AMHERST — Hampshire County and Holyoke voters showed up at polls on Tuesday — or dropped off absentee ballots, if they hadn’t already mailed them in — to have their say in two contested races: the U.S. Senate standoff between incumbent Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Joe Kennedy III, and a heated House battle for the state’s 1st Congressional District between incumbent Rep. Richard Neal and Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse.
All Democratic voters in the state were tasked with choosing between Markey and Kennedy, while voters within the 1st Congressional District, which includes Holyoke and parts of Hampshire and Franklin counties, could also vote for Neal or Morse as their congressional representative.
For many voters, Markey’s focus on fighting climate change — particularly his work with the Green New Deal, which he introduced with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York — stood out when choosing which candidate to back.
June James, of Southampton, said she supports Markey because she was “uncomfortable with the legacy of the Kennedy family,” and because she is a single-issue voter.
“I think if we don’t get climate change under control, none of the other issues are going to matter because we’re all going to be dead,” James said.
Benjamin Snow of Amherst said that he considers climate change the most critical issue of the moment, and in addition to Markey’s advocacy for the Green New Deal, the incumbent senator is “more of a progressive” than Kennedy, Snow said.
Snow also believes that Markey and Sen. Elizabeth Warren will work well together when tackling issues such as climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and racial injustice.
“Warren and Markey, I think, would be a lot different than Warren and Kennedy,” Snow added.
For Kyle Johnson of Amherst, the Green New Deal also stood out as a major draw to the incumbent. The Markey vs. Kennedy race represents “a battle inside the Democratic Party” between progressive and establishment legislators, he said. Johnson supports Markey, who he believes represents the progressive side, while he associates Kennedy with the establishment.
But others, such as Laurie Ostendorf of Westhampton, believe that Kennedy would be a welcome change in the Senate.
“I think we need younger voices,” Ostendorf said on why she backed Kennedy.
Mark Rejniak of Southampton supported Kennedy as well, stating that Markey’s challenger is “more conservative.”
“I think there needs to be some balance,” Rejniak said.
Northampton resident Gina Whalen said that Markey has “been great for years,” and she was drawn to him for “mainly his environmental stance.”
Independent voter Danielle Squillante of Northampton also backs Markey. “I feel like I tend to appreciate his politics in general,” she said. Voting “does feel like it’s important, especially going into the November election,” Squillante added.
Chester Abel of Hadley said that Markey is “reliably progressive” and has “served his constituency well” throughout his tenure. In addition to the primary, Abel also wants to see Donald Trump ousted from office in the November presidential election.
“The sooner he’s gone, the happier I’ll be,” Abel said.
The primary election as a whole is an important piece of “getting rid of this entire radical Republican establishment,” said Janet Scott of Hadley, who also supported Markey.
While many cited climate change as a critical election issue, others focused on different priorities. Veteran-related issues interested Thomas Patrick, who was at Hatfield Town Hall to vote wearing an Air Force hat. He wants to see elected officials support police and law enforcement, as well as help the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which recently furloughed 850 employees.
In Westhampton, Southampton and Easthampton, voters also had to decide between Morse and Neal as their congressional representative.
Laurie Ostendorf, of Westhampton, said that Morse’s younger age appealed to her, as had Kennedy’s in the Senate election. Ostendorf said she was put off by what she saw as Neal’s negative political advertisements.
Mark Rejniak, of Southampton, backed Neal in the 1st Congressional District as a “more conservative” option, as he did with Kennedy in the Senate race, while Michael McKittrick, who recently moved to Easthampton from Boston, backed Morse and Markey.
McKittrick said he felt terrible about the attacks on Morse. Student leaders with the UMass college Democrats group recently apologized to Morse, saying that a letter they signed onto that levied anonymous allegations against the mayor “played into homophobic stereotypes that have been used to oppress gay men in politics.”
“A gay man shouldn’t be smeared for their basic sexuality,” said McKittrick.
Kelley Hopkins, of Easthampton, said that she backed Markey and Neal “for their experience.”
Not everyone who came to the polls voted in the Democratic primary. Denise Harning, of Westhampton, cast her vote in the Republican primary for Shiva Ayyadurai for U.S. Senate.
“Trump 2020,” Harning said.
While voters still had the option to show up in person at their polling places on Tuesday, an unprecedented number of people voted absentee due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Hatfield, more than 700 people voted by mail or absentee ballot as of Tuesday morning, according to Town Clerk Lydia Szych. She felt that was a high number — at the last state primary, turnout was around 900, she said, adding that “every primary is a little bit different.”
Some, such as Mary Nied of Hatfield, didn’t mind voting in person. Nied noted that if she could go to the grocery store, she could vote in person. “I always felt it was very important to vote,” she said. “You can’t complain if you don’t vote.”
Greg Chase went to vote at Hatfield Town Hall because he didn’t receive his mail-in ballot. Still, he is supportive of the idea. “I want this to work — I want mail-in voting to work,” he said. “I think the mail-in is safer during this pandemic,” he said, adding that he is at higher risk for COVID-19 because of his age.
Isabelle Solem of Amherst said that for those who do vote in person, the primary election “puts people in the mindset to vote so we can get a really big turnout in the next election.”