The following announcement was provided by Team Lander:
On Dec. 15, Daniel Lander announced his candidacy for State Senate in the Suffolk and Middlesex District. Running to take on the cost of living crisis in Massachusetts, Daniel will prioritize making our communities more affordable and great places to live, while challenging the inaction and inertia of the State Senate.
“Massachusetts is my home. I’m running for State Senate to tackle the cost of living crisis that’s making it impossible for young families to build a life here and all residents to feel secure,” said Daniel Lander, Democratic candidate for State Senate in the Suffolk and Middlesex District. “The communities of this district are under attack from the Trump Administration. We need a State Senate that stands up for our knowledge economy, bringing down costs, and isn’t stuck defending a broken status quo. I look forward to hearing the concerns and dreams of residents and sharing my vision for an affordable, liveable Massachusetts over the months to come.”
Daniel is running because Massachusetts is facing a cost of living crisis, and the State Senate needs problem solvers who want to tackle these challenges head on. Daniel grew up and went to school in Cambridge, and he’s seen so many friends move away because they couldn’t imagine building a life in our state. Over the past two decades, the cost of living has skyrocketed in Massachusetts. Rent, health insurance premiums, energy bills, childcare tuition – each has rapidly increased, outstripping the rate of inflation. That’s why more than one in three current residents are thinking about leaving the state — an unacceptable trend that would jeopardize this District’s future.
And Daniel knows it’s not enough just to bring down costs – we have to make Massachusetts a better place to live. Right now the MBTA system shuts down overnight, leaving late-night workers and residents enjoying our city stranded. While restaurants and bars struggle to survive or expand, they’re hamstrung by outdated laws restricting liquor licenses, curtailing hours of operation, and banning happy hour. Daniel knows that with political will, we can turn these challenges into sources of promise and opportunity for our community.
Daniel has deep roots in this district. After growing up in Huron Village in West Cambridge, he went to Harvard College and received a master’s in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. Daniel and his husband, Michael, have since made their home in the Fenway neighborhood of Boston, where Daniel serves as a community leader with the Fenway Civic Association and as the elected Chair of the Ward 21 Democratic Committee, representing local democrats in Allston, Brighton and Fenway. Daniel has attended Beth El Temple Center in Belmont with his family since elementary school.
A proud gay man, Daniel has dedicated his professional life to lifting up marginalized communities. He has spent a decade championing progressive causes across the country, advocating for criminal justice reform, LGBTQ+ civil rights, and democratic engagement. Working for pragmatic progressives, Daniel has learned how to make government work for people. He worked as a policy fellow for Senator Elizabeth Warren’s 2012 Senate campaign, and during Senator Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign, Daniel served as the National Director of LGBTQ+ Outreach and National Youth Vote Director.
For the past four years, Daniel has served as a senior policy advisor to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. In that role, he has led numerous initiatives to make Boston more affordable and a better place to live, including:
• Leading an audit of City-owned land, identifying places where hundreds of new affordable homes can be built. When red tape was delaying construction of affordable housing, he helped author and implement an executive order to speed up the permitting process by 50 percent.
• Creating Boston Family Days, giving families access for free to more than 20 world class cultural institutions. More than 70,000 kids and family members have participated in the program to date.
• Building the coalition to preserve affordable musical rehearsal space in Allston Brighton, taking on an out of state corporate developer, and securing 290 North Beacon as the future home for more than 40,000 square feet of music rehearsal space and new deeply affordable public housing.
• Designing and leading the SPACE grant program to help more than 90 exciting businesses open or expand, including Boston’s first lesbian bar in decades (Dani’s Queer Bar), as well as new bookstores, tea rooms and more.
This is the creative problem-solving energy the State Senate desperately needs. This year has been one of the least productive legislative sessions on record.
The Legislature has passed a mere 67 bills since January, of which only three are statewide laws. The rest are a mix of 35 bills focused on a single town or city, three bills designating new state awareness days, 10 budget and appropriation bills that the Legislature is legally mandated to pass, and a surprising sixteen bills pertaining to individual state employees. And the State Senate has been on vacation since before Thanksgiving. The people of Massachusetts deserve better.
The Suffolk and Middlesex District includes most of the Fenway neighborhood of Boston, the Allston and Brighton neighborhoods of Boston, all of Watertown, all of Belmont, and West Cambridge. It is currently represented by an almost 20-year incumbent who has not faced a challenger since 2011. Daniel looks forward to meeting, hearing from, and earning the votes of residents across these communities.
Daniel will be leaving his role with the City of Boston, effective Jan. 9th, 2026, to focus full time on his campaign.