2nd Suffolk Senate District Matchup

With election season shaping up, it’s a great time to look at one of the hottest races in the General Court. With the departure of Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, who is vying for the Governor’s office, there are two active and ambitious representatives looking to move up to the higher chamber.

Reps. Nika Elugardo, of Jamaica Plain, and Liz Miranda, of Dorchester, are competing for the 2nd Suffolk seat. We took a look at the data to see how much these candidates differed in their voting records.

Rep	Yes	No	Absent or N/A
Elugardo	512 (86.1% of Votes)	78 (13.1% of Votes)	5 (0.8% of Votes)
Miranda	481 (80.8% of Votes)	82 (13.8% of Votes)	32 (5.4%)
Speaker	325 (54.6% of Votes)	107 (18% of Votes)	163 (27.4% of Votes)

There were 400 instances where both Miranda and the Speaker both cast a yes/no vote. Miranda and the Speaker voted the same way 394 of those times, or 98.5% of the time. They differed 6 times, or 1.5% of the time.

Of their 6 differing votes, Miranda and the Speaker clashed most prominently over issues of public safety (66.6% of disagreements), followed by legislative rules and procedures (16.7%) and the state government COVID trust (16.7%).

Miranda voted to ban the use of tear gas (HB4860, Amendment #200), restrict police access to military-grade equipment (HB4860, Amendment #131), prohibit the application of qualified immunity for claims for monetary damages against law enforcement officers (HB4860, Amendment #195), and lower the standards to suspend or revoke an officer’s license (HB4860, Amendment #77). Miranda also voted yes on HB3930 Amendment #16, which proposed to require committee votes via executive session or electronic poll be posted on the legislature's site as soon as practicable, and recorded in LAWS. Miranda opposed the Speaker’s yes vote on the Governor's amendment to HB3827, which transfers $5.29 billion in federal relief funding to the Federal Coronavirus Relief Trust Fund.

It should be noted that Elugardo voted the exact same way as Miranda on the 6 disagreements between Miranda and the Speaker. In fact, in the 428 instances where both Elugardo and the Speaker cast a yes/no vote, they voted the same way 395 times. Elugardo voted in line with the Speaker 92.3% of the time, slightly less than Miranda. Elugardo and the Speaker differed 33 times, or 7.7% of the time. Their biggest disagreement was on the topic of legislative rules and procedures, which made up almost half (48.5%) of their differing votes. The second biggest category where votes differed between Elugardo and the Speaker was state government-related matters (15.2%), and the third was public safety matters (12.1%).

So how do Elugardo and Miranda’s records differ? Not a lot, apparently: when the two both cast a ballot, they agreed 96.8% of the time (540 of 595 votes). That means that the two actively disagreed only on 18 instances, or 3.2% of the time.

Almost all of their differing votes were over amendments (88.9%), the remaining being veto overrides (11.1%). Their disagreements were most pronounced on legislative rules and procedures (27.8% of differing votes), taxation policy (22.2%), and state government operations (also 22.2%). A notable vote on which they differed was on HB4888, Amendment #6, which qualified contraction of COVID-19 through employment by medical personnel as eligible for worker's compensation; Elugardo supported this while Miranda opposed it. Elugardo voted yes while Miranda voted no in 17 of the 18 times they disagreed. In all of these votes, Miranda’s stance aligned with that of the Speaker (bar once instance in which the Speaker was absent).

To view all differing votes between Elugardo and Miranda, click here.

This comparison was put together using our VoteTrac service. With voting records going back to 1985, and bill information dating back to 1995, we are the all-in-one source for Massachusetts political strategy. The Obama campaign, the American Bridge Super PAC, and multiple Congressional candidates have relied on our accurate data and analysis. Learn more here, or call us at 617-292-1800 to discuss a package to fit your needs.