From Currier to the State House: MacKay’s Second Bid Against Decker Takes Shape

Just a few weeks into their first semester at Harvard in 2015, Evan C. MacKay ’19 climbed into a car at 5 a.m. with complete strangers.

They were bound for the New Hampshire Democratic Convention with one goal: to make sure global health funding — particularly HIV and AIDS treatment — was on the Democrats’ 2016 agenda.

More than a decade later, MacKay is eying a return to politics, challenging Rep. Marjorie C. Decker for the seat representing much of Cambridge, including most of Harvard’s campus, for the second time.

MacKay — the first serious challenger in Decker’s 13-year tenure in the State House — came within 41 votes of ousting the longtime incumbent in 2024. Now, with more than $66,000 in cash on hand, they are setting the stage for a rematch.

But before entering state politics, MacKay spent a decade pursuing four Harvard degrees.

MacKay, originally from Florida, came to Harvard as an undergraduate in 2015 to study sociology, quickly becoming involved with several student advocacy groups, including the Harvard Organization Prison Education and Reform, the Global Health & Aids Coalition, and Student Labor Action Movement.

After their first year, MacKay was sorted into Currier House, served as a Peer Advising Fellow for freshmen at the College, and worked as teaching fellow for computer science and statistics courses.

They also pursued a master’s degree in statistics at the same time, graduating with both degrees in 2019. MacKay then took their only break from Harvard shortly after, completing a master’s in criminology from the University of Cambridge in 2020.

In September 2020, MacKay returned to their alma mater. They are currently pursuing a joint JD-Ph.D. in Sociology and Social Policy.

Sofia A. Branco ’28, one of MacKay’s academic advisees, praised them as a supportive advisor and a mentor outside of academics. MacKay advises all undergraduate sociology concentrators in Harvard’s three houses in the Radcliffe Quadrangle — often hosting events and reaching out to students, Branco said.

MacKay — now organizing volunteers across the state to fuel a second grassroots campaign — first found their footing in labor organizing on campus as an undergraduate.

As a senior at the College, MacKay represented undergraduates on the Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers’ bargaining committee. After returning to Harvard for their JD-Ph.D., MacKay was elected to serve a three-year term as the president of HGSU-UAW in 2023 — which they stepped down from to run their first campaign for State House.

Bailey A. Plaman, who served as MacKay’s vice president and later stepped in to lead when they left, wrote in a statement that MacKay’s commitment as a labor leader stood as a testament to their desire for “building the power of the people.”

“Evan has this innate ability to support solidarity across different types of workers and people, which is rooted in helping workers understand one another and each other’s diverse working conditions and needs,” Plaman wrote.

MacKay, lacking donations from lobbyists in 2024, still managed to form the most formidable and well-funded challenge Decker has faced in her 13-year tenure on Beacon Hill.

The race marked the first time Decker received less than 83 percent of the vote in a primary, setting up a heated race in which MacKay criticized Decker for lacking transparency while advocating for issues involving housing, transportation, and climate justice.

MacKay was instead backed by a slate of advocacy groups, including Cambridge Bicycle Safety and the Boston Democratic Socialists of America.

MacKay’s second bid strikes a similar tone — again distancing their platform from lobbyists and political action committee dollars. And the race is shaping up to be even more expensive than the last.

Since launching their campaign earlier this year, both MacKay and Decker have significantly escalated fundraising efforts. MacKay raked in $66,000 in cash on hand by the end of January, exceeding their fundraising efforts in the entire previous cycle. Decker, in comparison, had $58,000 in cash on hand at the end of the month.

“This isn’t even necessarily about winning campaigns,” said Ayah A. Al-Zubi ’23, current Cambridge City Councilor, in an interview. “Evan is there to figure out ways in which we can bring people in and do things differently.”

MacKay took a leave of absence from their JD-Ph.D. to pursue their campaign, and wrote in a statement that they would be “fully committed” to representing the district if elected.

“Though I love my teaching and believe scholarship serves an important role in advancing democratic values and social justice, after conversations with neighbors and fellow organizers, we decided that the way to make the greatest impact on the issues affecting our community was to run for office,” they wrote.

—Staff writer Wyatt T. Zurline can be reached [email protected].