Congressman Seth Moulton (D-Salem) has announced that he will challenge Senator Ed Markey (D-Malden) in the 2026 Democratic primary for the United States Senate. Several potential candidates have already announced their intention to run for the 6th Congressional seat, but many more are likely to get in the race given how rarely congressional seats are open.
This post will look at the 39 municipalities, 22 State Representative, 7 State Senate, and 3 Governor’s Council districts that overlap the 6th Congressional district to consider a range of elected officials who might consider a run for the seat. While the law does not require that a Congressional candidate live in the district they are running to represent, it is very rare for a candidate to break that norm. I will focus on elected officials who live in the 6th district.
District Overview
The Massachusetts 6th Congressional District is “the North Shore district,” encompassing 31 of the 34 cities and towns of Essex County and an additional eight Middlesex County towns. The only municipalities that are not fully contained in the 6th District are the Middlesex towns of Bedford and Billerica with 4 out of 5 Bedford precincts and 5 out of 12 Billerica precincts sitting inside the 6th Congressional District.
There are three notable northern Essex County cities that are not in the 6th Congressional District—Haverhill, Lawrence, and Methuen—which are all part of Lori Trahan’s 3rd Congressional District.
Cities and Towns
There are 32 towns and 7 cities in the 6th District. Of the seven cities, the largest by far is Lynn with a population of just over 100,000. The mayors of those cities—worth looking into as possible congressional seat contendors—are listed below.
| County |
District Population
|
Mayor | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amesbury | City | Essex | 17,279 | Kassandra Gove | ||
| Andover | Town | Essex | 36,491 | |||
| Beverly | City | Essex | 41,293 | Michael P. Cahill | ||
| Boxford | Town | Essex | 8,204 | |||
| Danvers | Town | Essex | 27,644 | |||
| Essex | Town | Essex | 3,409 | |||
| Georgetown | Town | Essex | 8,455 | |||
| Gloucester | City | Essex | 28,350 | Greg Verga | ||
| Groveland | Town | Essex | 6,742 | |||
| Hamilton | Town | Essex | 7,624 | |||
| Ipswich | Town | Essex | 13,309 | |||
| Lynn | City | Essex | 100,198 | Jared C. Nicholson | ||
| Lynnfield | Town | Essex | 12,939 | |||
| Manchester-by-the-Sea | Town | Essex | 5,219 | |||
| Marblehead | Town | Essex | 19,988 | |||
| Merrimac | Town | Essex | 6,717 | |||
| Middleton | Town | Essex | 9,510 | |||
| Nahant | Town | Essex | 3,246 | |||
| Newbury | Town | Essex | 6,656 | |||
| Newburyport | City | Essex | 18,154 | Sean Reardon | ||
| North Andover | Town | Essex | 30,954 | |||
| Peabody | City | Essex | 53,988 | Edward A. Bettencourt Jr. | ||
| Rockport | Town | Essex | 6,973 | |||
| Rowley | Town | Essex | 6,140 | |||
| Salem | City | Essex | 43,950 | Dominick Pangallo | ||
| Salisbury | Town | Essex | 8,959 | |||
| Saugus | Town | Essex | 28,225 | |||
| Swampscott | Town | Essex | 14,891 | |||
| Topsfield | Town | Essex | 6,496 | |||
| Wenham | Town | Essex | 4,933 | |||
| West Newbury | Town | Essex | 4,596 | |||
| Bedford | 4/5 | Town | Middlesex | 13,872 | ||
| Billerica | 5/12 | Town | Middlesex | 17,265 | ||
| Burlington | Town | Middlesex | 26,130 | |||
| North Reading | Town | Middlesex | 15,434 | |||
| Reading | Town | Middlesex | 25,466 | |||
| Tewksbury | Town | Middlesex | 30,987 | |||
| Wakefield | Town | Middlesex | 27,157 | |||
| Wilmington | Town | Middlesex | 23,191 | |||
State Senate
Figure 1: State Senate Districts
The 3rd Essex, 1st Essex and Middlesex, and 2nd Essex State Senate districts are completely contained in the 6th Congressional District. Of the partially contained districts, only the 2nd Essex and Middlesex has a senator, Barry Finegold, who resides in the 6th. Senator Brendand Crighton (D-Lynn) has indicated that he will not be seeking the 6th Congressional nomination during this election cycle, leaving the senators in the highlighted rows as in the mix.
