Rep. Stephen Lynch, who has cultivated a relatively conservative reputation while representing Massachusetts for the past quarter-century, has defeated a well-funded progressive challenger.
Patrick Roath, an attorney and one-time aide for former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, challenged Lynch from the left, outraising him by about $300,000. Lynch and Roath clashed over a number of issues on the campaign trail, namely immigration, healthcare, money in politics and housing.
Lynch was one of 46 House Democrats to vote in favor of the Laken Riley Act, legislation requiring federal authorities to detain certain migrants accused or convicted of theft and other specified crimes. Roath, who supported dismantling and replacing ICE, cited Lynch’s support for the bill as part of his reason for entering the race.
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Roath criticized Lynch’s support of the bill as “shortsighted and expedient” and argued that it “demonstrates a fundamental failure to take seriously the threat that the Trump Administration poses to all Americans.”
Lynch acknowledged that the Laken Riley Act was “imperfect,” but defended his vote principally as a response to what he called an immigration system that was “completely out of control.”
On healthcare, Roath supported moving toward universal, government-funded coverage and has backed Medicare for All, while Lynch has supported a public option and sharply criticized the role of for-profit companies in the hospital system.
Lynch, notably, was one of just a handful of Democrats to vote against the Affordable Care Act. The congressman justified his vote by arguing that it provided too many concessions to insurance companies.
While Roath ran as an outsider populist, Lynch attempted to challenge that posturing by pointing to the progressive’s career as a corporate lawyer. Before becoming a member of Congress in 2001, Lynch was previously an iron worker, union president and lawyer.
Both Lynch and Roath managed to pull together an impressive coalition of supporters.
The Boston Globe, David Hogg’s Leaders We Deserve, Indivisible, Massachusetts Teachers Association, Boston Teachers Union and American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts all endorsed Roath, while Lynch secured the backing of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, Iron Workers Local 7, Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts and the American Federation of Government Employees.
In addition to falling within the context of the power struggle between the Democratic Party’s progressive and moderate wings, the primary in Massachusetts’s 8th Congressional District was also a generational battle. Lynch is 71 and Roath is just 39.
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Despite his voting record, Lynch has said that his reputation as a conservative or a moderate is overstated.
“Calling me the least liberal member from Massachusetts is like calling me the slowest Kenyan in the Boston Marathon,” he said in 2010. “It’s all relative.”
While Lynch is conservative compared to his colleagues in the Massachusetts delegation, he has shifted to the left in recent years. Once a proud pro-life Democrat, the long-time congressman now defends Planned Parenthood and throws his support behind pro-abortion legislation.
Massachusetts’ 8th Congressional District is heavily Democratic. Robert Burke, a retired telecommunications worker and small businessman, is the GOP’s nominee in the constituency.