Azeem Leads Early Fundraising in Five-Way Race for State Senate, but Trails in Cash on Hand

Five candidates are competing for the open 2nd Middlesex state Senate seat, and early campaign finance filings show a field already sharply divided by money.

The seat opened in December, when Sen. Patricia D. Jehlen announced she would not seek reelection after more than two decades representing parts of Cambridge, Somerville, Medford, and Winchester. The race has drawn Cambridge Vice Mayor Burhan Azeem, state Rep. Christine P. Barber, state Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven, Somerville City Councilor Matthew C. McLaughlin, and Winchester School Committee member Tom Hopcroft.

The candidates have raised more than $200,000 combined since January, according to filings with the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance, making it one of the most expensive races of the cycle. Cash on hand across the field ranges from roughly $24,000 to nearly $150,000.

Azeem raised the most of any candidate through the end of March, but he also spent the most — more than $33,000 — leaving him with $32,121 on hand. He entered the race in February with about $2,000 left over from his third Cambridge City Council campaign.

Much of his support has come from Cambridge, where residents contributed $28,128 — the largest single-city total from any candidate in the available data. Azeem acknowledged the geographic imbalance and said his campaign is working to broaden its base through what he called a “Medford marathon,” a 26-mile stretch of daily door-knocking across the city.

“We got counted a little bit as an underdog. We hadn’t been saving cash for years and years. I’d just gotten off a competitive election,” Azeem said in an interview with The Crimson. “But we are running a serious campaign.”

Barber and Uyterhoeven lead the field in cash on hand, entering the race with the deepest accounts from their existing legislative campaigns. Together, the two state representatives account for more than $270,000 of the roughly $392,000 at play in the race.

Barber, who has represented the 34th Middlesex district for 11 years, started with more than $112,000 and has since raised nearly $60,000, bringing her cash on hand to more than $145,000. She attributed the buildup to the demands of a crowded field.

“When five candidates share many of the same stated values, voters can struggle to understand why the distinctions actually matter,” Barber wrote in a statement. “That puts pressure on campaigns to spend more on name recognition and contrast.”

Uyterhoeven, who has represented the 27th Middlesex district since 2020, entered the race in early March with just more than $90,000 on hand. She has raised roughly $44,000 since, bringing her total to around $125,000.

McLaughlin and Hopcroft trail the field, each raising less than $18,000.

McLaughlin, a Somerville city councilor since 2014, has raised about $17,800 and holds nearly $64,000 on hand, with most of it — more than $48,000 — carried over from his council campaign account. He said the dynamic was familiar.

“I’ve run many races where my campaign had the least money,” McLaughlin said, citing his own council campaigns and his work on Jehlen’s 2016 primary, which she won despite being outspent.

Hopcroft has raised $16,854 from 48 donors, the smallest pool in the race, and has $23,966 on hand.

Barber’s campaign is the only one to have accepted money from donors OCPF has labeled as lobbyists or political action committees, totaling $2,200. In a statement, she wrote that she does not accept funds from “corporate PACs, AIPAC, dark money or outside groups operating without transparency.”

Azeem accepted $500 from a PAC. McLaughlin and Hopcroft have taken neither lobbyist nor PAC contributions.

Detailed donor source information for Uyterhoeven was not available for 2026, but she said she is not accepting contributions from lobbyists or PACs. She attributed the decision to a desire to build public trust by refusing donations from “special interests that hold an outsized influence in the State House.”

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