Portuguese while working and organizing with immigrants.
As a lawyer, Edwards said she has broad experience representing working families and has worked with union members, immigrants and progressive groups.
Among her key achievements: helping to secure labor standards and protections for domestic workers that affect wages and working conditions. Edwards opened a first-in-the-nation law and policy clinic for domestic workers and was later part of the team that wrote the Massachusetts’s Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights.
“That was the most prominent and impactful moment in my life,” she said of the bill’s passage. “Of all the candidates running, I’m the only one who’s managed to get a law passed in one session.”
Campaign comparison
So far, Hwang has won endorsements from Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz and Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry, as well as Boston state Rep. Dan Hunt, Cambridge state Rep. Alice Wolf, former Fitchburg mayor Lisa Wong and Quincy City Councilor Nina Liang.
Hwang’s campaign manager is Marisol Santiago and her team includes former state treasurer Steve Grossman and campaign strategists Deborah Shah — who ran Anthony Petrocelli’s campaign for this same seat — and Cayce McCabe — whose campaign management experience include Linda Dorcena Forry’s senate race.
The team is primarily volunteer, with Santiago the only paid member. A recent volunteer event drew 35 people in the midst of 2° weather, Hwang said.
In the last two weeks of December, the campaign raised $50,000. Hwang said that — giving a conservative estimate — the campaign is likely to receive $100,000 by the end of this month and that there are plans to raise another $100,000 in March.
Meanwhile, Edwards’ endorsers include Sen. Dan Wolf and Boston City Council President Michelle Wu, as well as the United Auto Workers Union, Bricklayers Union, Plumbers Union #12 and New England Joint Board Unit Here.
Julie Brown, a finance marketing expert, is Edwards’ campaign manager. Her team includes about 50 volunteers and three to four paid staff members, a number she is looking to expand, she said. Edwards said the campaign has hit all its funding goals.
Special elections, special challenges
Special elections tend to catch voters by surprise with their unusual dates and make for truncated campaigning, which pose a challenge to candidates for name recognition.
“You don’t have a lot of time to meet voters,” Benzan noted. “This race will be won by the candidate that is most recognized throughout the entire district, but, most importantly, really gets out there and meets voters who come out for special elections.”
Revere tends to have fairly strong voter turnout for special elections, while turnout is low in areas such as East Boston, Benzan said. He expected 2,000-2,500 votes could win the election.
Hwang estimated approximately 12,000 votes will be cast and, with the wide field of candidates, those getting 3,000 to 4,000 votes would win.
Even with these daunting challenges, Hwang and Edwards said they are encouraged by results thus far, as their campaigns continue to gain momentum.
