A lifelong resident of Sharon, Massachusetts, Ted is a proud graduate of Sharon High School and earned his undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He also holds a Master's Degree in Public Administration from the Sawyer School of Business at Suffolk University.
COVID-19 has caused devastation across the country and around the world. Over 150,000 Americans have died from this virus, over four and a half million cases have been reported in the U.S. alone, unemployment is at its highest rate since the Great Depression, people across the country have had to adjust to a remote work or school life, and essential workers are risking their lives every day to keep America running. As a densely populated state, Massachusetts was hit hard by coronavirus – especially our communities of color and nursing homes.
Throughout this pandemic, I have worked with the residents of the 8th Norfolk District to ensure that the coronavirus would have as minimal an effect on their lives as possible. I’ve worked with residents who have had challenges navigating the unemployment system and with small business and restaurant owners as they’ve navigated from shutting down to re-opening in a constantly changing landscape. In addition, I’ve served as the point of contact between our local and state governments to make sure that the Administration was getting up-to-date feedback from towns as they worked to implement recent directives. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has gotten a lot of things right throughout this process; we've also had many situations where we should have done better.
Another pandemic at some point in the future is inevitable. However, we have more data on COVID-19 than on any other pandemic in history, and my hope is that we can use that data to better understand how to prevent a virus from reaching pandemic levels and how to respond if it does. Before we can do that, though, Massachusetts and the United States need to recover from the coronavirus and its economic impacts.
As your State Representative, I will work to:
STABILIZE: Get families and small businesses back on their feet and mitigate the economic damage that has resulted from the coronavirus.
Ensure that the Commonwealth re-opens safely.
Provide Massachusetts’ hardest-hit communities with adequate, substantial aid to account for the disproportionate impact COVID-19 had on them.
Equip Massachusetts with the resources needed for our elections to continue unimpeded by COVID-19 and to protect every Massachusetts citizen’s right to vote.
ANALYZE: The legislature must conduct a complete, stem-to-stern After Action Report in which we solicit input and feedback not just from business owners, but from workers who have been on the front lines and can provide invaluable information about what needs to be improved for the next time something like this happens.
MOBILIZE: I will work with the four towns in the 8th Norfolk District and with state agencies to develop thorough, comprehensive plans to put in place, complete with resources to stress-test said plans, so that if we face a similar emergency again in our lifetimes, we have both certainty and confidence in our response.
On this issue, I am proud to be endorsed by:
Massachusetts Nurses Association
1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers
Rep. Denise Garlick (13th Norfolk), chair of the House COVID-19 working group
Our transportation system is broken. The MBTA Commuter Rail services all four communities in the 8th Norfolk District, with each town positioned along a different line (Providence/Stoughton, and Franklin/Forge Park). Many residents of the district – along with the rest of the Commonwealth – therefore rely on public transportation, yet constantly receive poor, unreliable service. As a regular commuter to Boston for 15 years, I have experienced the issues with our public transportation firsthand, and I know how frustrating these issues are for commuters every day.
Our trains are rarely on time, and even when they are, there’s often little to no room to sit down. Our highways and major roads, especially in cities, are frequently at a standstill, clogged with traffic. The T has literally caught on fire multiple times, an apt metaphor for our chaotic system. Yet, despite the never-ending failures of our public transportation system, commuters are still asked to pay more for a substandard service which is under constant threat of privatization.
I believe that trains are the key to our transportation issue. If we can improve the commuter experience through a better train schedule and a modernized, environmentally friendly infrastructure, we can incentivize people to get off the roads and take the train to work. Fixing our train system wouldn’t just improve the commuter experience; by implementing the below reforms, the Commonwealth can reduce congestion on the roads, support our environment, and maintain a steady stream of (better-managed) revenue into our public transportation. Ingenuity and creativity – not just throwing money at the issue – are required to get our train systems working better for all of us. I’m frustrated with this perpetual problem and I’m dedicated to implementing strategic, meaningful, and effective solutions that will benefit commuters in our district and across the Commonwealth.
As your State Representative, I will work to:
Create a graduated income tax structure, including the passage of H.86, commonly known as the Millionaire’s Tax, to create new revenue for transportation improvements.
