Nearly a week after Gov. Charlie Baker announced he won't join next year's race for governor, and as Attorney General Maura Healey weighs her own run, progressive state Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz has been endorsed by 12 local Democrats who want her to take Baker's place.
The Chang-Díaz campaign said Tuesday that fellow senator Edward Kennedy of Lowell, Suffolk County Register of Probate Felix Arroyo, Boston City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo, state Rep. Carmine Gentile of Sudbury and a slew of municipal elected officials are now backing the Democrat from Jamaica Plain. Many of the dozen endorsers are blue-chip progressive.
The slate of endorsements come as many Democrats await a decision from Healey on her political future and a potential run for the corner office herself. Healey ranks as one of the most popular Democrats in state politics and would lead the party primary in funds, sitting on roughly $900,000 in her campaign war chest.
"I'm proud to support Sonia's campaign for Governor. Sonia has never waited around to take on hard challenges — and she knows what it takes to deliver for Massachusetts families,” Felix Arroyo wrote in a release from the Chang-Díaz campaign, calling the veteran senator "one of our strongest and most effective leaders at the State House for years."
The elder Arroyo's sentiment was supported by his city councilor son Ricardo.
"We need to elect a Governor who doesn't just show up when it's easy, but who'll stand up for working families no matter how tough the challenges or the opponent. That's Sonia Chang-Díaz," Ricardo Arroyo wrote in the same release.
Chang-Díaz also announced support from Springfield City Councilor Jesse Lederman, Medford City Councilor Zac Bears, Northampton City Councilor Jamila Gore, Marlborough City Councilor Samantha Perlman, Franklin Town Councilor Patrick Sheridan, Acton Boxborough School Committee Member Ben Bloomenthal, Newton School Committee Chair-Elect Tamika Olszewski and Woburn School Committee Member Andrew Lipsett. They join 27 other public officials who have thrown their weight behind Chang-Díaz.
A spokesperson for gubernatorial candidate and former Berkshire Sen. Ben Downing said the campaign expects to release their own slate of endorsements this week. The campaign of Danielle Allen, a Harvard professor also in the running for the Democratic nomination next year, did not immediately respond to a request about Allen's endorsements.
