Massachusetts State Senator Sonia Chang-Díaz announced her candidacy for governor this week, joining a Democratic primary field consisting of Harvard professor Danielle Allen and former State Senator Ben Downing. Meanwhile, on the Republican side of things, incumbent Gov. Charlie Baker has yet to declare whether he will seek a third term, while some other, more conservative members of the party say they are considering jumping in — a symbol of the intra-party divisions still rocking the Massachusetts GOP in the post-Trump era.
In for Jim Braude, Adam Reilly was joined on Greater Boston by Lisa Kashinsky, reporter for POLITICO Massachusetts and the author of the POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook, and Erin O’Brien, an associate professor of political science at UMass Boston.
O’Brien has said that Chang-Díaz is likely the top contender in the Democratic field. “She’s had a lane against Charlie Baker — a critique of Charlie Baker that is consistent and sustained,” O’Brien said. “She has higher name recognition; she comes from the eastern part of the state, where population is most dense. Danielle Allen is impressive, but she’s not a household name. The same goes for Ben Downing.”
Kashinsky agreed: “She [Chang-Díaz] is the one in the field, at now at least, who’s currently in office. So she has easy ways to insert herself into the conversation, [and] the media,” she said. “She also, right now, has the backing of those young progressive activists, those very online activists. She has that movement behind her already.”
WATCH: Mass. governor’s race gains a Democratic candidate, while GOP field remains undeclared
