Two Jews Make Ballot in Democratic Primary for Mass. Governor
Deep Ties: Steve Grossman, one-time head of the Democratic National Committee, with former U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1997. Image by Getty Images
Steve Grossman, the former chair of AIPAC and one-time head of the Democratic National Committee, is one of two Democratic Jewish candidates for Massachusetts governor on the primary ballot.
Grossman, Massachusetts State Treasurer, and Don Berwick, a one-time pediatrician and former Medicare chief, qualified for the primary ballot in voting by party delegates at the state’s Democratic convention held Saturday.
A third Jewish candidate, Evan Falchuk, son of former Hadassah national president Nancy Falchuk, is running as an independent. Dan Wolf, a Jewish state senator and businessman, withdrew months ago from the heated race to replace outgoing Gov. Deval Patrick.
The primary will be held in September.
Grossman was the top vote getter among Democratic Party activists, garnering 35.2 percent of the delegates’ votes, ahead of Martha Coakley, the state’s attorney general who received 23.3 percent. Berwick received 22.1 percent of the vote, just behind Coakley, according to the Boston Globe.
Coakley, who holds a significant lead in statewide polls, will be the only woman on the primary ballot for governor, after the other woman candidate, Juliette Kayyem, a former Homeland Security official, did not receive the required 15 percent of the convention vote, as required by party rules.
Massachusetts has never had a Jewish governor, though it’s not a first for Jewish candidates to run for the state’s top office. In 2002, Grossman withdrew his candidacy before the primary, in an election that included former Clinton-era Labor Secretary Robert Reich.
During the convention, news spread that Grossman had a new grandson, Jacob, born to his son and daughter-in-law.
In the race to replace Grossman as state treasurer, two of the three candidates who will be on the September primary ballot are also Jewish, Deborah Goldberg and Barry Finegold.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
