State Rep. Uyterhoeven faces challenge for seat from former legislative staffer Kathleen Hornby (corrected)
Candidate for state representative Kathleen Hornby with her kids in an image on her campaign site.
A former legislative staffer is running to unseat Somerville state Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven in the Sept. 3 primary.
Kathleen Hornby, who cites nearly a decade of experience in Massachusetts politics as a legislative staffer and chief of staff for state Reps. Alice Wolf and Marjorie Decker, describes herself as a progressive Democrat; Uyterhoeven describes herself as a Democratic Socialist, and her policy positions are similar to Hornby’s on Somerville’s issues, albeit with a more left-wing perspective on topics such as housing and immigration.
Hornby’s campaign is focused on several key issues that are hot-button topics in Somerville, including climate change policy, transportation, economic justice and education. She attributes her candidacy in part to her experiences parenting two children in Somerville public schools and her struggles with Boston’s public transit system.
The upcoming election will pit Hornby’s experience in Massachusetts politics and her roots in the Somerville community against Uyterhoeven’s prior political activism and two terms’ worth of accomplishments in the State House.
Hornby didn’t respond to questions about what inspired her to run against the incumbent. Uyterhoeven said she was proud of her office’s accomplishments, especially her work advocating for the rights of incarcerated constituents.
This post was updated March 1, 2024, to correct that Erika Uyterhoeven gave a comment when contacted.
If Hornby was actually serious about addressing climate change she would be running to unseat Decker not Uyterhoeven. Uyterhoeven is one of the most committed legislators to addressing that issue in the commonwealth, meanwhile Decker has put not a finger but her whole weight on the scale to get rid of park space because she prefers to drive through it. It should be obvious by now that she is also interfering with the road diet proposal for memorial which is why it has been sitting on a shelf for years. Decker is a genuine barrier to addressing climate emissions in our transportation sector (the biggest single source of emissions in MA) and to improving street safety for people outside of automobiles. This really makes me question Hornby’s actual intentions.
You can’t just run for whatever seat you want to. Hornby is running for the seat where she has lived for years with her young family.
Sure seems like Hornby is Decker’s minion, running against Uyterhoeven to distract progressives from a very credible threat in Evan MacKay