Closing Vision: 2040 & What's Next
Looking Toward 2040
Having walked through all six policy areas, candidates were asked to close by naming one accomplishment for Massachusetts to reach by 2040, and anything else voters should know about their vision for the state's future.
At a Glance
Three of the four candidates converge on housing and transit access as the measurable legacy they want Massachusetts to leave by 2040 (Azeem, Barber, McLaughlin); Uyterhoeven's answer widens the frame to argue Massachusetts can prove innovation and affordability aren't in tension. In their closing statements, each candidate returns to the theme that ran through their answers: Azeem to tangible delivery over theory, Barber to a record of specific passed legislation, McLaughlin to centering working-class families, and Uyterhoeven to her throughline of redistributing concentrated power.
What is one thing Massachusetts should accomplish by 2040 that would make future generations proud?
Burhan Azeem: We need to expand the T. As the economy grows and more jobs come to Boston or other areas, people are losing more time to commuting by car as well as delays from transit. Housing is cheaper in the areas that are not as accessible by train. If we are able to link those communities to the T so that people can access affordable housing while still being able to get to work on time, we can unlock a lot of opportunities in the state.
Christine P. Barber: That a person born here in 2026 can still afford to live here in 2040. Concretely: median rent that tracks median wage, a T that is reliable and largely electric, nobody skipping a prescription over cost, and a Mystic River clean enough to swim in. Future generations will be proud if we keep this state livable and welcoming.
Matthew McLaughlin: Two things that Massachusetts should accomplish by 2040 are drastically adding housing and public transportation access statewide. The affordability crisis is the defining challenge of our time in Massachusetts and housing is where that is most keenly felt. Transportation is also one of the biggest drivers of affordability. When buses are infrequent, unreliable, or too expensive, working families lose time, income, and opportunity.
Erika Uyterhoeven: By 2040, Massachusetts should be the state that proved you do not have to choose between leading the world in innovation and making sure every resident can afford to live here, get care when they need it, and build a career that supports a family. We have the assets to do it: the research, the energy transition, the workforce, and now the housing and transit investments to connect them. What future generations will be proud of is that Massachusetts had the best ideas and built the systems to make sure those ideas reached everyone.
Is there anything else voters should know about your vision for Massachusetts' future?
Burhan Azeem: My vision is to build a Massachusetts where everyone can afford to live. My priorities are tackling the biggest line items on your budget: housing, childcare, transportation. I've spent my entire political career proving that we can do more. I promised universal pre-K and delivered it, after Cambridge had been talking about it for 30 years. I promised affordable housing and increased housing production in Cambridge, going from dozens of units a year to 2,000 new units in the pipeline. I am great at building coalitions and getting things passed. I am a progressive in the literal sense; I believe in progress and I want to get things done. Theoretical ideas doesn't change the math in your budget. Tangible action does.
Christine P. Barber: First, how I work. Progressive values are not a press release. Six terms as State Representative, my record is a list of dozens of laws passed: the Work and Family Mobility Act, the elimination of copays for insulin, inhalers, and heart medication, Salary Range Transparency, ConnectorCare to 500 percent of the poverty line, pharmacist-prescribed contraception, Laura's Law, the accessory dwelling unit provision, the Somerville Jobs Trust. Each one took coalition work, committee work, and a willingness to stay at the table even when it was difficult. That is how I work to make sure things our community cares about become law. I would bring the same approach to the Senate with experience and relationships in both chambers already built.
Second, on innovation. I am not skeptical of it. I have funded it, and I chair the committee that moved a $3 billion environmental bond bill covering clean water, resilience, and climate technology. My test is about distribution. Does this create work for people in Medford, Somerville, Winchester, and Cambridge who are not already in the sector? If the answer is yes, I will help build it. If the gains stay narrow while the costs get socialized, I would rather fix that in legislation before it passes, rather than just vote no and call that a result.
Matthew McLaughlin: My vision is one that centers working class people. My vision is one that expands the social safety net so that more and more people can participate in the economy and can grow together. I hope and I believe that the most salient investments we can make are in the people who live here and who want to live here. Affordability, equity, and effective government are not abstract ideas. They are the difference between whether families can stay in their homes, whether workers can build a future, and whether communities can thrive. My vision for the future is one where everyone can afford to dream.
Erika Uyterhoeven: My mother came to this country as an immigrant and raised me on her own working as a flight attendant, and everything I fight for comes from what she taught me: that the systems a state builds determine whether its people are protected or exposed. I became an antitrust economist because I wanted to understand how power concentrates, and I co-founded Act on Mass and ran for office because I wanted to change it. Every answer I have given here reflects the same conviction: Massachusetts has the research, the energy transition, the workforce, and the institutions to build an economy no other state can match. The only thing standing in the way is concentrated power in the systems that should be delivering those assets to residents, and I have spent three terms fighting to redistribute it. From winning public disclosure of all committee votes to passing the broker fee ban to conducting oversight of state contracts and state prisons, that is the record I will bring to the Senate.