OPINION: Vote for Erika Uyterhoeven for state Senator

Until last year, the Massachusetts House of Representatives and Senate took all their votes behind closed doors. Our representatives and senators could promise us something and turn around and vote another way. So for decades, our community's priorities took a back seat to fast-tracked corporate handouts. During Donald Trump's first presidency, Beacon Hill didn't pass a single bill to protect immigrants from ICE, stalled meaningful climate policy, while multiple tax breaks for the world's largest corporations sailed through without a recorded vote. The Massachusetts State House was one of the least transparent in the country.

To change this, Erika Uyterhoeven – six-year state rep. for Somerville who is running to replace Senator Pat Jehlen – led the charge to make our legislature transparent. First, she co-founded Act on Mass, a statewide grassroots organization that built up the political pressure so powerful people caved in. Then, after winning election herself in 2021, Erika brought the fight into the State House writing winning legislation that made all committee votes available to the public in 2025.  

Erika is now running on a platform advocating full government transparency, labor rights, housing, Medicare for all, immigration justice, disability justice and climate action. She will be an incredible force for transparency and positive change as a state senator in the legislature. While her opponents have the support of establishment Democratic politicians, Erika’s endorsements include some of the most respected grassroots organizations in the state, including Massachusetts Teachers Association, Boston Teachers Union, Massachusetts Sierra Club, Somerville Municipal Employees Union, Massachusetts Peace Action, If Not Now Boston, and CAIR, among many others. Boston Democratic Socialists of America, of which she is a longtime member, recommends you vote for her.

Those of us writing this letter were all acquainted with Erika’s campaign through these grassroots organizations of which we are active members. Unions, teachers groups, human rights, and climate justice organizations all endorsed Erika because her record shows she will fight for ordinary people, not corporations and billionaires.

Working in a coalition with a small group of legislators on the inside, and unions, community organizations, and residents, Erika successfully blocked a corporate $37 million tax break that had been slipped into the budget and helped secure $1.5 billion for public schools. She also helped to build up the political pressure for the State House to take action to protect immigrants from ICE. This past spring, this resulted in advancing two pieces of legislation that will put up significant barriers to stop ICE from terrorizing our communities. 

Her diligent work was critical in the successful passage of the Safe Communities Act. In addition, she has been an amazing supporter of our Muslim and Arab American community and is against the illegal suppression and detention of anyone who advocates for their rights, such as what happened in the illegal arrest of Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk. She has also been very clear in her stance against the ongoing genocide of Palestinians (including thousands of women and children) in Gaza and the continuing ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank, with its devastating effect on our local Palestinian community.

Erika also led the effort to block a bill that would have let utility giants hike up our electricity and gas bills for their profits while pulling back all of our state's climate commitments. This was possible thanks to transparency and pressure from the state-wide climate justice movements that she created. Crucially, she also wrote a very popular bill to save renters money by ending the predatory practice of charging renters for a broker they did not hire. She successfully worked on a paid family and medical leave so 4.7 million workers can now take care of their families without losing their jobs.

In addition, Erika worked to pass the Fair Share Amendment so incomes over $1 million now pay a 4% surtax that goes straight to our schools and the MTA, and she worked on codifying abortion access into state law so our right to reproductive care does not depend on the Supreme Court’s ruling to end Roe v. Wade.

Future projects that she has committed to work on as state senator include fixing the Chapter 70 formula so it measures what cities can actually raise, growing unrestricted state aid faster than inflation, and guaranteeing a $55,000 minimum salary for education support professionals.

She has also emphasized that she will work on creating community artificial intelligence (AI) councils so the people affected by AI have real power over how it is used. This will ensure that workers are consulted before AI tools are deployed that change how they do their jobs and will also protect residents' data from AI systems that lack transparency or accountability.

On a personal note, we've seen Erika take a stance for disability rights and be responsive and proactive with her constituents who needed support having accommodations met in their healthcare settings.

Erika is kind and thoughtful, a fantastic listener, and the kind of person who dreams of changes that seem impossible and then goes out and makes them happen. With her hard untiring work, her unquestionable devotion and support of our labor unions and communities in Medford and beyond, we wholeheartedly and enthusiastically support Erika to become our state senator.

Medford residents, educators and community activists:

Amani Dharani

Anna Meyer

Clare Sheridan

Dina Alami

Naila Jirmanus

Pam Gudino