Christine Barber seeks Senate seat with progressive record, health policy expertise

State Rep. Christine P. Barber, of Somerville, announced her candidacy for the Massachusetts Second Middlesex Senate seat, positioning herself as a continuation of retiring Sen. Pat Jehlen’s progressive legacy while bringing more than a decade of legislative experience and deep expertise in health policy to the race.

The Senate district includes Somerville, Medford, Cambridge wards nine through 11 and Winchester precincts four through seven.

Barber’s announcement follows that of Winchester School Committee member Tom Hopcroft, who entered the race in early January, emphasizing systems thinking and transparency reform.

Somerville City Councilor Matt McLaughlin has also announced his candidacy.

Barber, 47, has represented the 34th Middlesex District since 2015 and chairs the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources.

“Our communities really deserve someone who can bring progressive results, and that is what I’m focused on doing on day one,” Barber said in an interview on Jan. 16.

She emphasized working with community members to address “so many urgent needs in our communities.”

Barber grew up in North Kingston, R.I., the daughter of a public school teacher and a manufacturing plant worker. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the College of the Holy Cross and a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Her path to elected office began with community organizing and policy work rather than political ambition. At Holy Cross, Barber became deeply involved in food insecurity and homelessness issues, volunteering at Worcester organizations including the Mustard Seed and working on affordable housing projects.

“I met amazing people doing the work, and it really sparked my love for activism and working more on policy change to actually address the root causes of many of these issues,” Barber said.

After graduate school, she interned for and then worked as legislative aide to state Rep. Anne Paulson, who represented Belmont, Cambridge and Arlington around 2001.

From policy advocate to elected official

Before entering elected office, Barber worked as a health policy expert for Community Catalyst, a national advocacy organization. She helped draft Massachusetts’ 2006 health reform law and later worked on coalitions across the country to pass the Affordable Care Act.

When the state representative seat opened in 2014, Barber ran in a four-way Democratic primary. She won with 1,956 votes, or 48.9%, defeating Erin DiBenedetto, who received 1,458 votes, or 36.5%. In the general election, Barber defeated independent candidate Nicholas Lanzilli with 7,043 votes, or 64.3%.

Since then, Barber has faced no major party challengers in general elections. She was unopposed in 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024, drawing only minimal write-in votes. She is the first woman to represent the 34th Middlesex District.

Barber’s legislative record emphasizes health care affordability, immigrant rights, environmental policy and housing. A 2025 law on pharmaceutical access incorporated her provision to cap co-pays for chronic disease drugs, eliminating co-pays for generic medications for diabetes, asthma and heart disease and capping brand-name co-pays at $25.

She was the lead sponsor of the Work and Family Mobility Act, which passed in 2022 and allows undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. The law faced opposition but survived a gubernatorial veto and a ballot referendum.

“I filed that bill because immigrant leaders in my community asked me to make it a priority,” Barber said, adding the bill had circulated for nearly two decades before passage. “It took us, I think, a year and a half at least to build that support, and it didn’t happen right away.”

After Gov. Charlie Baker vetoed the bill, the Legislature overrode the veto. When opponents forced a referendum, voters upheld the law.

“Many people have gotten licenses because of it, and our roads are safer because more people have licenses and insurance, and it’s been really successful,” Barber said.

Barber co-sponsored pay-equity legislation with Jehlen and others requiring employers to post salary ranges in job advertisements. She also worked with Jehlen on menstrual-equity legislation providing free disposable menstrual products in prisons, homeless shelters and public schools, and on Laura’s Law, which requires hospitals to install signage and lighting at emergency rooms.

On housing, Barber supports increasing affordable housing production, tenant protections and public investment. She advocates for building affordable units near transit and has backed accessory-dwelling-unit bills and local zoning reform.

Green Line champion emphasizes transit, climate action

On transportation, Barber championed the Green Line Extension to Somerville and Medford, which opened in 2022. The 4.7-mile extension provides light-rail service from Lechmere in Cambridge to Union Square in Somerville and College Avenue in Medford.

