Alex Morse
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Alex Morse (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Massachusetts' 1st Congressional District. He lost as a write-in in the general election on November 3, 2020.
Morse completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Alex Morse was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts. He earned a bachelor's degree from Brown University in 2011. Morse was elected to serve as the Mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts.[1]
Elections
2020
See also: Massachusetts' 1st Congressional District election, 2020
Massachusetts' 1st Congressional District election, 2020 (September 1 Democratic primary)
General election
Democratic primary election
Republican primary election
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Alex Morse completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Morse's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Alex Morse is the current mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts and is a candidate for Congress in Massachusetts' First Congressional District.
Alex was born in Holyoke on January 29, 1989. The youngest of three brothers, he grew up in a working class family that valued hard work, perseverance, and tolerance. His dad works at a local meat packaging plant, where he had worked his way up to the position of transportation manager. His mom ran a daycare out of their home.
Alex was first elected Mayor at age 22, becoming the youngest and first openly gay mayor of Holyoke. As mayor, he closed the state's last coal power plant, implemented a needle exchange program to fight the opioid epidemic and he was the first mayor in the state to endorse recreational marijuana legalization. Alex declared Holyoke one of the first Sanctuary Cities in the country in 2014 and in 2018, Holyoke welcomed hundreds of Puerto Rican families displaced by Hurricane Maria.
Alex believes in democracy and in the capacity of politics to make communities stronger, more prosperous, and more just. - Healthcare is a 21st century human right and that should be unconditionally guaranteed to every person in the United States.
- Climate change is an existential threat and the defining issue of our time. We need to policies like the Green New Deal, that match the scale of the crisis we face.
- For too long, our government has worked well for the rich and the well-connected, and not so well for everyday people. We bold systemic change that returns control of our government to the working-class.
As mayor of Holyoke, I've seen the shortcomings of our healthcare system up close. That's why I launched the Mayors for Medicare for All initiative, forming a coalition of mayors throughout Massachusetts calling for a single-payer system. I've also worked extensively with the Holyoke Community Health Center to expand recovery services.
The failures of our current system are evident throughout the district, too. Rural access to healthcare facilities continues to decline. Mental health treatment has dwindled and become privatized.
In Congress, I will fight to ensure that everyone in MA-1 has access to healthcare, no matter who you are, where you live, or how much money you earn. First and foremost, I look to my parents. They grew up in poverty and met in a Holyoke housing project. They worked tirelessly with what they had, struggling from job to low-wage job on public assistance in public housing. Over time they were able to make their way into the working class. My mother eventually opened a daycare center at our house, and my father still drives every day of the week to the same meat packing company he has worked at for the last 33 years. They taught me resilience and made me who I am today.
Politically, I still look up to Former Governor Deval Patrick and President Barack Obama. Governor Patrick who was the first candidate I ever worked for, made calls for, and knocked doors for. He helped get me involved in politics and public service. President Obama was the first candidate I voted for. He inspired me like so many others to fight for inclusion, equity, and progressive policies. Both Governor Patrick and President Obama overcame barriers to enter politics, something I continue to admire them for.
I have my own and my family's experience growing up in Holyoke. They taught me persistence, work ethic, and an uncompromising commitment to doing what I believe in and doing whatever it takes to accomplish it. That is in large part why I ran for Mayor and how I have run my administrations and campaigns. Over 9 years, I have not let an election or issue change my values. I have led not by being above my community, but by being part of it. This is hugely important not just for a mayor but also for a member of Congress. As Congressman, I will still not be superior to my constituents. I will be another member of MA-01 with the honor of representing it. I have not in my mayoral and congressional campaigns let a title or office put a barrier between my constituents and me. I have and will continue to travel across the district to listen and be accessible to my voters and inform my votes.
Any elected official must be responsive to their constituents, in my case the residents of Holyoke now and MA-01 as I run for Congress. They must be directly accessible, ideally through multiple methods. Their administrations should be transparent, but they should also hold town halls, come back to their districts, reach those often forgotten by politics. In doing this and being held accountable, any candidate must be able to listen to their constituents and be willing to change their mind.