However, before creating new revenue through this tax, we must evaluate how much new revenue can be created through increased oversight of the MBTA’s Fiscal Control Board. We should evaluate and fix our current system before planned expansions make the problem bigger.
If passed, the Millionaire’s Tax would not create new revenue until 2023, so this oversight and the improvement of MBTA administration can immediately create new revenue to fix our public transportation.
Develop a commuter rail schedule similar to the subway schedule to decrease crowding and increase the ability of conductors to collect fares from riders.
This will instantly increase revenue and prevent the need for further price hikes.
Upgrade transportation infrastructure and equipment to create a more reliable train service for riders without raising prices.
Invest in newer, more efficient, environmentally friendly trains, buses, and subway cars.
Install more effective oversight of the MBTA’s Fiscal Control Board.
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Towns in our district and throughout the Commonwealth are grappling with finding a balance between supporting the development of our communities and ensuring our aging population can remain in the communities they have supported and called home for decades. Projects like new schools, such as in Stoughton and Sharon, can develop our communities and improve them for generations to come, but can threaten the stability of our elderly population if they receive less financial support as a result.
Through a strong understanding of our state’s tax code and a creative approach to keeping a financially diverse community, I will propose innovative solutions to ensure our children can receive a high-quality education, our public services are well-funded, and our seniors can remain in the communities they have called home for so long. I am dedicated to keeping our aging population in their homes and ensuring no town has to abandon its seniors in order to support a development project or other investment.
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As your State Representative, I will work to:
Expand allowable limits on property tax work-off programs to help seniors reduce their tax burdens.
Create smaller, more affordable housing units for residents to downsize while staying in the community they love.
Identify and facilitate the development of commercial and industrial properties that can become contributors to local tax bases and slow the rate of property tax increases in all four communities.
On this issue, I am proud to be endorsed by:
MassRetirees
Climate change is the single biggest threat to our future, and major action is required in order to reduce the effects we have already begun to see and ultimately prevent total devastation across the globe. However, we're running out of time to take meaningful action. Massachusetts has been a leader on climate change for decades, though there is still much work left to be done in the Commonwealth.
As the globe continues to warm year by year, Massachusetts will experience – and has already begun to experience – severe effects of climate change. Our coastal towns and cities, including Boston, risk being submerged as sea levels continue to rise. Our farmers will struggle to produce as much when harsher droughts and heavier rain kill their crops. Our communities of color will feel harsher effects of climate change due to long-standing structural inequities which have made majority-Black and Brown communities more polluted and more susceptible to the effects of climate change (learn more about environmental racism here). Acting on climate change now will not only save our planet for generations to come, but will also save lives and prevent our country – and our world – from incurring major costs in the future by trying to reverse the irreversible effects of climate change.
Without strategic steps to effect change, we will face major issues around air and water quality, public health crises, disproportionate harm to communities of color, and an unstable future for the next generation. Our Commonwealth has a responsibility to act on this crisis, and we must act on it now.
As your State Representative, I will work to:
Make Massachusetts carbon neutral by 2050 and have 100% renewable electricity by 2035.
To achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, I support imposing increasing interim emission limits in 2030 and 2040.
Ensure at least 1% of the state budget is spent on environmental agencies and policy.
Requiring a minimum amount of spending on environmental protection will ensure that we are dedicating a sufficient amount of our state’s resources to combatting this existential threat every year.
Create sustainable policies around water management.
Continue to fund the electric vehicle rebate program, which incentivizes the switch from gas to electric cars in Massachusetts.
Invest in newer, more efficient, and environmentally friendly public transportation.
Read more about my transportation plan here.
Impose stricter regulations on pollution- and waste-creating buildings and industries to reduce the disproportionate burden of toxic pollutants on communities of color.
The Massachusetts legislature should also commission and release a new report on the magnitude of environmental racism in our state.
Listen to and include the voices of young people, who will be most heavily impacted by climate change, in the Commonwealth’s fight to save our environment.
