By: Lizzie Roberts and Colin Brown
As Grassroots Central Massachusetts (GCM) Youth Council Executive Board leaders, we are proud to announce that GCM has voted to endorse Jeromie Whalen, who is running for US Congress in the Massachusetts First Congressional District Democratic Primary (MA-01). The GCM Youth Council endorsed Jeromie ahead of the general membership as many of the Youth Council members have been provided the opportunity to work with Jeromie and his campaign team. For Colin, Jeromie has connected with him on a personal level like no other adult. Jeromie actively listens to him and shows understanding about personal and political struggles. For Lizzie, Jeromie has given her an opportunity to expand politically like no other candidate. Jeromie recognizes her potential and uses that potential to its full extent. Jeromie has also shown a unique ability to connect both youth voices with the voices of experienced activists who originally brought their passion to the Civil Rights Movement all the way up to the Me Too Movement. As a result of the Youth Council’s endorsement decision, a letter was sent to the GCM general membership showing its support ahead of the January 3, 2026 leadership meeting.
On January 3, 2026, Jeromie came to the GCM leadership meeting and presented his campaign vision, mission, and goals. He provided key details in how his campaign will succeed: through relational and true grassroots organizing. Jeromie answered questions from the group gathered in the January 3rd meeting and provided additional details as needed. After his presentation, Jeromie was excused for deliberation among the GCM members present at the meeting. The consensus among the members present was overwhelmingly positive, with many already having made connections with Jeromie outside of GCM activities.
GCM then sent a request to the full body of members to vote on whether or not GCM should endorse Jeromie. While Jeromie won that endorsement with a large majority of the vote, the comments on the proposal indicated that members put serious thought into their decisions. Some members felt that Jeromie’s opponent, Richard Neal, had done a number of valuable things for constituents during his tenure and also felt that dividing the Democratic vote with such a powerful member of the House Ways & Means Committee during a divided time was a mistake. However, the comments provided by some members proved to be key in converting indecisive votes to yes votes. One member wrote especially persuasive comments including the observations that Jeromie’s opponent takes a significant amount of campaign contributions from large corporations and AIPAC and hasn’t held a Berkshires Town Hall in many years. He compared Jeromie to Mamdani in New York City, whose win for NYC mayor shocked the entire nation.
Jeromie stands for the policies GCM advocates for including Medicare for All, expanded public education, and affordable living. Jeromie also supports protecting communities from the horrible actions undertaken by ICE and bringing about immigration reform, a topic discussed frequently by GCM. Jeromie Whalen has the opportunity to bring about real, generational change to Western and Central Massachusetts in the 2026 Midterm elections. To do that, he will need the support of all progressive organizations in the region, including GCM. The endorsement from GCM will definitely assist in furthering Jeromie’s campaign in MA-01.
