State Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven, who represents Somerville in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, announced a bid for state Senate in front of the Medford/Tufts station on Monday.
The 2nd Middlesex District seat is being vacated by Sen. Pat Jehlen, who announced her retirement in December after more than 25 years in the Legislature.
Uyterhoeven, a former antitrust economist and the daughter of a Japanese immigrant single mother, was elected to the State House in 2020 with the support of the Democratic Socialists of America.
She described her political career and the race for state Senate as a fight for government transparency and accountability, arguing that city and state governments have neglected the needs and voices of residents.
“Right now, the doors are closed. The rooms are full of people who aren’t you, and that ends now,” she said. “We are opening every door on Beacon Hill, not to ask permission, but to take back what was always ours.”
“The rooms get bigger. The pattern stays the same. Someone decides, someone benefits,” she said. “You pay, and you find out later. The Legislature prioritizes donors and companies over their constituents every time.”
Uyterhoeven has also been vocal about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s presence in the state. In January, she garnered attention for a social media video demanding ICE get “the f--- out of Massachusetts.”
She has criticized Gov. Maura Healey for a three-year, multimillion-dollar deal with OpenAI, whose tools she says are used in ICE operations. The state says the company will help develop an AI software for state employees in order to increase government efficiency.
In her announcement, Uyterhoeven lambasted the contract, arguing that the governor’s office had handed over individuals’ health, unemployment and tax information to OpenAI. She also claimed that executives from Microsoft, Amazon and Fidelity had been involved in the agreement.
She also highlighted the Pentagon’s recent deal with the company and ICE’s arrest of then-Tufts graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk last year.
“Different party, same choice, and it’s the same AI that is being used by ICE,” she said. “Rümeysa Öztürk was taken from Somerville. Masked agents, no warning, right here.”
Erika Uyterhoeven is pictured during her campaign launch outside of the Medford/Tufts station on March 2.
With its construction in sight behind her, Uyterhoeven directly called out Tufts and the Medford Community Development Board for ultimately approving the university’s new dorm on Boston Avenue despite public opposition.
“More than 120 neighbors organized to stop a 10-story dormitory that Tufts University forced onto their street. The mayor opposed it. The board voted no. That should have been the end of it, but the board was pressured to reverse its decision and approved it … because of a state law from the 1950s that says a university with a nearly $3 billion endowment doesn’t have to listen to the people who live next door,” she said.
She also criticized the university’s payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement with Medford, which has drawn criticism for being an unwritten arrangement.
“Tufts pays Medford a mere $450,000 a year in lieu of taxes — a handshake deal, no written record,” she said. “Your property taxes subsidize a multibillion-dollar institution, carrying the weight that they don’t have to.”
When asked why she chose to make her announcement at the Green Line station and in front of Tufts, Uyterhoeven said the community “loves public goods” and that taxing the wealthy to fund them was central to her campaign. Of Tufts, she said she would work to ensure the university pays its “fair share“ to Medford and Somerville and that Harvard does the same with Cambridge.
M. Claire Masinton, a staff attorney at the Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee, said at the event that she was supporting Uyterhoeven because of her work in prisons.
“I see her inside the prisons, meeting with incarcerated folks [and] formerly incarcerated folks,” Masinton said. “This work, to me, is so fundamental, and she really shows up. She’s just a good person. She’s not a politician’s politician. She’s a politician for the people.”
Uyterhoeven fell 3% short of receiving the DSA’s endorsement in early February. The group said the vote was not a reflection on Uyterhoeven but rather the prospects of winning the seat, according to previous reporting by Politico. Uyterhoeven announced her campaign despite previously indicating that she would not run without the DSA’s backing.
The announcement was attended by several early endorsers of Uyterhoeven, including Somerville City Councilors JT Scott and Jon Link, as well as Cambridge City Councilor Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler.
Megan Brady of the Somerville Educators Union; David Delvalle, a formerly incarcerated educator who works as education and reentry director for the Tufts University Prison Initiative; Julio De La Cruz, vice president of the Local IBEW 2222 electrical workers union; and Sobrinho-Wheeler introduced Uyterhoeven at the announcement.
State Rep. Christine Barber, Cambridge Vice Mayor Burhan Azeem, Winchester School Committee member Tom Hopcroft and Somerville City Councilor Matt McLaughlin are also running for the seat. Uyterhoeven and Barber will leave open seats in the state House of Representatives.
