A 19-year-old Democrat, Daniel Darris-O’Connor, has unseated an eight-term Republican incumbent in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, marking a significant victory amid a broader wave of midterm election results that saw several Republican seats flipped across the country.
Darris-O’Connor, a resident of Billerica, will soon become one of the youngest members of the Massachusetts legislature, replacing state Rep. Marc Lombardo, who had represented the 22nd Middlesex District since Darris-O’Connor was four years old.
Despite his youth, Darris-O’Connor emphasized that his campaign focused on issues rather than his age. "I ran being focused on the issues," he told The Boston Globe. While he will not break the record for the youngest state House member—that distinction belongs to Thomas Lussier, who was 19 when he entered the House in 1977—Darris-O’Connor will turn 20 the day before his scheduled swearing-in in January.
Darris-O’Connor described his district as "very purple, especially for Massachusetts" and centered his campaign on affordability and addressing the rising cost of living. "I’ve lived here my whole life," he stated. "We have a great quality of life in Massachusetts. But if you can’t afford it, what’s really the point of it?"
His inspiration for entering politics reportedly stems from his middle school years during the COVID-19 pandemic, a period he described as "radicalizing."
This is not Darris-O’Connor's first electoral success; he was elected to Billerica’s five-member select board in 2025, prior to graduating from high school.
Lombardo, known as a conservative member of the state legislature, was first elected in 2010. Darris-O’Connor won by a narrow margin of 438 votes out of over 17,000 ballots cast, with more than 99% of votes tallied.
Democrats already held significant majorities in both the Massachusetts House and Senate. The party maintained its existing 135 seats in the state House, with a few races still uncalled. Republicans lost a net of three seats in the lower chamber, including those held by retiring Minority Leader Bradley Jones and his second-in-command, Kim Ferguson, neither of whom sought re-election. In another notable race, a 23-year-old Democrat challenger, Jack Richardson, defeated incumbent Republican David Vieira.