U.S. Rep. Richard Neal smiles after winning his 20th term in the House of Representatives.
Reminder Publishing photo by Sarah Heinonen
SPRINGFIELD — Voters chose to stay the course on Nov. 3, leaning into the experience of longtime U.S. Rep. Richard Neal versus the drumbeat for change being sounded by independent Nadia Milleron. Milleron, who also ran against Neal in 2024, received 29.3% of the vote, compared to Neal’s 70.7%.
At a mid-day stop in Longmeadow to shake hands with supporters, Neal said he was optimistic. “We took the campaign seriously, as we always do. It’s been a long campaign cycle but I think we’re going to finish strong,” he said.
Later, at Neal’s watch party at Nathan Bill’s Bar & Restaurant, the room was packed before the polls even closed. Jerry Foley sat with friends at a table. “I absolutely think he’s going to win,” he said. “He works hard, he’s a good congressman and people like him.” Denise Jordan agreed. She said she supports Neal because of “his record, his seniority. This is not the time for change.”
Brian Ahern has supported Neal in every race he’s run. “I’ve known him since he ran for [Springfield] City Council,” he said. Reflecting on Neal’s win, he said, “It’s good for all of us because he’ll be chair of the Ways and Means again.” Ahern referred to the House committee that writes tax legislation.
Referring to Milleron, Neal said, “The campaign was pretty empty. What was it about?” When reminded of Milleron’s campaign issues, such as healthcare for all and eliminating income tax for people making less than $100,000 annually, Neal pushed back, saying, “While caucusing with the Republicans?” Milleron said she would caucus with either party.
Neal said he was not surprised by the enormous turnout nationwide, but the results would depend on which party’s supporters voted. “If you look at most polling data across the country, it indicates there is more energy on the Democratic side than on the Republican side … If somebody said to me that we would be competing for a congressional seat in Kentucky or we’d be competing for three congressional seats in Iowa, I think I probably — seven or eight months ago — would have been in disbelief,” he said.
Neal was confident that the Democrats had a chance to gain four seats and reach the 218 members the party needed to take control of the House of Representatives. Those hopes panned out as more than 20 red seats flipped blue throughout the country.
Neal looked toward the next two years in office. “I think Congress needs to reassert its constitutional authority and obligation to oversee the executive. I think pushing back and restoring those ACA tax credits is a big deal,” he said, referring to credits in the Affordable Care Act that were eliminated in the 2025 One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act. He said it would help four million people whose healthcare costs went up this year. Neal also said eliminating $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid would help hospitals shoulder the cost of providing care. He also said, “I think there are solutions out there for Social Security, we should embrace them.”
Neal will begin his 20th term in the House of Representatives in January 2027. He served 12 two-year terms in the Second Massachusetts Congressional District before redistricting after the 2010 U.S. Census led the Western most area of the state to be renamed the First Massachusetts Congressional District in 2013. Despite his lengthy tenure, he is not among the longest serving members of Congress. Nine people, including U.S. Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, have served longer than 50 years.
Despite the final results, the energy was positive at Milleron’s campaign headquarters in Springfield on election night, with the grassroots effort seeing a solid turnout pack into the office space, as well as some impromptu dancing from Milleron and constituents.
After the race was called by the AP, Milleron told Reminder Publishing she felt that fearmongering and inaccurate claims of her support for President Donald Trump from the Neal campaign played a major role in the results of the race.
“I’m really shocked at how someone can lie over and over on television about something that is documented. My position on Trump — that I am not Trump supporter, that I am not MAGA — is very well documented. So, how is it in our system that you can just spend millions of dollars to say lies about somebody, and that can go forward and nobody flinches, and it’s considered fine,” Milleron said. “That’s manipulation by propaganda of the voters because they aren’t getting real information.”
Milleron added that she decided to run after feeling unrepresented by Neal and that he was not working for his constituents any longer. Speaking to supporters following the race being called, Milleron said the movement built through her campaign was all about responding to a government that doesn’t work for the people. Although she lost, she hopes the momentum can continue forward.
“We should use all the resources that we gathered together in this campaign, and we should use them to go and get economic relief and the healthcare relief that we need,” Milleron said to supporters following the results. “We can work together to get what we need, and there’s a lot we can do to make Richard Neal very uncomfortable. He can’t get away with continuing to not represent his voters. The huge majority of his voters want him to impeach Trump, and he didn’t, he voted present. The huge majority of his voters want social security to be up to the standard of today, not of 1971. So, we need to go and get what is ours.”