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On this issue, I am proud to be endorsed by:
Environmental League of Massachusetts
A woman's health decisions should always remain between her, her doctor, and anyone else she may choose to bring into that conversation. I firmly believe that the government – local, state, or federal – has no place in a woman’s healthcare choices, and if a woman wants an abortion or any other reproductive health service, she should be able to safely and affordably access it. The Supreme Court of the United States codified this belief in Roe v. Wade, yet reproductive rights are still under attack today. Our state has a responsibility to defend reproductive rights and ensure no one lacks access to quality reproductive health care.
While I believe we should make abortion procedures legal, available, and affordable for any woman who chooses to undergo one, we should also focus on reducing the need for abortions, especially among our youth population. An age-appropriate, modernized sex education curriculum is lacking in our schools, which is leading to an increased need for abortions among our youth, especially those lacking financial resources. To combat high teen pregnancy rates and a greater need for reproductive health services, our public schools and universities should also be adequately equipped with birth control products to provide to their students for free and with discretion.
Women’s healthcare issues also frequently intersect with racial justice issues. Women of color disproportionately face barriers to accessing safe reproductive health care, and the mortality rate for Black mothers is two to five times higher than white mothers. In addressing access to reproductive health care, the Commonwealth must also address the racial disparities that are intertwined with this issue and ensure that all women, regardless of race, have access to quality reproductive health care.
As reproductive rights continue to be threatened across the country, Massachusetts must lead the way, as it has been doing for decades, in supporting a woman's right to choose.
As your State Representative, I will work to:
Support and advocate for the passage of the ROE Act.
Fight for age-appropriate sex education curriculum in Massachusetts schools to reflect advancements in modern science.
Advocate for the removal of barriers to quality reproductive and maternal health care which women of color disproportionately face.
The ROE Act addresses the impact of restrictions on reproductive health care on women of color, one of the many reasons why I support the bill.
Ensure Massachusetts public schools and universities can provide free birth control and emergency contraceptives at students who need it.
These products should be provided to students for free and with discretion.
On this issue, I am proud to be endorsed by:
Speaker Pro Tempore Pat Haddad (5th Bristol), author of the ROE Act
Rep. Jim O’Day (14th Worcester), author of the Healthy Youth Act
Massachusetts has long been a national leader on responsible gun policies. The Giffords Law Center gives Massachusetts an A- on its gun policy, ranks us 7th in the country for gun law strength, and rates us 49th for gun deaths per year. While I’m very proud of Massachusetts for being far ahead of the national average on gun control legislation, I believe our Commonwealth has not reached its full potential in its efforts to combat gun violence.
I support the Second Amendment, but I believe the right to bear arms comes with responsibilities, and when these responsibilities are abdicated – by a gun owner or by the government – lives are lost. We’ve seen the results of guns getting into bad hands far too many times: mass shootings, community and domestic violence, and our country’s disproportionately high gun death rate compared to other developed nations. That’s why I believe it is critical for our state to continue implementing common-sense gun reforms, because no one should ever have to lose a loved one to gun violence.
Here in Massachusetts, the Commonwealth can further ensure that guns are in the hands of responsible owners by enhancing our gun data-gathering systems and using that data to draft and enact comprehensive gun sense legislation. The Giffords Law Center has also laid out three important steps Massachusetts can take in its fight against gun violence, which I have adopted as part of my gun sense action plan below. By following these reforms, we can continue to fight gun violence and maintain our state’s standing as a national leader on gun laws.
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As your State Representative, I will work to:
Crack down on gun violence while protecting the rights of responsible gun owners.
Advance and support the Crime Gun Trace Data Reporting and Analysis bill currently under consideration at the State House.
It's important to have data around gun violence to make effective, long lasting-legislation that protects our citizens.
Ban the purchase and sale of weapons of war, like 50-caliber rifles, which no civilian should ever be able to own.
Impose a waiting period to prevent spur-of-the-moment firearm purchases.
Implement a restriction on the number of guns that can be bought at one time.
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I am proud to have been designated as a Moms Demand Action Gun Sense candidate.
RACIAL JUSTICE
My life is a shining example of white privilege: a safe and sheltered childhood with high-quality public education and expansive opportunities to pursue my choice of career. While one of the core principles of my candidacy has been to make sure every resident of the 8th Norfolk has the same opportunities I had, the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and far too many others have underscored that just being an ally to People of Color is not enough.