It is crucial that elected officials take votes that are not always popular. We have a representative democracy, not a direct democracy, so it is my job to do what I think is right and then be judged on those votes and in turn be accountable to my voters and constituents.
Lastly, they should not have any corporate issues. This helps ensure they are responsive, accountable, accessible, honest, and that they vote for what is right for the country and their district, not for moneyed interests. In Holyoke, I am proud to have made the city more inclusive. We ran in parts of Holyoke that had never seen an elected official before. This was all the more horrific given half of our city is Latinx. After nine years, city government has changed to value all people, not just some.
As a Congressperson, I want to be remembered as having been responsive to my district and constituents. I intend to take the right votes, speak up and speak out when necessary, and change my mind. This will help leave a legacy that shows what representation should really look like.
Death of Princess Diana, 9/11, 2000 Presidential Election
Between my senior year of high school and announcing my mayoral campaign at 21, I worked at Career Point in Holyoke. I helped 16-24 year old people from my community with their resume, their interview skills, job training, and helped placed them in summer jobs. It was impactful because these people were around my age, from my home town, and seeking work to put food on their table, to get a new backpack for school, to supplement their single parents' wages. It contributed to my idea of Holyoke and how I intended to come back and help it as Mayor.
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. It powerfully demonstrates how broken and fundamentally racist our criminal justice system is. For me, it was a personal call to action for criminal justice reform.
Coming out as a 16 year old was difficult, but I am fortunate for the unconditional love my family gave and continues to give me. Substance abuse and addiction has affected so many in Western MA. My brother Doug struggled with heroine addiction for 20 years until he passed this spring. Additionally, my mother struggled with mental illness for most of her adult life - I saw how difficult this was for her, our family, and my brother. Losing her was heartbreaking and challenging as well. Being fully available as Mayor throughout these losses and interpersonal struggles has been and always will be difficult. This is something all elected officials deal with and is something I continue to grapple with.
Gerrymandering has intentionally and precisely disenfranchised millions of Americans, most of whom are black and brown. The best process for redistricting is using independent redistricting committees. This removes all politics from the equation in favor of more equitable district lines. This has worked in multiple states so far. The committees are selected through a screening process akin to a jury to avoid these aforementioned problems. The results of employing such committees have been more competition, more compact districts, more sense of community within new districts, and more equitable representation.
The House is designed to be more responsive and accountable to its citizens because of its two-year terms. It also has the potential to be more diverse. As a body, it is more responsive and diverse compared to the Senate, but the House too is overwhelmingly white, old, rich and tied to corporate interests. However, it is still the bigger body and both is now and has the potential in the future to include more identities, more debates, and more representation that truly reflects America's demographics. We must continue to address structural issues around incumbency advantage and money in politics to effect this change.
No - what is instead more important than political experience is life experience. This was the argument I made as a 21 year old running for Mayor of Holyoke against a 68 year old incumbent with 20 years of experience. My "lack of experience" meant I was not jaded, I had no moneyed interest, that I could better understand my constituents, and could approach solving their problems in novel ways. I also would ask what have career politicians achieved for the Democratic Party lately, especially compared with the most recent classes of freshmen Congresspeople, who have been most effective in moving policy debates and shifting our national consciousness?
Systemic racism is the greatest threat to our country. It is engrained in every issue we grapple with as a nation - healthcare, climate change, poverty, housing, transportation - among others. We must reckon with our racist history and how it continues to manifest itself in our existing systems now so that we ensure the same quality of life for black and brown people in this country. If we do not take this head on and are not intentional in eradicating it, we will not be or become the country we think we are.
Transportation and Infrastructure; Energy and Commerce; Education and Labor
No. The perpetual campaign cycle contributes to the money in politics/incumbency advantage. It also reduces political courage - makes people vote for reelection, not their beliefs or what they think is right.
Since they entered the House, I have often looked to Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Pressley, and Rep. Ro Khanna. They are not afraid to speak up. They are diverse, and most importantly, they seek the truth and do what is right, even and especially when it makes people uncomfortable. They do not keep their heads down and take on conflict when necessary. They listen to their districts and are concerned with achieving the best outcomes for their districts and the country.
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External links
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on July 11, 2020
