Town residents and voters across the commonwealth cast their ballots in the Massachusetts presidential primary election on Tuesday, March 5.
In the Town, President Joe Biden won the bulk of the votes in the Democratic presidential primary, garnering 883 votes out of 1,019 cast. Rep. Dean Phillips received 23 votes and Marianne Williamson won 15.
In the Republican primary, former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley won 134 votes, a majority of the 256 votes cast. Former president Donald Trump received 115 votes.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Record spoke to several Town voters, all of whom participated in the Democratic primary and voted for Biden, who received 85.1 percent of the Town’s vote in the last general election.
“I’m an actual Joe Biden fan,” said Rachel Louis, the associate director of the Center for Development Economics at the College. “He’s not my No. 1 top choice out of everybody in the world, but I actually feel like he has done an acceptable job.”
Other voters’ decisions were predicated on fear of a second Trump administration. “It’s so important that you don’t have a madman in the White House,” Town resident Valerie Ross said.
Others voted for Biden despite reservations. “I know people are worried about his age — we all are,” Town resident Marianne Nelson added. “However, there’s really been no one else to step up who’s strong enough to continue what Biden’s been doing.”
In addition to the presidential primaries, Town voters elected members of their respective town and state party committees.
Professor of Political Science Jim Mahon currently serves as chair of the Town Democratic Committee. He explained that town party committees throughout the commonwealth direct their parties’ organization and campaign activities. “Basically, I coordinate the things Democrats want to do during campaigns,” he said. “Part of my job is to go around and get people to volunteer to sign up for [the Town Committee] — I make house calls … to registered Democratic activists and say: ‘Well, are you willing to be on the Committee?’”
This year, Mahon succeeded in recruiting enough candidates to fill the Town Democratic Committee. Yesterday, Town voters elected 35 people to the committee, including Director of the Center of Learning in Action Paula Consolini, Professor of Religion Jeffrey Israel, Professor of Economics Emeritus Gerard Caprio ’72, Professor of Political Science Mark Reinhardt, and Mahon. No candidates ran for the Town Republican or Libertarian committees.
State party committee elections are held by state senate district, with each district electing one female candidate and one male candidate to the state committee. In the Berkshire, Hampden, Franklin, and Hampshire senate district — which includes the Town — State Rep. Nicholas Boldyga and his wife Jessica Boldyga, who live in Southwick, were both elected unopposed to the State Republican Committee. On the Democratic side, Town resident Sherwood Guernsey was elected unopposed to one seat on the State Committee while Marietta Rose Rapetti Cawse and Megan Elise Arvin, who both live in Pittsfield, ran for the other seat. While full results for the district were not available as of publication, Cawse led Arvin in the Town, receiving 326 votes to Arvin’s 282 as of 8:45 p.m. No candidates ran for the Libertarian State Committee.
Following Tuesday’s presidential primary, the Town will hold three more elections this year. Next is a Town election on May 14, where voters will elect candidates to local offices, followed by the statewide primary on Sept. 3, and the general election on Nov. 5.
As of 8:48 p.m., the Associated Press called the Massachusetts Democratic primary for Biden and the Republican primary for Trump.