As your next State Representative, I will be an active participant in racial equity efforts in all four communities and across the state, taking what I hear from you and bringing it to Beacon Hill to make real change in dismantling systemic racism. I will work in support of the Black & Latino Legislative Caucus agenda, passing bills that will bring us closer to the Commonwealth we still strive to be. I am committed to enacting tangible anti-racist reforms in the State House because Black Lives Matter, and Massachusetts has a lot of work to do in order to become a more equal and just Commonwealth.
I am in strong support of the following reforms:
The Massachusetts Black & Latino Legislative Caucus 10-Point Plan
I fully support the state-level legislation in points 5-8, which mostly involve policing and the criminal justice system.
I will work to ensure the police departments of all four towns in the 8th Norfolk District adopt all eight policies.
Make Juneteenth a state holiday and work with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to incorporate the holiday, along with other racial equity issues, into the curriculum of Massachusetts schools.
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As your State Representative, I will work to:
Increase access to capital for minority-owned small businesses through increased financial support for programs like the Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation and the State Office of Minority and Women's Business Assistance (SOMWBA), a division of the Supplier Diversity Office.
Reform the Civil Service exam to put increased weight on diversity in order to ensure that our public safety agencies, especially police departments, better reflect the diversity of the communities they serve.
Reimagine our police departments for the 21st century.
Prevent the exclusion of the voices of Black and Brown elected officials & community leaders throughout the 8th Norfolk District and in the legislature.
Build a strong relationship between my office and the Massachusetts Black & Latino Legislative Caucus.
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LGBTQ+ RIGHTS
With Donald Trump in the White House, the LGBTQ+ community is under stronger attack than ever. While the first and most important step we can take to building a more tolerant and open-minded America is electing Joe Biden in November, we must continue to fight to make sure no one is discriminated against because of their sexual orientation or gender identification, regardless of who our next president is or which party controls our legislatures.
Every student deserves health and sexual educations which provide appropriate and accurate information for children of all orientations and identifications. LGBTQ+ elders deserve the same quality of care from healthcare providers as the rest of our aging population. In America, especially in progressive states like Massachusetts, we have a responsibility to be diligent and make sure that advances made by the LGBTQ+ community are protected and permanently enshrined in our laws. We must never stop fighting for our LGBTQ+ family members, friends, and neighbors.
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As your State Representative, I will work to:
Pass legislation (like the Healthy Youth Act) that supports comprehensive health education in public schools that includes medically accurate and age-appropriate information for all students, especially those that are LGBTQ+.
Advance legislation to train elder care providers in LGBTQ+ cultural competency in order to prevent discrimination against LGBTQ+ elders.
Increase funding for HIV/AIDS services and LGBTQ+ youth & elder services.
On these issues, I am proud to be endorsed by:
Rep. Jim O’Day (14th Worcester), author of the Healthy Youth Act
Our district is rife with economic potential; to use it, the 8th Norfolk District requires someone with a creative mind, knowledge of the district and its issues, and an understanding of the legislative process to make change happen. A strong economic development plan is essential to our district’s ability to thrive and offset the burden of pressing issues, such as rapidly increasing housing prices. Smart investments in our communities will ameliorate many of the issues that residents of the 8th Norfolk are facing today and keep our towns thriving for generations.
Finding solutions to our district’s diverse economic development needs requires a strong knowledge of each community’s pain points and a forward-thinking strategy that will help our towns prosper. As a lifelong resident of the district, I am uniquely qualified to tackle these issues on Beacon Hill. My deep knowledge of our district was a major part of my decision to run for this seat, and I know that I can deliver for every town in the district if I am given the opportunity to serve.
As your State Representative, I will focus on the following areas for economic growth:
Develop a robust downtown for Stoughton, unlocking its development potential.
Address Sharon’s decades-old problem of stagnant downtown development through creative solutions, such as expanding the center’s sewer capacity to open the door to new economic opportunities.
Advocate for the state resources Walpole, Stoughton, and Mansfield need to maintain the momentum they are currently seeing in their commercial real estate development.
