Press Release: 11/9/2026
Preliminary Election Results: Single Payer Health Care Wins Again
For Immediate Release
Contact: Jon Weissman, info@masscare.org, 617-297-8011
View online: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vhXAp46N92cbWvRhpSC6L2i__elvZJlixw8uqbFwQmM/.
Mass-Care: the Massachusetts Campaign for Single Payer Health Care (masscare.org) announced the unofficial results of its Public Policy Question, which was Question 10 on the ballot in two State Representative districts. Single Payer Health Care won in both districts, even in a district that Trump won in 2024. This is not a partisan issue.
These results are unofficial but supplied by the Town Clerks of the cities and towns that voted on the question. Mass-Care will update this report when official results are available from the Secretary of State at https://electionstats.state.ma.us/.
Districts who voted:
1st Hampden (Rep. Todd Smola) 59.4% Yes. Trump carried the 1st Hampden in 2024.
15th Middlesex (Rep. Michelle Ciccolo) 70.1% Yes.
The 1st Hampden is one of only three Republican-led districts in Western Massachusetts. In 2024, two of them voted for Trump but also voted for this ballot question: the 3rd Hampden was 51.8% Yes and the 4th Hampden was 55.1% Yes. The 1st Hampden also voted for Trump and Western Mass. activists volunteered to "finish the trifecta" to make the point that this is not a partisan issue.
The 15th Middlesex is mostly in Senator Cindy Friedman's Fourth Middlesex Senate district. Friedman is the Senate chair of the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing, which hears Mass-Care’s bill, An Act Establishing Medicare for All in Massachusetts. Mass-Care ran the ballot question in two other Representative districts with parts in her district (there are six altogether): 23rd Middlesex voted 73.8% Yes in 2022 and 24th Middlesex voted 69.2% Yes in 2024.
Cities and towns that voted on Question 10 (with their preliminary Yes percentage) were:
1st Hampden: Brimfield (54.5%), Holland (58.5%), Palmer (60.3%), Sturbridge (61.8%), Wales (57.1%), Ware Precincts B & C (57.5%), and Warren (60.6%).
15th Middlesex: Lexington Precincts 1-5 and 7–9 (74.1%), Winchester Precinct 6 (58.4%), and Woburn Ward 1 Precincts 1 and 2 and Ward 7 (62.6%).
The ballot question:
Shall the Representative from this District be instructed to vote for legislation to create a single-payer system of universal health care that would provide all Massachusetts residents with comprehensive health care coverage including the freedom to choose doctors and other health care professionals, facilities, and services, and that would eliminate the role of insurance companies in health care by creating a publicly administered insurance trust fund?
Mass-Care has run a version of this Public Policy Question 70 times since its founding in 1995, winning every time. The average of district Yes vote percentages is 67.4% (including these preliminary results). See History of M-C Single Payer Public Policy BQs (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oFGuOxsZsTRznFuMLYNHDXEWzYzdNVwFSdeQHZqQv2M/).
Single Payer is a tried and true, simple, and efficient approach to paying for health care by creating the Massachusetts Health Care Trust, guaranteeing care for all and saving lives and billions of dollars a year. In the first year alone, the Trust would bring down total health care costs from $128.6 billion to $98.7 billion, over 23% less than current spending. See https://masscare.org/economic-analysis/.
Mass-Care’s mission is to establish a Single Payer health care financing system in Massachusetts so that all residents of the Commonwealth have access to comprehensive, quality, and equitable health care, publicly financed and free of out-of-pocket cost at point-of-care, with free choice of practitioners, because it is a human right, basic to life and human dignity. The Mass-Care Coalition is now 116 organizations. Mass-Care may be reached at info@masscare.org, 617-297-8011, and masscare.org.
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