5 Takeaways From Worcester's 2023 Preliminary Election

WORCESTER, MA — Only a fraction of Worcester voters participated in Tuesday's preliminary election, but the contest may offer some clues about themes to look for in advance of the larger November general election.

Tuesday's preliminary narrowed the field in five contested races to two candidates each. The results show voters may be in favor of more progressive candidates this year, although candidates more toward the political center also advanced.

The preliminary also showed us who will be in line to take over for two longtime incumbents who are leaving their seats at the end of this term: District 1 Councilor Sean Rose and District 4 Councilor Sarai Rivera.

Here are some other takeaways from Tuesday's race.

How incumbents fared

Incumbent candidates typically have the advantage in preliminary races because they are more well known than challengers. In Worcester election history dating back to 1987 (the year a new city charter went into effect), only one city council incumbent has ever been knocked out in a preliminary election. So it follows that the two incumbents in this year's preliminary, Candy Mero-Carlson and Etel Haxhiaj, both topped their races on Tuesday.

Haxhiaj is in her first term and won her seat in 2021 after coming out the leader in a four-way preliminary with 54.7 percent of the total vote. She nearly matched that performance in 2023 earning 54.4 percent of the vote in a three-way race — also a race with higher turnout at about 3,050 voters compared to 2,223 in 2021.

Mero-Carlson hasn't faced a primary challenge since 2015, which is the year she ended up winning the District 2 seat. That year, she earned 732 votes in a four-way race, or about 53.2 percent of the vote. In this year's three-way race, she dropped to about 44 percent of the vote while still earning the most votes.

Was turnout low?

Some quick math on the preliminary shows about 9% turnout and 8,700 votes cast. But the preliminary was also the largest in almost 40 years with six races on the ballot and over 96,000 registered voters eligible to cast ballots. According to election records, the 2023 preliminary had the fourth-lowest turnout of the last five preliminaries.

Here's how Tuesday compares to previous preliminaries:

• 2021: Two races on ballot with about 48,000 eligible voters. About 5,000 voters turned out, or 10.38%.
• 2019: Two races on ballot with about 100,400 eligible voters. About 8,700 voters turned out, or 8.7%.
• 2017: Two races on ballot with about 47,000 eligible voters. About 4,900 voters turned out, or 10.3%.
• 2015: Two races on ballot with about 92,200 eligible voters. About 10,300 voters turned out, or 11.1%.
• 2013: No municipal preliminary

Progressives claim victory

Preliminary elections don't actually elect candidates to office, but that doesn't mean candidates can't claim wins following a preliminary.

All the candidates endorsed by the local progressive political action committee Worcester Working Families will advance to the November election. Three of those candidates (Jenny Pacillo, Nelly Medina and Haxhiaj) were the top vote-getters in their respective races.

The fourth endorsee, District 2 council candidate Rob Bilotta, came in second in his race, but was only 136 votes below first-place finisher and incumbent Mero-Carlson. Bilotta also knocked off Phil Palmieri, a big name in Worcester politics who held the District 2 seat between 2001 and 2015.

Big night for moms

Pacillo, Haxhiaj and Medina all talked openly about their roles as mothers in their campaigns, with their kids pitching in to help. Haxhiaj also named her two sons as reasons she's running again at all. All three also finished with the most votes in their respective races. Pacillo finished in her race with the widest electoral margin, and Haxhiaj earned the most votes of any candidate in the preliminary.

Not to be outdone, Mero-Carlson is also a mother (and grandmother). Kathleen Roy, also a mother, finished slightly behind Medina in the District E school committee preliminary, but will move on to the general election in November.

Cost-per-vote

From a spending perspective, Worcester's preliminary cost some candidates much more than others. Dividing the total amount of money spent by each campaign in 2023 by the number of votes each candidate earned shows per-vote spending — it also offers an alternative view of election performance outside just votes. An (x) indicates a candidate who will not advance to the November general election.

*Pacillo's campaign had not reported August spending as of Wednesday, so her figure is based on spending only through the end of

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the number of incumbents who have lost preliminary elections in Worcester. Incumbent Joffrey Smith finished third in a three-way primary in 2011 for the District 1 seat.