It’s easy to describe November’s municipal elections in several communities throughout western Massachusetts as historic.
From Holyoke, where voters chose the city’s first Latino mayor, its most diverse City Council ever and its first Latina at-large School Committee member, to Northampton, where women were dominant winners for mayor, City Council and School Committee, and Amherst, where the town’s 13-member Town Council is more racially diverse, a new era of government is being ushered in.
Historic times, indeed, and a positive step in answering the calls to have elected political bodies better reflect the constituents they serve.
When he was sworn in as Holyoke’s 45th mayor in mid-November, city native Joshua Garcia vowed to create an administration that reflects the values and diversity of the city.
On the campaign trail, Garcia described himself as a “Holyoker with an experience that is Puerto Rican,” when the potentially historic meaning of his victory came up, and in a post-victory speech said, “We’re all one.”
That message of reaching out to all Holyokers will be important over the next four years, but Garcia’s ancestry is clearly what made this year’s election so historic in the Paper City.
Born and raised in South Holyoke, Garcia’s mother and grandmother, came to Holyoke from Puerto Rico. He’s by no means alone in a community where 54% of residents identify as Hispanic or Latino. The 35-year-old has said that when people mention “vulnerable populations” in the city, he was part of that group, and is now the product of the programs and services the city provided to help families like his have a decent quality of life.
For some followers of city politics, Garcia’s victory wasn’t the biggest surprise on Election Night. That came when two Hispanics, Israel Rivera and Jose Luis Maldonado Velez, were elected to at-large seats. For context, until 2021’s election, Holyoke voters had elected just two Hispanic candidates to at-large positions in the entire body’s history.
And Mildred Lefebvre became Holyoke’s first Latina at-large member of the School Committee, which represents a district where nearly 81% of students in the city’s schools identify as Hispanic.
In Northampton, women became the story of the 2021 election. Voters overwhelmingly chose City Council President Gina-Louse Sciarra to be their 45th mayor, making her the third mayor in the city’s history just two years after she became the first woman in 25 years to serve as City Council president.
On the legislative front, two women, Jamila Gore and Marissa Elkins, were elected to at-large seats on the council, marking what is believed to be the first time in Northampton’s history that women will serve in both seats at the same time. In fact, since 1969, all but four at-large councilors were men.
The election of Gore and Elkins also tips the gender balance on the council to majority female for the first time in more than two decades.
There were other historical moments for the City Council. Gore is the first Black woman elected to the body, and she and Garrick Perry, who was elected in Ward 4, will be the council’s second and third Black members ever.
“It changes the perspective. It’s always good when you get a different perspective,” Gore said about Northampton’s election.
Elkins acknowledged the historical significance of the election. “Many (recently elected women) were motivated, I think, by the 2016 election, motivated to become more involved and to serve in this way,” she said, referring to the Trump-Clinton presidential election.
Women also now dominate the School Committee, where nine women were elected, prompting one of the winners, Emily Serafy-Cox of Ward 3, to celebrate the results in a social media post with the hashtag #TheFutureIsFemale.
In Amherst, two prominent elected bodies will have more diverse representation. Amherst’s first Town Council only had one non-white member, Shalini Bahl-Milne, an Indian-American who immigrated to the United States 20 years ago. Bahl-Milne will be joined on the second Town Council by Ellisha Walker, who identifies as multi-racial, and Anika Lopes, who is Black and Indigenous.
On the School Committee, Irv Rhodes, who identifies as Black, is returning to the panel nearly a decade after last serving on it. Also beginning her tenure will be Jennifer Shiao Page, an Asian-American daughter of immigrants. Along with Ben Herrington, the committee will have a majority non-white makeup.
Diversity will help all of these communities better connect with their residents, and give them a louder voice about local decisions that affect their lives.
As Lefebvre said post election, “We have to be reflective of our community. History was made for our beautiful city.”
