Sonia Chang-Díaz launches campaign for Governor of Massachusetts

BOSTON, MA - State Senator Sonia Chang-Díaz (D-Boston) declared her candidacy for Governor of Massachusetts on Wednesday morning, releasing a powerful launch video calling for an end to delays on Beacon Hill and new urgency for working families. Chang-Díaz starts her run with a full schedule of stops across Massachusetts, culminating in a campaign kick-off with supporters on Wednesday afternoon.

“I've spent my life listening to powerful people tell me to slow down. To think smaller. To wait,” Chang-Díaz says in the video. “Voters didn’t send me to the State Senate to wait….Every day it gets harder for working families to live here. Health care and housing costs get higher, Black and brown kids face yawning opportunity gaps. If we don’t act now, we’ll be having the same conversation about the same problems in another 10 years.”

Chang-Díaz is the daughter of a social worker and America’s first Latino astronaut, Franklin Chang-Díaz. She was elected the Commonwealth's first Latina State Senator in 2008 and quickly became a driving force behind many of the state’s biggest progressive reforms. 

The only woman of color in the Massachusetts Senate, Chang-Díaz designed and championed landmark education funding reforms passed in 2019 to provide $1.5 billion in new equitable aid to K-12 districts across the state. She’s also faced off with Republican Governor Charlie Baker over criminal justice reform measures passed in 2017 to repeal racist sentencing laws, legislation to protect transgender rights in public accommodations passed in 2016, and last year’s police reform and accountability law.

“Those wins didn't come easy. Beacon Hill insiders dragged their feet every step of the way,” Chang-Díaz continues in the video. “Instead, we fought unapologetically for what working families actually need. They said our ideas were impossible. We made them the law.”

Chang-Díaz will hit the campaign trail Wednesday to talk with residents and community leaders in Springfield, Worcester, and Boston. She’s scheduled to hold a meeting with leaders of color in Springfield, where she will be joined by Sen. Adam Gomez (D-Springfield). She will then travel to Worcester where she will meet with nurses striking at St. Vincent Hospital, and tour minority-owned small businesses.

Chang-Díaz will kick off the campaign at 4 PM on the steps of English High School in Jamaica Plain, where the Student Opportunity Act was signed in 2019 and where Chang-Díaz started her work in public education as a student teacher. She’ll be joined by a coalition of supporters, elected officials, and movement leaders.

The full schedule of events for Wednesday, June 23 is included below.

SONIA CHANG-DÍAZ - JUNE 23, 2021 PUBLIC SCHEDULE

8:30 AM - Meeting with Leaders of Color - Springfield, MA

Sonia Chang-Díaz joined by Sen. Adam Gomez (D-Springfield) to meet with leaders of color in Springfield to learn about key issues facing residents across the region, in a stop at Granny’s Baking Table.

1 PM - Small Business & Labor Tour - Worcester, MA

Sonia Chang-Díaz joined by Rep. Mary Keefe (D-Worcester) to hear from workers and small business owners. Planned stops include the St. Vincent Nurses Strike and minority-owned small businesses Eddie’s Super Plaza & Grocery and Cool Licks Ice Cream.

4:30 PM - Campaign Kick-Off - Boston, MA

English High School - 18 Williams Street, Jamaica Plain 02130
Sonia Chang-Díaz joins supporters, elected leaders, and community organizers to kick off her campaign for Governor of Massachusetts. Press invited.