Salem's Manny Cruz: State House Win Culminates Public Service Journey

SALEM, MA — While the campaign is not quite completely over for Manny Cruz, the thoughts of the Salem School Committee Vice Chair are already focused on many of the ways he can best serve the city on Beacon Hill.

Cruz won the Democratic nomination for the 7th Essex District state representative seat with a decisive victory on Tuesday night. With no Republican challenger on the ballot, he told Patch on Wednesday he is looking forward to seeing the race through to November, as well as working with outgoing State Rep. Paul Tucker (D-Salem) — who won the nomination as the next Essex District Attorney on Tuesday —on how he will in all likelihood take over Tucker's seat in January.

"I am really excited about the opportunity to continue to engage with residents and voters," Cruz told Patch on Wednesday. "It will be a different type of engagement with voters. I will be looking forward to supporting my friends and colleagues as they come through and welcoming them to my community so they can be victorious in November.

"But I don't consider myself the state representative-elect until November."

Cruz certainly knows his way around the State House well as a former member of Gov. Deval Patrick's Statewide Youth Council, as a legislative aide to State Rep. Juana Matias (D-Lawrence) and most recently as Tucker's district director.

He has also served on the Boards of LEAP for Education, Plummer Youth Promise, MA Alliance for Early College and the Northshore Community Action Programs, and was a member of the Salem Race Equity Task Force, along with his four years on the Salem School Committee during a time of intense COVID-19 and budget challenges.

"I do think my role on the School Committee was a formative one," he said. "I worked on policy every single week on the policy committee and I've prided myself as a School Committee member the past four years as someone who tries to dive deep into all the issues."

Cruz, who was re-elected to a four-year term on the School Committee last November and elevated to vice chair at the start of the current term, said he intends to keep his position until at least next year's election at which time he will make a decision that he feels is in the best interest of Salem students and families.

"I certainly am planning on finishing my term," he said. "I mentioned at the outset (of the state representative campaign) that I was committed to finishing out my term and making sure the needs of our community were met."

He added that he will not seek re-election to the School Committee after his current term is complete.

Once he is presumably sworn into the 7th Essex seat in January, Cruz said his top priorities will be to develop and file legislation to benefit Salem residents in the areas of climate change, public transportation — he is a strong proponent of the proposed South Salem commuter rail station — public education and affordable housing policy.

"This victory was a culmination of my journey throughout public service," he said, "in which I have always been focused on how I can improve the lives of our Salem residents and ensure that they are well-served."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)