Massachusetts 6th District: Primary candidates and key dates

Consolidated coverage of the North Shore/Merrimack Valley news consortium comprising the Marblehead Current, Swampscott Tides, Andover News, Manchester Cricket and Burlington Buzz.

Massachusetts’ 6th Congressional District primary is Sept. 1; the general election is Nov. 3.

Why this seat is open

Rep. Seth Moulton is not seeking re-election to the seat he’s held since 2015; he’s running in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate against Sen. Ed Markey. That announcement last October opened the first competitive MA-06 race in more than a decade and drew a large Democratic field, plus one Republican.

The field

Democrats (primary winner advances to the general election):

  • Bethany “Beth” Andres-Beck — Middleton, senior staff software engineer, Democratic activist
  • John Beccia — Lynnfield, attorney and fintech/compliance executive
  • Jamie Zahlaway Belsito — Topsfield, former state representative, maternal-health nonprofit founder
  • Dan Koh — Andover, former chief of staff in the U.S. Department of Labor and for Boston Mayor Marty Walsh
  • Dr. Mariah Lancaster — Salem, veterinarian and former State Department/congressional staffer
  • Tram Nguyen — Andover, current state representative (18th Essex District)

Republican: Micah Q. Jones — Essex, Army veteran and securities attorney (unopposed in the GOP primary)

Two other Democrats — Rick Jakious, Moulton’s former chief of staff, and Rachel Creemers — entered the race and later withdrew before qualifying for the ballot.

Voter information: Key dates and how to vote

Source: Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Upcoming Elections, current as of early August. Local deadlines for in-person absentee voting and drop-box locations vary slightly by city/town — readers should confirm specifics with their local clerk.

State Primary: Tuesday, Sept. 1: The MA-06 Democratic and Republican primary candidates will appear on separate ballots, alongside primaries for U.S. Senate, governor and other statewide, county and legislative offices.

Voter registration deadlineSaturday, Aug. 22 (11:59 p.m. online at sec.state.ma.us/OVR, or in person/by mail to your local election office)
Vote-by-mail application deadlineTuesday, Aug. 25, 5 p.m. — must be received by your local election office, not just postmarked
In-person absentee voting deadlineMonday, Aug. 31, noon, at your local election office
Early voting period (in person)Saturday, Aug. 22-Friday, Aug. 28 (locations/hours vary by city and town)
Vote-by-mail/absentee ballot return deadlineElection Day, Tuesday, Sept. 1, by 8 p.m. — return by mail, drop box or in person to your local election office
Election Day polling hours7 a.m.-8 p.m.

General Election: Tuesday, Nov. 3 (the primary winners advance to this ballot)

  • Voter registration deadline: Oct. 24
  • Vote-by-mail application deadline: 5 p.m., Oct. 27
  • Early voting period: Oct. 17-30
  • Polling hours: 7 a.m.-8 p.m.

Useful state tools:

Massachusetts allows no-excuse vote-by-mail for all state elections; every registered voter is mailed a pre-addressed, postage-paid vote-by-mail application ahead of each statewide election unless they’ve already requested one for the year. Massachusetts does not have a general voter ID requirement, though first-time voters or those on the inactive list may be asked to show ID or sign an affirmation of residency at the polls.

Part One: Catching up — an index of consortium coverage

Candidate entries and ballot access

Forums and debates

The Burlington Buzz podcast series

“PODCAST: Meet the Primary Candidates for the Massachusetts 6th Congressional District” — Burlington Buzz, July 15, 2026. Publisher and Founding Editor Nicci Kadilak interviewed all seven candidates one-on-one, with questions developed in coordination with the Manchester Cricket and Swampscott Tides. Full audio and lightly-edited AI transcripts are posted for each candidate at the link above: Bethany Andres-Beck, John Beccia, Jamie Belsito, Micah Jones, Dan Koh, Mariah Lancaster and Tram Nguyen.

The Swampscott Tides profile series

Coming soon: The Swampscott Tides will be publishing profiles of all seven candidates for Congress. Check back soon for links.

