Island progressive loses house race by decisive Falmouth vote

By
Sam Houghton
-
8

Updated, Sept. 4

Arielle Faria, a West Tisbury progressive and housing advocate, won every town on the Vineyard in Tuesday’s primary for the State House seat representing the Islands and part of Falmouth. But despite the Vineyard representing about half of the vote, it wasn’t enough.

Thomas Moakley, the young Falmouth Democrat, won in a landslide in the three districts that make up the mainland part of the seat. The assistant district attorney in the Cape and Islands District Attorney’s office secured nearly 80 percent of the Falmouth vote.

With no Republican in the general election, Tuesday’s primary win all but puts Moakley in the House seat come January. He will replace four-term representative Dylan Fernandes, who is running for state Senate.

To a round of applause from his supporters Tuesday night at a packed bar in Woods Hole, Moakley announced that he had received congratulations from the chair of the state Democratic Committee and Gov. Maura Healey. 

“I couldn’t have done it without all the people in this room, without all the incredible hard work,” Moakley told supporters at the Captain Kidd. 

Moakley also congratulated Faria for running a good campaign, and he pledged to work with her on housing and other regional issues.

“I’m really looking forward to where the real work starts, when we start turning these campaign themes and ideas into actual law,” Moakley said. The Falmouth Democrat told The Times that housing, affordability, reliability of the Steamship Authority, and addressing the opioid epidemic will be his top priorities at the State House.

Faria won 54 percent of the vote in Edgartown with 340 votes, nearly 60 percent of the vote in Oak Bluffs with 424, 63 percent in West Tisbury with 258 votes, 60 percent in Tisbury with 422 votes, 61 percent in Chilmark with 220 votes, and 68 percent in Aquinnah with 81 votes.

But in Falmouth, Moakley won his hometown with 1,746 votes, compared with Faria’s 453 votes.

While Nantucket’s unofficial tally was released later in the evening, the race was all but over when the Falmouth numbers came in. Moakely ultimately won the sister island, with 476 votes to Faria’s 315.

Town clerks reported a slow voter turnout for the primary, which was not a surprise with the state House race the only contested local race. Edgartown reported less than 20 percent turnout. 

For Faria, this was her first attempt at running for state office. In a statement to The Times on Wednesday morning, the progressive Democrat — who secured an endorsement from Boston Congresswoman Ayana Pressley, as well as several progressive political groups — said that she wasn’t done serving the Vineyard community.

“This is not the end — it’s only the beginning,” she said, in addition to thanking her supporters and congratulating Moakley. “I am committed to serving this community in every way I can, and I know we’ll continue to make progress as we work side by side.”

For Vineyard voters — who represent nearly 50 percent of the vote — Faria would have been the first representative from the Island since the seat was reconfigured in 1989. (The seat previously represented the Outer Cape and Islands, instead of parts of Falmouth. Terrance McCarthy was the last Islander before the change, and last served in the late ’70s). According to data from the Massachusetts Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives, Faria would also have been not only the first woman to serve the Island in the state house, but the first queer woman of color. 

“We’re going to work together and do the best for this community,” Faria told her supporters gathered at the Art Cliff in Vineyard Haven Tuesday night. “And he worked hard. We both worked really hard. And I support him in his path forward, because I care for this community.

“Campaigning is not for the faint of heart … I lost 30 pounds,” Faria added. “I do it because I really value our community and our people — not just one people, not just one group or nationality.”

Moakley ran a campaign on making Falmouth and the Islands more sustainable — in light of rising costs for homes and goods, and also in the face of climate change. 

This was not his first run for state office. He ran unsuccessfully for the state Senate in 2020 to represent the Upper Cape and Plymouth County, but ultimately lost in the primary to Falmouth Democrat Sue Moran. Moran went on to serve four years in the Senate, but is not seeking re-election this year; Fernandes — running unopposed in the primary on Tuesday — will be on the Democratic ticket in November.

Moakley was raised in Falmouth, where he attended public schools. His parents met on a NOAA research vessel out of Woods Hole, where his dad worked. Moakley went on to attend Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, looking for a career in the State Department. When Donald Trump was elected president, the administration was not not keen on hiring diplomats, so Moakley said that he eventually returned to his hometown, and then began working in the local district attorney’s office.

Daniel Greenman and Eunki Seonwoo contributed to this report.

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8 COMMENTS

  1. Best of luck to Tom. He’ll have a difficult district with divergent interests and needs to represent. A lot of water travel involved. His experience in Congress as a young page, and as ADA for the Vineyard will serve him well. He’ll hit the ground running when he’s sworn in. Arielle should continue her advocacy for housing, which has been her biggest concern. Effective lobbying in the legislature makes a difference.

    • Richard, you’re right: we need to forget about new taxes (even though we may only perceive them to affect “rich” people, that’s not the case!) And we need Wall Street out of the family home business.

  3. I wanted to vote for the island girl, but when Ayana Pressley came out to endorse her I knew she was a bad choice. This Island along with the country does not need their brand of being a progressive as that brand is dangerous.

    • “Their brand”? You mean strong Black women? Arielle would have made a fine representative for our district. Ayanna Pressley’s endorsement is a feather in her cap. I hope we haven’t heard the last from Arielle, despite the ugliness of comments like yours.

      • Bob, How are progressives dangerous?
        I can give you an example of conservative dangerous: Trump has said more than once how he wants to remain in power beyond a 4-year term in office, if he is elected. He claims we won’t ever have to vote again. He has asked his advisers to find a way for him to stay in office forever. He disregards classified intelligence (remember when he took a photo of classified information and posted it on the internet?). He stored classified intelligence at his personal residences and storage facilities, in strict violation of our laws. (Either he is crooked or not smart enough to know the law; neither case is a wise choice for president.)
        And if that isn’t enough of dangerous for you, he has many dictator friends, such as Putin.
        We don’t need a president who wants to be a dictator.
        We don’t need a president who favors treason.
        Vote against the dangerous conservatives.

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