On this issue, I am proud to be endorsed by:
Sharon Select Board (unanimous)
Stoughton Select Board (unanimous)
Four of the five members of the Mansfield Select Board
Nancy Mackenzie, Walpole Select Board
Andrew Nebenzahl, Sharon Town Moderator
Joseph D. Feaster Jr., former Interim Stoughton Town Manager
2019 was a strong year for the Massachusetts State House, with the passage of a handful of major, meaningful bills. However, with over 7,000 bills filed each legislative session, we need to be better at sending bills that can greatly benefit our Commonwealth to the Governor’s desk. Too many bills – from small municipal changes to larger statewide reforms – are stopped in their tracks by archaic legislative rules, being sent to study, and more, which need to change to make our legislature more effective and efficient.
My fifteen years at the State House have given me a thorough understanding of our state’s government which I can use to navigate the intricacies of the legislature and work within the system to effect meaningful change. It takes hard work and dogged determination to get a bill passed, and because of my deep involvement in the process, I understand what can be changed to improve our legislative framework. As a full-time representative, it will be a mission of mine to make changes that will create a more efficient legislative approach to improving our communities and the Commonwealth.
As your State Representative, I will work to:
Draft proposals to change the rules of the House to make it more transparent, efficient, and effective.
Fast-track municipal changes that require legislative approval.
Bring more bills to the floor for full and open debate, not just bills that are expected to pass with 140+ votes in a 160-member House.
I would advocate for the following specific rules changes:
House Rules
Currently, the House Committee on Steering, Policy, & Scheduling has a 30-day deadline to take action on a bill; at the end of the 30 days, if no action is taken by the committee, the bill automatically moves forward in the process to the House Committee on Bills in the Third Reading (BTR).
Many people don’t realize that under the House Rules, BTR has the same 30-day deadline to take action on a bill, but there is no enforcement mechanism on the tail end like in Steering & Policy, the result of which is bills dying in Third Reading from inaction.
Add an enforcement mechanism which ensures that once a bill hits its 30-day deadline, it must move to the floor of the House for action.
Joint Rules of the Legislature
If a bill garners a majority of cosponsors in both chambers (81 in the House, 21 in the Senate), that bill shall not be allowed to be sent to study or “accompanied by a study order”; it must receive a favorable, favorable with an amendment, or negative report.
Said bill must receive said report no later than two months prior to the deadline created by Joint Rule 10.
This gives the committee of jurisdiction an incentive to hear the bill early and take action on the bill in a time frame which gives said bill more time to get through the rest of the legislative process.
High-quality public schools are key to the educational, financial, and cultural health of communities in the 8th Norfolk District and around Massachusetts. The overall health of the Massachusetts economy also relies on the global competitiveness of our schools. As a graduate of Sharon High School, one of the top public high schools in the state, I have experienced the benefits of a well-funded public school firsthand. As your State Representative, I will fight for our public schools to ensure every Massachusetts student can be provided with the same excellent educational opportunities that I was.
I’m proud that the schools in the 8th Norfolk District are examples of successful investments in public education. However, schools in other lower-income areas of the state have not seen the same successes nor been provided with the same investments. A student’s zip code should not determine the quality of their education, and while the Student Opportunity Act of 2019 was a strong step in the right direction towards fixing the inequities of our school system, there is still much work to be done.
All students deserve access to high-quality public education and the wealth of opportunities that come with it, because nothing opens more doors than a good education. The Commonwealth must continue investing in our public education system to combat inequities and support all of our students, regardless of where they live.
​As your State Representative, I will:
Highlight the educational successes of our local communities and advocate at the state level for the value that our districts contribute to the overall economy.
Advance the Fair Share Amendment to bring more funding into our schools through the Chapter 70 formula.
Fight to re-evaluate the role charter schools play in our education system and move them back to their original mission of innovation in education.
Charter schools should be “laboratories of education,” testing new methods to educate our students to be implemented in our public schools.
Charter schools should NOT be siphoning funding away from public schools and cherry-picking the best students.
Promise to not advocate for additional requirements unless those mandates are accompanied by the funding necessary to make sure the burden doesn’t fall on our towns.