Fundraising and finances

Candidate scrutiny and background

Endorsements referenced in coverage (see candidate sites for full lists)

  • Koh: Massachusetts AFL-CIO and former President Biden
  • Lancaster: Massachusetts Teachers Association
  • Nguyen: UAW, Massachusetts SEIU State Council, Swampscott Select Board Vice Chair Danielle Leonard (Nguyen).

Part Two: On the issues

The summaries below reflect what candidates have told consortium reporters and audiences directly, plus positions stated on their own campaign websites, which are cited as secondary sources. Because this is a six-way Democratic primary, candidates agree on many broad goals (opposing the Trump administration, protecting reproductive rights, expanding health care access), and the more useful distinctions tend to be in emphasis, specificity and funding mechanism.

Affordability and the cost of living

All six Democrats name affordability as the top issue, but propose different levers. Koh has built his campaign around a “No More” agenda: no more than $10 a day for childcare, utility bills capped at 6% of household income, $25,000-plus in down-payment assistance for homebuyers, and rent capped at 30% of income, funded through what he describes as nationalizing existing state-level pilot programs (Burlington Buzz podcast). Beccia’s “North Shore New Deal,” organized around what he calls “Four Freedoms for the Next Generation,” centers on housing costs, health care access, education and government ethics (Andover News); in the podcast, he pointed to tax reform aimed at corporations and high earners, tax credits for families, and reversing what he called roughly $1,700 a year in added household costs from tariffs. Belsito has focused on taxing high corporate profits and executive pay to fund cost-of-living relief and described the current system as lacking any meaningful “social contract” (Burlington Buzz podcast). Andres-Beck ties affordability to federal fiscal management and ending U.S. involvement in the Iran conflict, which she says is driving up gas and shipping costs. At the March Bedford/Billerica forum, Beccia described local budgeting amid federal cuts as a “whack-a-mole” exercise (Marblehead Current), while Nguyen said local governments are absorbing what she called harmful federal disinvestment.

Housing

Andres-Beck supports repealing a 1990s-era federal restriction on the government building new public housing, arguing the U.S. should build homes near job centers using commute-time data — an idea she says hasn’t yet moved through Congress (Burlington Buzz podcast). Beccia points to reforming zoning requirements, lowering construction costs, and expanding mixed-use and accessory-dwelling-unit development, along with fixing what he calls a regional connectivity problem. Belsito would expand HUD senior-housing programs, cap property-tax increases for long-tenured seniors, and prohibit large investment firms from buying up single-family homes to flip them; she noted a federal housing bill was blocked over an unrelated voter-ID provision. Jones, the Republican, proposes opening underused federal land for expedited housing development and expanding access-to-capital programs, alongside GI Bill-style benefits tied to expanded national service. On her website, Lancaster lists affordable housing among her core priorities alongside health care and education (mariahlancaster.com); Nguyen’s site lists expanding affordable housing among her top goals (tramforcongress.com).

Healthcare

At the March Bedford/Billerica forum, Jakious (who has since withdrawn) called for a single-payer system; Andres-Beck called for dramatically expanding community health centers (Marblehead Current). Belsito has made Medicare for All her signature issue, citing families skipping preventive care and rising uninsurance, and has criticized federal cuts to MassHealth (Burlington Buzz podcast). Koh’s platform also calls for Medicare for All but emphasizes a more immediate fix: expanding access to primary care doctors, noting roughly a third of Americans lack one. Lancaster’s site lists health care first among her issue priorities (mariahlancaster.com).

Campaign finance and government ethics

This is one of the sharper points of contrast. Belsito has called on rivals to join her in taking the “People’s Pledge,” rejecting corporate PAC, Super PAC, AIPAC, and billionaire money (Swampscott Tides). Lancaster says every dollar of her campaign’s funding has come from individuals rather than PACs or corporations and has called overturning Citizens United v. FEC a top priority; she released five years of tax returns and urged rivals to do the same (Andover News). Nguyen has likewise called for overturning Citizens United, banning members of Congress from profiting off office, and noted more than 83% of her donations have come from within Massachusetts; she also released five years of returns (Andover News). Koh has said he would reject corporate PAC money in the primary. Beccia supports overturning Citizens United, banning members of Congress from trading individual stocks, and setting term limits, while also self-funding part of his campaign — a point he frames as making him independent of donors (Burlington Buzz podcast). Jones, the Republican, has also made banning congressional stock trading his top day-one priority, calling it one of the few truly bipartisan reforms available.

