Joseph Kennedy III and Sean Bielat beat their respective opponents, each claiming over 50 percent of the votes cast on Thursday, and sealing their fate as party representatives before facing off in November.
While three Democrat and three Republican candidates were in the running to represent their party in the election for the seat Rep. Barney Frank vacates, frontrunners Bielat and Kennedy won their party’s respective primary.
Kennedy was declared the Democratic winner slightly after 9 p.m., claiming 92 percent of the vote. The Republican race ended in Bielat’s favor, with 74 percent of the vote.
“This election is more than a race to replace Barney,” Bielat said in an emailed statement after his victory. “This election represents the choice between two visions for America. One vision – one that has been held by the Kennedy family for more than seven decades – states that the government is smarter than you.”
In an emailed statement after his primary win, Kennedy said America must return to a system that rewards hard work and gives everyone an opportunity to succeed.
“I promise that no one will work harder than our campaign to earn every vote,” Kennedy said. “I look forward to having a real conversation over the next two months about the issues that matter to the people of the 4th [district].”
The day before the election, Bielat had already singled out Kennedy as his opponent, assuming respective primary victories.
“All of us are ready for the general election and want to keep the Kennedys out of Congress,” Bielat said in a press release. “We’ve built a good foundation of grassroots support, and we’re positioned to take on the political machine of this famous family.”
Michael Capuano, a seventh-term representative from the eighth district, kept his party’s place in the primary elections.
Capuano, the former Somerville mayor, is the primary election winter of the soon-to-be seventh district.
His only opponent might be Karla Romero, the former Miss Boston and President and CEO of Mass Appeal International, who is running as an independent.
Redistricting will make Boston, Cambridge and Somerville part of the new district, although they formerly were part of Capuano’s eighth district. The 2010 census left Massachusetts with nine representatives, one short of its previous number.
Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren kept her hold on the Massachusetts Democratic candidacy Thursday, less than 24 hours after speaking at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.
Upon returning to the Bay State, Warren cast her vote at a Cambridge voting location and continued to campaign.
In a message to voters, Warren urged the public to get themselves and friends to the polls.
“Once you’ve cast your vote, we need your help to get others to vote on November 6,” Warren said in an email statement to supporters. “Scott Brown, Mitt Romney and their Wall Street friends are going to do everything they can to keep President Obama and me from winning on Election Day.”
Neither Brown nor Warren experienced any hurdles from Thursday’s primary election, as both candidates were running unopposed.
Warren’s only opponent, Marisa DeFranco, did not get the 15 percent of votes necessary to continue onto the Primary ballot after the June 2 Massachusetts Democratic Convention.
Warren received more than 95 percent of the vote at the Massachusetts Democratic Convention.
Candidates now have exactly two months left to campaign for the House and Senate seats.
Brown and Warren are set to debate at WBZ-TV studios on September 20and at UMass Lowell on October 1.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