Meet with local leaders from each school district on a frequent basis to identify problems and monitor progress.
Promote additional collaborative opportunities among school districts.
On this issue, I am proud to be endorsed by:
Massachusetts Teachers Association
Rep. Jeff Roy, chair of the Joint Committee on Higher Education
Rep. Sean Garballey, author of the CHERISH Act
Nancy Gallivan, member of the Walpole School Committee
William Buckley, member of the Walpole School Committee
Marcy Kaplan, member of the Sharon School Committee
Kiera O'Neil, member of the Mansfield School Committee
Sandra Groppi, member of the Stoughton School Committee
Jon Hitter, former member of the Sharon School Committee
I fundamentally believe that healthcare is a right and that no one should ever go uninsured. The COVID-19 crisis has underscored how important access to quality, affordable healthcare is for everyone, and how our Commonwealth must work to achieve universal access to healthcare. With the Affordable Care Act in peril at the federal level, Massachusetts must continue its decades-long leadership on healthcare by making healthcare affordable for all and ensuring no resident of the Commonwealth lacks access to quality care. In doing so, we must also ensure all forms of healthcare are covered and stop drug companies from selling their life-saving medicines at absurd, unaffordable prices.
In our Commonwealth, we are also facing two major health crises: opioids and vaping. The former has been widespread across the United States and is still raging throughout Massachusetts, claiming the lives of far too many of our loved ones. Much of the reason our opioid problem has grown to such a large scale is that our medical professionals and public safety agencies have not been adequately equipped to handle such a crisis, which must be immediately rectified if we are going to end this epidemic. Our young people also face a vaping crisis, which has already begun to harm the health of far too many teens. To combat this epidemic, we must stand with Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey in her fight against companies like JUUL which target our youth with smoking devices full of toxins and chemicals.
If elected to the State House, I will fight for affordable healthcare for every resident of the 8th Norfolk District and throughout Massachusetts. Now more than ever, our legislature must protect its citizens and ensure no one lacks access to quality care.
As your State Representative, I will work to:
Reduce the cost of healthcare with a particular focus on drug pricing.
Combat the opioid crisis by ensuring that our medical professionals have the education and resources needed to fight this epidemic.
These resources should include both preventative measures and emergency response tools like NARCAN.
Provide adequate access to mental health resources for all who need it.
Combat the vaping epidemic in Massachusetts and across the country, which is drastically impacting the health of our young people.
I will support Massachusetts Attorney General Healey’s efforts to take on the vaping industry and its amoral efforts to target our children for profit.
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On this issue, I am proud to be endorsed by:
Massachusetts Nurses Association
1199SEIU (United Healthcare Workers)
If you work a 40-hour week (or more), you should not have to struggle to feed, clothe, and support yourself and your family. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has already passed a law that will implement a $15 minimum wage by 2023, and we should continue to adjust the minimum wage for future inflation so it is always a living wage. However, the minimum wage is not the only wage issue facing our workers today.
Workers are too often cheated out of their hard-earned wages when they work overtime or spend their breaks working. I strongly believe that workers must be paid for all work they do and that the legislature must take a strong stance against this wage theft. In addition, women and workers of color are still not paid the same amount as white men for the same work. Class, color, and creed have no place in determining a person’s income, and the Commonwealth cannot allow these discriminatory practices to continue. To combat these two issues, the legislature must immediately enact reforms to ensure all work is compensated and all workers are paid equally.
As the cost of living continues to increase, it's critical that all Massachusetts residents receive wages that will allow them to remain in their homes and communities. The Commonwealth must continue to support its workers and their families long into the future by fighting for fair wages for all.
As your State Representative, I will work to:
Ensure that the minimum wage keeps up with inflation.
Fight for a living wage for all Massachusetts workers.
Implement systemic reforms to crack down on wage theft so that everyone is paid what they're owed.
Continue to close the gender wage gap and advocate for equal pay for equal work.
Combat wage discrimination and ensure all workers are paid equally.
On this issue, I am proud to be endorsed by:
Massachusetts AFL-CIO
Massachusetts & Northern New England Laborers' District Council