Federal project documents show 75,300 residents live within a half-mile of the new stations, and 26% of them lack access to an automobile.

Barber has worked to secure funding for MBTA modernization and advocates for electrifying bus fleets to reduce emissions and improve air quality. As Environment Committee chair, Barber advances climate-resilience, wetlands protection and emissions-reduction legislation. She supports net-zero building standards and expanding electric vehicle infrastructure.

Barber’s relationship with Jehlen, a Somerville Democrat first elected to the Senate in 2005, has shaped her legislative approach. Jehlen built her tenure around reducing inequality through pay equity, worker protections, education funding, criminal justice reform and aging-in-place policy.

“Pat’s been a really effective leader,” Barber said. “She is amazing at working with community members, working with, you know, from seniors to people who are incarcerated to just people in the community, and then actually bringing results and getting things done, getting bills passed.”

Barber said she has worked closely with Jehlen since taking office in 2015.

“Watching her do that and stay true to her values and turn that into action has really been an important learning for me,” Barber said.

The materials reviewed for this article contain no documented policy disagreements between Barber and Jehlen. Barber’s emphasis on continuity may limit her ability to differentiate herself from the outgoing senator.

Barber’s 2017 vote for a legislative pay-raise package appears in Somerville Times roll-call lists and could provide fodder for opponents. The vote provoked statewide criticism, but has not defined her career.

On legislative transparency, Barber defended recent reforms while acknowledging ongoing criticism.

“Committee votes are public,” Barber said. “We give a lot more notice when hearings are coming up. An important change is we allow people to testify virtually, so you don’t have to take the day off and come to the State House, but you can do so via Zoom and make sure your voice is heard.”

Campaign finance advantage in growing field

Barber’s campaign committee reported $112,811.52 in cash on hand as of a September 2025 deposit report, according to Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance filings. Year-end reports show the committee raised steadily over recent years, with $97,389.90 on hand as of the 2024 year-end report filed in January 2025.

Hopcroft organized his committee on Dec. 2, 2025, and his filings currently show no significant receipts.

Barber’s cash-on-hand total gives her a considerable financial advantage in a Democratic primary. However, OCPF’s public portal restricts access to itemized donor lists, preventing verification of her largest contributors.

The Second Middlesex Senate district spans communities with sharply divergent demographics and priorities. Somerville and Cambridge have owner-occupancy rates around 34%, median rents exceeding $2,400 per month and median home values approaching or exceeding $900,000, according to U.S. Census data. Poverty rates in Somerville and Cambridge are 10.1% and 12.4%, respectively.

Winchester precincts four through seven are part of a town with 83.4% owner-occupancy, a median home value of $1,181,700 and a median household income of $218,176. Winchester’s poverty rate is 3.9%.

Cambridge hosts the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which employs 17,490 staff members and 11,886 students and represents 16.8% of the city’s revenue stream, according to MIT data. The biotech cluster in Kendall Square and Harvard University shape local jobs and housing markets. Tufts University is a major employer in Medford and Somerville.

Barber must balance progressive social-justice priorities that resonate in Somerville and Medford with concerns about property taxes, school funding and affordability that may dominate in Cambridge and Winchester.

“I look forward to talking with members of voters in the communities about that,” Barber said. “Especially in Cambridge and Winchester, where I am introducing myself to more people, and I want to hear on the ground what their issues are.”

Barber lives in Somerville with her longtime partner, Ryan, who works in the health insurance industry.

Barber’s legislative style emphasizes incremental wins and coalition-building rather than sweeping reforms. Her bills have passed into law primarily when embedded in broader packages.

Whether her House base transfers to the broader Senate district depends on appeal beyond Somerville and Medford and turnout among Cambridge and Winchester voters. Her only contested race was the 2014 Democratic primary.

The state primary is scheduled for Sept. 1, with the general election Nov. 3.

Will Dowd is a Massachusetts journalist who covers municipal government and community life for Winchester News. He previously co-founded the Marblehead Current and now runs The Marblehead Independent, a reader-funded digital newsroom.