| District | Legislator | PVI | District Population | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3rd Essex | Brendan Peter Crighton (D-Lynn) | D+12 | 179,487 | Senator Crighton has said that he will not enter the congressional race. |
| 1st Essex and Middlesex | Bruce E. Tarr (R-Gloucester) | D+12 | 176,134 | |
| 2nd Essex | Joan B. Lovely (D-Salem) | D+13 | 166,874 | |
| 2nd Essex and Middlesex | Barry R. Finegold (D-Andover) | D+8 | 138,648 | |
| 5th Middlesex | Jason M. Lewis (D-Winchester) | D+17 | 52,623 | Senator Lewis's town of Winchester is not in the 6th District |
| 4th Middlesex | Cindy F. Friedman (D-Arlington) | D+17 | 43,395 | Senator Friedman's town of Arlington is not in the 6th District |
| 3rd Middlesex | Michael J. Barrett (D-Lexington) | D+22 | 13,872 | Senator Barrett's town of Lexington is not in the 6th District |
State Representative
Figure 2: State Representative Districts
There are 15 State Representative districts fully contained in the 6th Congressional District, all highlighted in the table below. None of the representatives in the remaining 7 districts live in the 6th District. Representative Kenneth Gordon (D-Bedford) lives in the one Bedford precinct that is part of Katherine Clark’s 5th Congressional District, and Rep. Marc Lombardo (R-Billerica) resides in a Billerica precinct that is part of Lori Trahan’s 3rd District.
| District | Legislator | PVI | District Population | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14th Essex | Adrianne Pusateri Ramos (D-North Andover) | D+10 | 46,287 | |
| 18th Essex | Tram T. Nguyen (D-Andover) | D+11 | 46,099 | Rep. Nguyen is considering a run for the congressional seat. |
| 2nd Essex | Kristin E. Kassner (D-Hamilton) | D+11 | 46,046 | |
| 11th Essex | Sean Reid (D-Lynn) | D+16 | 45,443 | |
| 1st Essex | Dawne Frances Shand (D-Newburyport) | D+14 | 45,140 | |
| 9th Essex | Donald H. Wong (R-Saugus) | D+3 | 44,901 | |
| 13th Essex | Sally P. Kerans (D-Danvers) | D+4 | 44,833 | |
| 20th Middlesex | Bradley H. Jones, Jr. (R-North Reading) | D+4 | 44,611 | |
| 12th Essex | Thomas P. Walsh (D-Peabody) | D+5 | 44,442 | |
| 10th Essex | Daniel H. Cahill (D-Lynn) | D+16 | 44,244 | |
| 5th Essex | Ann-Margaret Ferrante (D-Gloucester) | D+18 | 43,952 | |
| 7th Essex | Manny Cruz (D-Salem) | D+24 | 43,950 | |
| 6th Essex | Hannah Louise Bowen (D-Beverly) | D+18 | 43,831 | |
| 8th Essex | Jennifer Wb Armini (D-Marblehead) | D+21 | 42,367 | |
| 19th Middlesex | David Allen Robertson (D-Wilmington) | D+2 | 40,440 | |
| 21st Middlesex | Kenneth I. Gordon (D-Bedford) | D+17 | 40,002 | Parts of Rep. Gordon's town of Bedford are in the 6th District, but not Gordon's precinct |
| 22nd Middlesex | Marc T. Lombardo (R-Billerica) | D+2 | 17,265 | Parts of Rep. Lombardo's town of Billerica are in the 6th District, but not Lombardo's precinct |
| 30th Middlesex | Richard M. Haggerty (D-Woburn) | D+12 | 16,125 | Rep. Haggerty's city of Woburn is not in the 6th District |
| 32nd Middlesex | Kate Lipper-Garabedian (D-Melrose) | D+20 | 11,507 | Rep. Lipper-Garabedian's city of Melrose is not in the 6th District |
| 17th Essex | Frank A. Moran (D-Lawrence) | D+17 | 9,240 | Rep. Moran's city of Lawrence is not in the 6th District |
| 16th Suffolk | Jessica Ann Giannino (D-Revere) | D+5 | 5,244 | Rep. Giannino's city of Revere is not in the 6th District. |
| 17th Middlesex | Vanna Howard (D-Lowell) | D+14 | 5,068 | Rep. Howard's city of Lowell is not in the 6th District. |
Governor’s Council
Figure 3: Governor’s Council Districts
While the 5th Governor’s Council District of Eunice Zeigler (D-Methuen) has the largest overlap with the 6th Congressional District, Terrence Kennedy (D-Lynnfield) is the only Governor’s Councillor who actually lives in the Congressional district.
| District | Councillor | PVI | District Population | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5th | Eunice Delice Zeigler (D-Methuen) | D+10 | 481,656 | Councillor Zeigler's city of Methuen is not in the 6th District |
| 6th | Terrence W. Kennedy (D-Lynnfield) | D+22 | 232,110 | |
| 3rd | Mara Dolan (D-Concord) | D+25 | 57,267 | Councillor Dolan's town of Concord is not in the 6th District |
Conclusion
This is primarily an exercise in using available district overlap data to generate a list of people who might be considering a run. Many people not on this list are thinking about running—we have already seen a declaration by former 3rd District congressional candidate Dan Koh who has declared himself a candidate.
According to the Secretary of the Commonwealth nomination papers will become available in February of 2026, and the deadlines for submitting papers are May 5 (party candidates to local officials) and June 2 (for party candidates to file certified signatures to the Commonwealth).