Auchincloss Wins MA 4th District House Primary

NEWTON, MA — More than two days after polls closed, Newton City Council Jake Auchincloss was declared the winner of the 4th Congressional District Democratic primary, besting Jesse Mermell by about 1.3 percentage points.

Auchincloss will now move ahead to face Julie Hall, the winner of the 4th District Republican primary, on Nov. 3 for the chance to replace outgoing U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy.

"I’m honored that the people of #MA04 have chosen me as the Democratic nominee for Congress," Auchincloss said in a tweet early Friday morning. "We won 25 of the 34 cities and towns across the district, a testament to the strong, full-district campaign we built."

The race began after Kennedy announced he would step down to challenge U.S. Sen. Ed Markey in the Democratic primary. That set up a nine-way race for the open seat. Three candidates dropped out, leaving Auchincloss and the more progressive Mermell the two front-runners.

The race was thrown into question Tuesday when several towns failed to report vote totals in the race. That led to Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin seeking a court order to let counting continue after Election Day.

On Wednesday morning, the race was extremely close, with Mermell ahead by about 100 votes. The count flipped by Wednesday afternoon to put Auchincloss ahead by about 1,500 votes. Mermell, a former Brookline Select Board member, never caught up, even after Newton, Wellesley and Franklin were granted permission by a judge to count thousands of ballots Thursday.

About 156,000 people voted in the race. Mermell and Auchincloss' votes accounted for about half the total. Here's how the vote broke down, according to The Associated Press:

• Jake Auchincloss — 34,971 votes, 22.41%
• Jesse Mermell — 32,938 votes, 21.11%
• Becky Grossman — 28,311 votes, 18.14%
• Natalia Linos — 18,158 votes, 11.64%
• Ihssane Leckey — 17,346 votes, 11.12%
• Alan Khazei — 14,305 votes, 9.17%
• Christopher Zannetos — 5,091 votes, 3.26% (dropped out Aug. 26)
• David Cavell — 2,472 votes, 1.58% (dropped out Aug. 13)
• Benjamin Sigel — 2,437 votes, 1.56%

Auchincloss is a Newton native and Harvard graduate who served as a captain in the Marines, commanding an infantry unit in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in 2012 and a reconnaissance unit in Panama in 2015. He was elected to the Newton City Council in 2015 and re-elected in 2017.