SPRINGFIELD, Mass. –Massachhusetts State Senator Eric Lesser has declared his candidacy for Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. 

“I know the job,” Lesser wrote in a letter to supporters, “it’s to partner with our next Governor to make sure she is the most successful governor in the country. What I bring is the perspective of a parent of three young children, the experience of living far from Beacon Hill, and a proven record of standing up for the forgotten corners of Massachusetts.”

The four-term state senator from Western Massachysetts has been a champion of the Commonwealth’s nonprofit security funding program for area Jewish and other nonprofit agencies. He has worked to see security funding grow from $75,000 in 2018 to $1.5 million in 2021.

When COVID-19 hit, Lesser led passage of rescue legislation to help thousands of small, often minority-owned businesses survive the pandemic. At the height of the opioid crisis, his legislation closed the pharmacy shopping loophole for highly-addictive narcotics and reduced the price of Narcan, a lifesaving drug that reverses overdoses. 

Lesser, who hold a bachelors and law degree from Harvard, was one of the first staffers on Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. He later served in the Obama White House, working as the special assistant to Senior Adviser David Axelrod.

In the Massachusetts State Senate, he chairs the Joint Committee on Economic Development & Emerging Technologies and the Committee on Ethics. He also serves as vice-chair of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary and as a member of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means. He was appointed to the Joint Committee on COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness and Management in the 2021-22 session. 

He also worked as a script consultant for HBO’s hit comedy Veep. 

Lesser lives with his wife and three children in his hometown of Longmeadow.