The Massachusetts primary saw incumbents across the commonwealth defend their seats on Beacon Hill and Capitol Hill against an onslaught of primary challengers and an insurgency movement that has taken the nation by storm.

Here are a few highlights from Newton’s results:

Money likes Moulton

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey didn’t just beat U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton in the Senate primary. He trounced him, 65 percent to 35 percent.

Markey won Newton, but not by as big a margin as he won statewide. Newton gave Markey 9,748 votes and Moulton 7,153.  That’s roughly 57 percent to 42 percent.

Moulton did better in areas of the city with more affluent neighborhoods, like in West Newton and Oak Hill, and he won Ward 7, which includes much of Chestnut Hill. He would have won Ward 8, too, if not for a very strong turnout for Markey in Precinct 4.

This matches Moulton’s performance statewide, in which he lost by a smaller margin in affluent communities like Concord than in less affluent ones, and he actually won in affluent communities he already represented in Congress, including Boxford and Topsfield.

U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton visits the Newton Farmers’ Market to meet supporters in his campaign for Senate. Photo by Bryan McGonigle

The Minogue/Shortsleeve divide

On the Republican side, the Senate primary had a similar drubbing, even though the race got less attention.

Mike Minogue, a Hamilton business owner, is running as a pro-Trump MAGA Republican, while his opponent, former MBTA manager Brian Shortsleeve, was running as a more moderate Republican in the style of his former boss, former Gov. Charlie Baker.

Newton Republicans, like Republicans statewide, leaned hard into MAGA. Minogue won the state with around 76 percent, compared with Shortsleeve’s 24 percent, a decisive walloping and a clear view of the direction the Massachusetts Republican party is headed.

Newtonians were slightly more divided. Minogue won about 66 percent of the Republican primary votes in Newton, compared with Shortsleeve’s 34 percent. It’s still a beating, but the punches are a little softer.

Shortsleeve lost every ward in Newton, but he had his best showing in Ward 7, which includes Chestnut Hill, where he only lost by 18 percentage points. Ward 8, however, which includes Oak Hill, was Shortsleeve’s worst showing. Minogue won by 41 percentage points there.

Poulos is pounced in every ward

A few weeks ago, U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss released a poll showing him with 75 percent of the vote despite challenger Jason Poulos generating buzz among the district’s more progressive voters.

Auchincloss’s poll turned out to be pretty accurate, as he walked away with about 73 percent of the vote and Poulos took around 26 percent.

Auchincloss won by double-digit margins in every ward. Like Moulton, he did even better where the money is. In Ward 8, which includes Oak Hill, Auchincloss got 81 percent of the vote and a victory margin of 65 percentage points. His next biggest victory margin was in Chestnut Hill.

Interesting tidbit: You may have noticed a ton of Poulos lawn signs pop up in Newtonville in the past couple of months, but he lost that village by 45 percentage points, while he had his best showing—only losing by 28 percentage points—next door in Nonantum.

State Rep. John Lawn speaks at Nonantum’s Village Day at Coletti-Magni Park on June 28, 2026. Photo by Bryan McGonigle

The Middlesex 10th rematch

This was a rematch primary. City Councilor Alison Leary challenged State Rep. John Lawn in 2020.

That year, the COVID-19 pandemic handicapped Leary’s campaign efforts. She couldn’t do much door-knocking that summer so she couldn’t make herself known to voters.

This year, Leary was able to campaign full-throttle, and she ran on a platform of single-payer healthcare and government transparency.

The 10th Middlesex district includes three precincts in Ward 1 and one precinct in Ward 3. In 2020, it only included Ward 1. That’s Nonantum. Leary won about 53 percent of the Nonantum votes in the 2020 primary, and Lawn won about 43 percent.

Since then, however, Leary supported the Village Center Overlay District (Nonantum was taken out of the VCOD after residents protested), has called for more housing development in Nonantum and, this campaign season, said during a debate that Nonantum voters aren’t her voters.

This year, Nonantum agreed. Lawn won 57 percent of Nonantum’s 10th Middlesex Democratic primary votes, while Leary got 37 percent.

Going from winning with 53 percent to losing with 37 percent is not the kind of swing any candidate hopes for.

And if Leary is hoping Nonantum forgives and forgets that kind of slight, she may want to have a word with Ruthanne Fuller.