Secretary of State Becca Rausch?

Franklin's State Senator Rebecca (Becca) Rausch, who first made it to Beacon Hill by defeating incumbent Richard Ross from Wrentham in 2018, has had a string of political successes.

Originally from New York state, Rausch served as an elected Needham Town Meeting member from 2017 to 2018. Her second two year term as a senator then came at the expense of state representative Shawn Dooley who went down to defeat in his 2022 challenge to her despite a substantial war chest and support from popular governor, Charlie Baker. She also brushed off a 2024 challenge from former Franklin resident Dashe Videira.

Rausch currently represents the Norfolk, Worcester and Middlesex districts that includes Franklin and ten other towns stretching from Milford to Needham.

Despite or perhaps because of her electoral victories, at least as far back as 2020, rumors have swirled that she saw the senate merely as a stepping stone and her sights were really set on displacing the state’s longest-serving secretary of state, William Galvin.

Now, Politico, an authoritative American political digital newspaper, has apparently heard the rumors, too, and sees them as credible, based in part on an unnamed ‘informed source.’

Rausch has earned a reputation for reliable progressive politics and a somewhat aloof style that has not always endeared her to the rest of Beacon Hill. But, according to Garrity, Rausch has been “fielding calls” related to her potential candidacy, which would likely involve a 2026 primary challenge to the durable Galvin, who began his Beacon Hill career as a state representative from the Allston section of Boston.

And Galvin has managed to make himself an institution; widely known and often thought of in positive terms by voters. He has also amassed a campaign fund with more than $1.8 million dollars. Rausch, for her part, has north of $100,000 at her command – not bad for a senatorial campaign but perhaps inadequate for a Galvin challenge.

Still, with the nation’s politics in ferment, Galvin’s age, (he will soon be 75), compared with the comparative youthfulness of Rausch, who is 46, may carry weight with the electorate.

A Rausch win would put a progressive in command of the state’s election apparatus, with considerable power to shape the Commonwealth’s future.