Harvard Kennedy School Student Neil Miller Launches Bid for Massachusetts House Seat

Neil S. Miller, a first-time candidate and Harvard Kennedy School student, launched a bid for the Massachusetts state legislature, mounting the first challenge in a decade to State Representative Mike L. Connolly.

Miller is running to represent the 26th Middlesex District, which includes parts of Cambridge and Somerville. Connolly first won the seat in 2016, narrowly defeating the incumbent, Timothy J. Toomey Jr.

Miller, who moved to Cambridge seven years ago as a renter, said the region’s affordability crisis pushed him to enter the race. His own experience navigating the city’s rental market, he said, and watching friends and neighbors priced out of their homes helped convince him to run.

Soon after arriving in Cambridge, Miller became involved with the pro-housing advocacy group A Better Cambridge. He later volunteered with the group’s Independent Expenditure Political Action Committee, which coordinates thousands of dollars in campaign materials for its slate of endorsed City Council candidates.

Before enrolling at the Harvard Kennedy School in 2025, Miller worked as a data scientist at the U.S. General Services Administration, where he analyzed federal programs to improve government efficiency. He said he hopes to bring that approach to Beacon Hill, focusing on “building services that work for people.”

Miller has been a vocal supporter of affordable housing policies and Cambridge’s multifamily zoning ordinance — which passed last February to allow larger developments across the city — as a volunteer with A Better Cambridge. Miller said he hopes to see major changes to the legislature’s approach to increasing the state’s affordable housing stock.

“Representative Connolly has not been a leader on these issues in the same way,” Miller said in an interview Sunday. “I think being able to speak to what Cambridge and Somerville have accomplished locally is where I can really contribute to the pro-housing movement statewide.”

Miller also criticized what he described as a lack of transparency on Beacon Hill, arguing that contested elections are rare in a legislature dominated by long-serving incumbents.

Connolly, who has represented the district for nearly a decade, pointed to his record on housing and tenant protections. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he sponsored legislation aimed at protecting tenants facing eviction and foreclosure, and he supported the Affordable Homes Act, a sweeping housing package passed in 2024.

“It’s an opportunity to do even more, to both talk about the work we've done together, to listen to the community and take even more opportunity to hear what’s on people's minds,” Connolly said in an interview.

Connolly said his campaign would focus on two central concerns: protecting residents from expanded federal immigration enforcement and addressing the region’s rising cost of living.

“It’s getting ever more impossible to afford housing, health care, utility bills, food and groceries, child care — the list goes on and on,” he said.

As the race begins, Connolly reported just over $50,000 in his campaign accounts in filings released in early March. Miller, who opened a campaign account earlier this week, has not yet reported any contributions.

Miller said he plans to run a volunteer-driven campaign funded primarily by individual donations rather than political action committees or lobbyists.

“I’ll be spending the summer knocking on every door in the district, every neighborhood, and having volunteers support me in doing that,” Miller said.

Though he has not previously held public office, Miller said his experience organizing housing advocacy efforts in Cambridge and Somerville has prepared him to navigate the State House.

“That’s my top issue — that we need to make government exist to solve people’s problems, and share ideas for how we can do that,” Miller said.

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