Hillary Clinton may have enjoyed a handy victory in Massachusetts last Tuesday, but the state’s map of nearly solid blue is broken up by plenty of red — cities and towns in which Donald Trump won a plurality.
And many of those communities are in the district of Sen. Eric Lesser, D-Longmeadow.
“It would be a big mistake for our state to hide behind the 30-point margin that Hillary Clinton had here and think that these resentments and fears and the support Trump saw is a product of another place,” Lesser said Thursday. “I take their concerns and I take their fears for the future very seriously.”
The state Senate and Senate President Stanley Rosenberg, D-Amherst, issued a statement Thursday urging unity across the state and nation and support for individual civil rights and liberties.
Lesser said he believes in fighting for values important to Bay Staters, while also addressing concerns of those who feel abandoned by the system.
Lesser is in a unique position compared to many other senators in the 85 percent Democrat-majority Senate. He’s a Democrat through-and-through — he served as special assistant to Obama adviser David Axelrod — but many of his constituents rejected Clinton, the former secretary of state who walked the same White House halls as Lesser.
Among the nine communities in the First Hampden and Hampshire District, six went for Trump: East Longmeadow, Hampden, Ludlow, Wilbraham and Granby.
Lesser said continuing the “Massachusetts model” is crucial under Trump’s presidency. And in 2017, that means hearing the concerns of those who may have voted for Trump while upholding what is right, he said.
He sees a “golden opportunity” to put an alternative path forward to ease some anxieties that mobilized Trump voters — an increasing sense that the economy has left some people behind.
“I think what this election shows if you write off … huge communities of people, you’re going to allow anger and frustration to build up in potentially dangerous ways,” Lesser said. “I think you have to provide a message that’s about the future and that’s about change … we need to do it in a way that’s inclusive and doesn’t pit one group of people against another.”
Lesser’s priorities include working to get the rail project off the ground that would link Boston and western Massachusetts, rebuilding the manufacturing sector, investing in vocational and job training, investing in infrastructure improvements and continuing to tackle the opioid crisis, he said.
In their statement Rosenberg and the state Senate pledged to work toward “protecting and promoting the dignity, safety, and the well-being of all who live in and visit Massachusetts.”
“We urge President-elect Trump, and all people of good will, to fulfill our country’s commitment to open-minded, compassionate, and fair government, and to respect and serve the diversity of all of humanity. That is who we are in Massachusetts, and who we are in all of America,” the statement reads.
The senators recall President John F. Kennedy’s speech that viewed Massachusetts as a “beacon of light,” a place that does “not imitate — for we are a model to others.” That’s something that has happened since the country’s early years, the senators wrote, with the Massachusetts Constitution serving as a model for the U.S. Constitution.
“Our unshakable support for the civil rights and civil liberties of the people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts drives our commitment to protecting and promoting the dignity, safety, and the well-being of all who live in and visit Massachusetts, including those who were targets during the Presidential campaign,” the statement reads. “We pledge to use the power invested in us by the voters and our Constitution to pursue and protect policies consistent with the fundamental principles of our country.”
Rep. John Scibak, D-South Hadley, said House lawmakers also will continue to fight for issues that matter to state residents.
“We’ve been a leader in terms of civil rights issues. The things that we’ve done, we’re going to continue to preserve,” he said.
This is not the first time that Massachusetts voters have gone against the grain in a presidential election. Most notably, perhaps, Massachusetts was the only state, along with the District of Columbia, that Democrat George McGovern won in the 1972 race against Republican Richard Nixon.
“We’ve had other administrations where the president was not the choice of Massachusetts,” Scibak said. “Massachusetts and its legislature continued to do what we felt was in the best interest of our constituents.”
Chris Lindahl can be reached at clindahl@gazettenet.com