2026 State Senate Norfolk & Middlesex District
The Massachusetts State Senate has 40 members, with each Senator elected to represent a district consisting of approximately 159,000 Massachusetts residents. As required by the Massachusetts Constitution, the Senate meets every 72 hours, year-round, in either formal or informal session to consider statewide legislation. Senators serve two-year terms, without term limits. The Massachusetts Senate is led by the President of the Senate, who is elected by the members of the body at the beginning of each legislative session. Learn more here https://malegislature.gov/
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Cynthia Stone Creem
(Dem)
What legislation would you support to address the rising costs-of-living for any of the following housing, childcare, transportation, utilities and groceries.
Discuss your thoughts on how to best balance energy affordability with the state’s clean energy goals.
How do you propose to make health care more affordable in Massachusetts?
How can the state increase funding to municipalities that have difficulties providing basic needs without Proposition 2 ½ overrides?
How would you propose to ensure the security and independence of state elections in the face of possible interference by federal agents and activists?
How do you plan to protect the legal rights and safety of immigrants and their families?
Affordability is top of mind for me. I continue to support major investments in the child care ecosystem that will help contain costs. Utility bills are another major concern. The Senate recently passed bills I filed to phase out a wasteful gas company program that costs ratepayers nearly a billion dollars annually and to prohibit utilities from recovering from ratepayers the costs of lobbying and executive perks. Addressing hunger and food costs is also very important to me. I support maintaining free school meals in every community in Massachusetts and investing in SNAP. Closer to home, I secure funding each year for food banks in my district and for a program that pays local independent restaurants to provide meals to families in need.
Too often we treat reducing emissions and promoting affordability as mutually exclusive goals, but smart policies can advance both causes at once. We should focus our climate efforts on areas where clean energy is cheaper than fossil fuels. That’s why I support requiring gas companies to analyze whether clean alternatives like networked geothermal would be cheaper than investing in new gas pipes. It’s why I support requiring electric companies to analyze whether solar and storage could more affordably address grid issues than traditional infrastructure upgrades. And it’s why I've led on repealing expensive fossil fuel subsidies. I'm also working to cut the cost of residential solar through automated permitting and legalizing plug-in solar.
I filed legislation to prevent pharmacy benefit managers from steering customers to pharmacies they control so that we can have more choice, more competition, and lower costs. I have also been encouraging the state to explore PBM-related reforms within the MassHealth program.
I sponsor legislation that would enter Massachusetts into an interstate compact for licensing psychologists. The bill would make it easier for residents to see their therapists when they travel out of state, and it would increase access to affordable mental health care for all Massachusetts residents.
I was also proud to support a bill passed in the Senate that would reduce overall health care costs by ensuring that Massachusetts invests adequately in primary care.
I supported the Senate’s recent effort to boost state aid to cities and towns and to distribute the additional funding on a per capita basis, a change that will lead to more aid for the communities in my district. I also supported the establishment of a commission to examine the adequacy of state support for public schools, which is typically the largest expense within Massachusetts’ cities and towns. If our formula for education funding can be changed to better reflect the costs school districts are facing, we will be able to relieve significant financial pressure on cities and towns. In addition, I filed legislation that would allow cities and town to impose an additional tax on alcohol in order to raise funds for public health programs.
I worked on a provision of the Senate’s version of the PROTECT Act that would make it a violation of state law for a federal officer to deploy troops or armed officials to polling locations in Massachusetts or for any federal officer or military member to interfere in an election in Massachusetts. The attorney general would be empowered to enforce the provision in order to compel compliance or prevent violations.
I also believe we can reinforce faith in the electoral process by modernizing our systems and ensuring that elections run as smoothly as possible. That’s why I sponsor a bill to have Massachusetts join 24 other states in allowing same-day voter registration.
I am working to protect immigrants to the greatest extent possible and to ensure that public entities in the Commonwealth do not assist the Trump’s aggressive crackdown on immigrant communities. I support a wide range of policies that were included in the PROTECT Act, including: prohibiting state and local law enforcement from participating in civil federal immigration enforcement; protecting residents from warrantless civil immigration arrests at sensitive locations such as schools, health care facilities, courthouses, and houses of worship; banning new 287(g) agreements that deputize local police to carry out federal immigration enforcement duties; and allowing Massachusetts residents to sue federal agents for violations of their rights.
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