MAPA endorses Erika Uyterhoeven for State Senate in the 2nd Middlesex district, which covers Cambridge (Wards 9-11), Medford, Somerville, and Winchester (Precincts 4-7).
Erika is a current State Representative who has consistently supported MAPA’s priorities in the State House. She has been a lone voice in opposing building new prisons and has fought for the rights of incarcerated people. She introduced a MAPA-backed bill to divest the state pension fund from Israeli genocide and publicly pushed for the Yes on 3 ballot initiative in Somerville to end all city contracts with companies tied to Israeli genocide. Representative Uyterhoeven cofounded Act on Mass to fight for transparency in the State House. One of her crowning achievements was pushing for public committee votes.
In the State Senate, Uyterhoeven will continue these fights. She will tackle the climate crisis by taking on private utility companies like Eversource and rejecting attempts in the State Senate to label pro-Palestine activism as antisemitism.
Erika is running in a 5 way competitive race including a “Progressive Except for Palestine” State Rep who is unlikely to ever challenge State House leadership and a Cambridge City Councilor backed by real estate developers who cannot take a firm stance on Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Erika is the only candidate in the race with a firm unwavering pro-peace stance paired with the courage needed to challenge State House leadership.
In contrast, not only has Uyterhoeven been endorsed by MAPA, she has been endorsed by the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the Boston Teachers Union, IBEW Local 2222, Unite Here Local 25, Somerville Municipal Employees Union, If Not Now Boston, and Medford for Palestine. Unlike her opponents, she advocates for transparency in government. She is the most open and loud about her support for Palestine as a legislator in the State House and as a Somerville elected official. She was not a reluctant vote for the State or Somerville Boycott/Divest/Sanction Israel proposals, as was one of her opponents, but rather sponsored and spoke in favor of the bill:
More than three hours of testimony on July 16 focused on House Bill 2984, which would direct the state pension fund to divest from companies that sell military equipment to the state of Israel. Representative Erika Uyterhoeven [sp], the bill’s sponsor, told the committee she filed the measure out of “a moral calling,” describing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and asserting that public pension investments currently help finance companies “explicitly complicit” in killings. Uyterhoeven [sp] said the bill would divest from any company selling weapons to Israel unless the company publicly announced it would end such sales…
As she was a great successor to Pat Jehlen and Denise Provost as a state representative, she will carry on the great work of Senator Jehlen, who also stood for transparency and divestment.