Councilor Hurst 2.0? (WMP&I)

Although only the City Council and School Committee are on the ballot this year, Springfield’s midterm elections had been shaping up into a competitive affair. With over half of the ward seats on the Council contested and races likely across the School Committee, 2025 should not be a quiet year. However, no at-large Councilor is retiring and the odds of defenestrating an at-large incumbent are daunting.

That may have changed on Friday. Former at-large City Councilor Justin Hurst pulled papers on Friday to reclaim a citywide seat on the Council. Hurst left the body in 2023 to challenge Mayor Domenic Sarno. While his bid for the top office in Springfield came up short, Hurst topped the at-large city council ballot over several cycles. That might give him the momentum to displace an incumbent.

“The issues that I campaigned on when I ran for Mayor are more present now than ever before,” Hurst said in a statement posted across his social media and emailed to supporters. “Time and time again, we are failing to meet the moment. And we, the people, feel the pain.”

Hurst went on to say residents had reached out to him and encouraged him to “not stop fighting for them” and their families. That, he continued, was why he was seeking his old position on the Council.

Hurst and son Jackson pulling papers on Friday. (via Facebook/Springfield Election Commission)

Word of Hurst’s intent first began to spread on Friday when the Springfield Election Commission posted that he had picked up ballot papers. The same day he changed his campaign account from mayor to city council according to the Massachusetts Office of Campaign & Political Finance.

Hurst’s family have figured prominently in city politics, law and media for years, especially within the city’s Black community. His parents, Frederick and Marjorie, are attorneys and own the Afro-American Point of View. However, the younger Hurst’s wife, Denise, entered the electoral arena first. She won a School Committee seat in 2009, becoming active in state education circles and later unsuccessfully sought a state rep seat in 2020.

In 2011, Justin Hurst sought a Council seat, but did not make the cut. When he ran again two years later, he pitched himself as a leader among the next generation of Springfield residents. Hurst shocked the city political establishment by placing first in 2013. That showing had the effect of bumping then-Council President Jimmy Ferrera out of the Council entirely. Hurst will, in effect, need to repeat that feat to return to the Council now.

In his statement, Hurst indicated he would be returning to some of the themes that date to his first fruitful Council bid, while adding topical notes about investments and high living costs.

“With your help, I will continue to fight for a Springfield where we are able to retain our young people and attract new neighbors – where folks feel safe enough to not just survive, but to thrive,” he said.

Early on in his political career, Hurst enjoyed support from across the city’s political spectrum, including from Sarno. However, his election immediately changed the Council arithmetic. This laid the groundwork for a brief durable supermajority that would later confront Sarno.

Yet, Hurst would not gain prominence as a legislator until his Council presidency overlapped with the COVID-19 pandemic. He also became more outspoken on civil rights and police-community issues following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

During the mayoral campaign, Hurst slammed Sarno for centralizing control over the police department and alleged misfeasance in distributing American Rescue Plan Act funds. His pitch to change was enough to help Hurst vault over at-large Councilor colleague Jesse Lederman and State Rep Orlando Ramos in the preliminary.

In 2023, Hurst outlasted his preliminary rivals, but not Sarno. (WMP&I)

However, Sarno’s much fuller—if ridiculously inefficient—war chest gave the mayor a distinct advantage.

A late scandal rocked the race during the early voting period. The Election Commission suspected some same-day voter registrants had received money to vote, which is plainly illegal. The individual involved was alleged to have ties to Hurst, who denied any connection to those actions. Hurst accused Sarno of ginning up a controversy on the eve of the election. While the evidence was alarming, how it went public raised questions.

The feds passed on an investigation. Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s probe has yet to yield any charges.

Though unsuccessful, Hurst won many predominantly Black precincts. This emphasized that cohort’s outsized role relative to their share of the city’s overall population. The outlines to defeat Sarno are in the data, but Hurst could not assemble the necessary coalition that year.

Since leaving the Council, Hurst has continued to raise money and sent signals he would run for mayor again. He would not necessarily need a Council seat to do that given his name and prominence. However, few pundit would doubt it could help.

Still, Hurst’s decision to run for Council comes relatively late in the petitioning window. Collecting the 100 signatures he needs should be easy. He has a touch over $8,500 in his campaign account, though he may need more to reintroduce himself to voters and fend off residual doubts from the allegations at the end of the mayoral campaign.

Every Council incumbent is running, but at-large councilors are much harder to unseat. Could Hurst repeat his 2013 performance? (via Facebook/Springfield City Council)

Nevertheless, the Council has two freshman members and the drop in turnout can alter the final order and outcome of the at-large race. The City Council has 13 seats, five of which all voters in the city elect. At-large candidates essentially run against each other. The five in the general who receive the most votes win seats. Name recognition and ballot order—incumbents always appear first in Springfield—complicate at-large challengers’ bids absent an open seat.

To defeat an incumbent, challengers do not just need to boost their own vote total. They need many voters to withhold votes from an incumbent. This effectively happened in 2013 when the spotlight of the Council Presidency backfired on Ferrera. However, Hurst did not actually defeat him because Hurst placed first. Fifth-place finisher and now-retired Councilor Timothy Rooke actually edged Ferrera out.

Hurst will need things to play out in similar fashion this year, although this time there may be no sitting councilor at obvious risk of tumbling out of 36 Court Street.