Immigration and the Burlington ICE facility

Several candidates addressed a federal ICE processing facility in Burlington directly in the podcast series. Andres-Beck says regardless of one’s view on detention policy generally, conditions at the facility are unacceptable, and argues Congress members have a unique right of access to inspect such facilities. Beccia supports abolishing ICE “in its current form,” while calling for border security paired with a citizenship pathway. Belsito described the facility in stark terms and connected it to broader concerns about due process, citing the recent Supreme Court decision affecting Temporary Protected Status for Haitian immigrants. Jones, the Republican, opposes illegal immigration and supports increased administrative law judges to speed due process, but says the federal government cannot compel state or local law enforcement to assist with immigration enforcement, and has called for more coordination between agencies to avoid public confrontations like one in Minneapolis earlier in the year. At the March forum, immigration was one of the flashpoints among the full field, alongside health care and the Iran conflict (Marblehead Current).

Artificial intelligence and technology

Andres-Beck, a software engineer, has made AI regulation a centerpiece, calling for consumer-protection laws to apply to software companies, restored environmental regulation for data centers, and tax policy that doesn’t let automation erode the payroll-tax base that funds Social Security and Medicare (Burlington Buzz podcast). Beccia, who teaches financial regulation at Boston University School of Law, wants a federal office of innovation, certification programs and ongoing guardrails, citing a Tufts University study ranking Massachusetts among the states most exposed to AI-driven job displacement. Belsito supports regulation of AI’s use in decision-making (loan approvals, rent-setting, insurance denials) and has raised the idea of a “common dividend” if automation continues to erode the tax base. Jones, the only Republican, frames AI primarily as a national-security competition with China and supports federal workforce-transition programs administered through the Small Business Administration, alongside continued innovation.

Foreign policy, Israel and Iran

At the June Salem State forum, Beccia said the Trump administration’s approach on the world stage has made the U.S. “a laughing stock” internationally (Manchester Cricket). Belsito has been the most outspoken on Israel-related spending, criticizing continued military aid amid the conflict in Gaza and noting she does not accept AIPAC money; she has also criticized Moulton for not returning early AIPAC contributions after later pledging not to take further AIPAC money. At the May tri-town forum, candidates broadly agreed on Congress’s responsibility to check the Trump administration and voiced concern about U.S. aid to Israel and what several candidates termed “illegal wars” (Marblehead Current).

Bipartisanship and party strategy

This produced one of the starkest divides at the March forum. Beccia said the country has become too quick to write off the other party as broken; Belsito called bipartisanship “a nice theory”; Koh said no one should be comfortable with a member of Congress trying to work with people trying to undermine democracy; Lancaster said the party can’t afford to compromise on its agenda; and Nguyen said “there’s no negotiating with MAGA,” framing bipartisanship instead as coalition-building (Marblehead Current). In his podcast interview, Koh took a different tone, saying Democrats too often dismiss Trump voters and moderates rather than offering them a compelling alternative (Burlington Buzz podcast). Jones, the Republican, has cited Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as a model for working with the administration to secure federal resources even amid policy disagreement, and argues the all-Democratic Massachusetts delegation has taken what he calls a “resistance-only” posture.

Energy

Jones is the field’s most vocal advocate for expanding nuclear power (including small modular reactors) and natural gas pipeline capacity in New England, arguing the region’s status as an energy importer drives up costs across the economy. Andres-Beck’s data-center policy — restoring environmental review and steering new facilities toward built-in green power — is the clearest energy-adjacent position among the Democrats; Lancaster’s site also lists “diverse, renewable energy” as a priority (mariahlancaster.com).

Candidate websites