NEWS CLIP
Congressional race moves into homestretch
LYNN — Six Democratic candidates for Massachusetts’ 6th Congressional District outlined their positions on healthcare, housing and other policy issues Aug. 6 during a candidate forum.
Each of the six candidates were given 90 seconds to respond to a question posed by the event’s moderator, Jason J. Galui, Endicott College’s head of the Center for Civic Participation.
On healthcare, the candidates largely agreed the current system is failing patients. Several, including veterinarian Dr. Mariah Lancaster of Salem and state Rep. Tram T. Nguyen of Andover, backed single‑payer Medicare for All. At the same time, attorney and businessman John Beccia of Lynnfield argued for “Medicare for all who want it” with a strong public option.
Beccia also stressed expanding Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing, and protecting Affordable Care Act subsidies as part of a broader push to ensure care for seniors, people with mental health needs, and veterans.
Former City of Boston and Biden Administration Official Dan Koh of Andover highlighted the difficulty of finding a primary care provider (PCP) in Massachusetts, citing that the Commonwealth is “49th out of 50 in terms of PCP access.”
Koh said, “I think we need to take primary care today away from those private insurers, create a primary care common fund, and have states administer primary care. What does that mean for you? It makes it absolutely free. It means if you switch jobs or lose your job, you don’t lose your PCP.”
Former state Rep. Jamie Belsito of Topsfield, an advocate for maternal mental health, questioned why lobbyists are allowed on Capitol Hill.
She said members of Congress “should be the lobbyist for the people” and called for a no‑profit Medicare for all system because “no one should be profiting off of illness.”
Software Engineer Beth Andres-Beck of Middleton also backed Medicare for All, but centered their healthcare pitch on stripping profit out of the system.
“We’ve seen what happens when private equity goes around buying up hospitals, consolidating, shutting down, squeezing healthcare workers for every last penny, and impacting patient care,” they said, citing a need for policy that says businesses are not allowed to practice medicine.
Beyond healthcare, candidates also addressed housing costs, clashing over federal investment, rent stabilization, and the role of landlords and private equity in driving prices up.
Lancaster, the only renter in the race, said they are “running in a race against landlords” and pushed for “renter protections, tenant protections, rent stabilization.”
Lancaster said they would support federal efforts like the Homes for All Act, which would lift the ban on building new public housing and invest heavily in new units, and said “we also need to be making sure that, like we’ve seen on the state level, that we are also conditioning federal supports on the actual development of that housing because it’s all well and good to put the money there.
“If you’re not actually incentivizing the communities to build new housing, it doesn’t really matter that the money’s there,” they said.
Nguyen rooted her housing agenda in personal experience, noting she grew up in public housing in Lawrence. She also leaned on her eight years in the state legislature and record of securing “over $500 million back to the communities” she represents, arguing she knows how to navigate state and federal programs to bring housing money home.
Beccia linked his housing agenda to boosting supply with more low‑income, veteran, and senior units, tax credits, and zoning and cost reforms so people can afford to stay in the community.
Beccia said the North Shore is facing a housing crisis, with a median home price around $700,000, so “people just can’t afford it,” and argued that Congress should help build more low‑income, veteran, and elderly homes by using incentives such as tax credits and zoning reforms to bring down construction costs.
Koh focused on federal support rather than local rent rules, warning that President Donald Trump is trying to cut 40% from the affordable housing budget.
“Things like Section 8 vouchers, things like funding our community development corporations, subsidies for families in need, the president is trying to cut all of them,” he said.
He argued Congress must block those cuts and “add even more” for tools like Section 8 vouchers and community development subsidies so cities can keep housing affordable.
Andres-Beck called housing a crisis but emphasized the need for large-scale federal construction of “catch‑up” public housing near jobs and long commutes, arguing lawmakers must start building the housing that is missing after “we have skipped 50 years of building.”
Belsito also focused on the political obstacles to addressing the housing shortage.
“Even our state legislature is not helping us move forward to address these things, so we should talk to our legislators about why this is not happening,” she said.
The winner of the Democratic primary election, set for Sept. 1, will face off against Micah Quinney Jones of Essex in the state’s General Election on Tuesday, Nov. 3.