Published November 4, 2020
By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — Former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden and House Minority Brad Jones (R-North Reading) topped their respective tickets during Tuesday’s election.
According to the unofficial election results released by Town Clerk Linda Emerson just before midnight on Tuesday, 8,329 out of 9,742 registered voters cast ballots in the presidential election, equaling an 86 percent turnout.
Biden defeated Republican President Donald Trump, who won Lynnfield four years ago, by 213 votes. It was the first time in many years that a Democrat topped the presidential race here.
According to the unofficial results, Biden received 4,162 votes, Trump earned 3,949 votes, Libertarian Party candidate Jo Jorgensen garnered 89 votes and Green-Rainbow Party candidate Howie Hawkins was the recipient of 32 votes.
House Minority Leader Brad Jones (R-North Reading) easily defeated Democratic challenger Michelle Mullet by 2,369 votes, prevailing 5,117-2,748. Jones, who has been a member of the House of Representatives since January 1995 and has been minority leader since 2003, was re-elected to his 20th Middlesex District seat once again.
“What a night,” Jones wrote on his Facebook page. “A clean sweep in every town. Thank you for your overwhelming support with a resounding victory.”
Mullet thanked the voters of the 20th Middlesex District as well as the campaign staff, elected officials and grassroots organizers who supported her candidacy.
“This campaign wasn’t just about me,” Mullet wrote on her campaign’s Facebook page on Wednesday morning. “It was about being a forward-thinking, futuristic leader in the bigger, progressive movement. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all the progressive organizations that believed in me and my vision for our district and our state.”
Democratic Congressman Seth Moulton defeated Republican challenger John Paul Moran of Billerica 4,380 votes to 3,674 votes. Moulton, who was re-elected to a fourth term on Tuesday, has represented the 6th Congressional District since 2015.
In the race for U.S. Senate, Democratic incumbent Edward Markey defeated Republican challenger Kevin J. O’Connor by 276 votes, prevailing 4,178 to 3,902. Markey, who was elected to a second six-year term on Tuesday, was first elected to the U.S. Senate in a special election in 2013.
There were three candidates who ran unopposed in Tuesday’s election, including Democratic Sixth District Governor’s Councilor Terrence Kennedy of Stafford Road. Kennedy earned 5,672 votes in town.
State Sen. Brendan Crighton (D-Lynn) was elected to a second two-year term in the Third Essex District. He received 1,082 votes in Lynnfield.
Essex County Register of Probate Pamela Casey O’Brien, a Democrat, got 4,694 votes in town.
Townspeople joined the rest of the state by approving Question 1 or the Right to Repair law 5,958 votes to 2,096 votes. Beginning in 2022, the law will require that motor vehicle owners and independent repair facilities be provided with expanded access to mechanical data related to vehicle maintenance and repair.
“By voting yes on 1, Massachusetts has now updated Right to Repair for the modern age of connected cars,” said Right to Repair/Yes on 1 Director Tommy Hickey in a statement. “The thousands of ‘Yes on 1’ signs in front of small businesses around the state tell the story – automakers were trying to corner the market on car repairs, but the voters stopped them. The people have spoken, by a huge margin, in favor of immediately updating Right to Repair so it applies to today’s high-tech cars and trucks.”
The Coalition for Safe and Secure Data tapped into the more than $26.4 million raised to fight the ballot question to run numerous ads, including ominous spots suggesting that location data could be stolen, putting victims of domestic violence at risk.
“As we have said from the beginning, the right to repair and the ability of local repair shops to access vehicle repair information are already enshrined in Massachusetts law,” the Coalition for Safe and Secure Data said in a statement. “(Tuesday’s) vote will do nothing to enhance that right – it will only grant real time, two-way access to your vehicle and increase risk. At no point did the Yes side provide any credible arguments as to why national auto parts chains need this information to service your vehicles.”
Similar to voters across the state, Lynnfield voters rejected Question 2, which would have implemented ranked choice voting beginning in 2022, 5,387 votes to 2,478 votes.
The No on 2 campaign was thrilled that the ranked choice voting ballot question was defeated on Tuesday.
“Thank you to everyone who gave us donations, distributed and hosted lawn signs, liked and shared our Facebook page, held our signs at rallies, wrote letters to the newspapers and got the word out to friends and family,” spokesman Paul Diego Craney wrote on the No on 2’s Facebook page. “Thank you to everyone who voted against this initiative. We are incredibly proud of the campaign that we ran. We were hugely outspent but we proved that people working together can achieve so much.”
Yes on 2 campaign manager Cara Brown McCormick expressed disappointment that Question 2 was defeated.
“We came up short in this election, and we are obviously deeply disappointed,” said Brown McCormick in a statement. “But that’s certainly no reflection of the hard work of the thousands of dedicated volunteers, staff and surrogates of this campaign. Even amidst a global pandemic, we were able to mobilize a movement to strengthen our democracy in a time when it’s needed most. We were attempting to do something historic in Massachusetts and fell short, but the incredible groundswell of support from volunteers and reformers that assembled behind this campaign is reason enough to stay optimistic about the future of our democracy.”
— The State House News Service contributed to this report.
