Massachusetts House of Representatives' 1st Essex district

Map of Massachusetts House of Representatives' 1st Essex district, 2013. Based on the 2010 United States census.

Massachusetts House of Representatives' 1st Essex district in the United States is one of 160 legislative districts included in the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court. It covers part of Essex County. ^[1] Republican James Kelcourse of Amesbury served the district from 2015-2022. Following Kelcourse's resignation in late-June 2022, the seat remained vacant until the election of Democrat Dawne Shand of Newburyport. Rep. Shand took office on January 4, 2023.

Following redistricting efforts in 2021, the 1st Essex shifted slightly west. The district now includes the towns of Merrimac and Salisbury; the city of Newburyport; and part of the city of Amesbury. Previously, the 1st Essex District included all of the city of Amesbury.

Towns represented

The district includes the following localities: ^[2]

• Amesbury
• Merrimac
• Newburyport
• Salisbury

The current district geographic boundary overlaps with those of the Massachusetts Senate's 1st Essex and Middlesex and 2nd Essex and Middlesex districts. ^[3]

Former locales

Map of Essex County showing previous location of 1st Essex district as apportioned in 1973

The district previously covered the following:

• Gloucester, circa 1974 ^[4]
• Rockport, circa 1974 ^[4]
• West Newbury, circa 1872 ^[5]

Representatives

• Winthrop O. Evans, circa 1859 ^[6]
• Elbridge M. Morse, circa 1859 ^[6]
• Charles Goss, circa 1888 ^[7]
• John C. Risteen, circa 1888 ^[7]
• George L. Briggs, circa 1920 ^[8]
• Henry M. Duggan, circa 1951 ^[9]

Member	Party	Years	Legis.	Electoral history	District towns
David E. Harrison	Democratic	1965 – 1971	165th 166th 167th	Redistricted from 16th Essex district. Re-elected in 1964. Re-elected in 1966. Re-elected in 1968. Lost re-election in 1970.
Richard R. Silva	Republican	1971 – 1979	168th 169th 170th 171st	Elected in 1970. Re-elected in 1972. Re-elected in 1974. Re-elected in 1976. Redistricted to 5th Essex district.
Nicholas J. Costello	Democratic	1979 – 1983	172nd 173rd 174th	Elected in 1978. Re-elected in 1980. Re-elected in 1982. Elected to State Senate in 1983.
Barbara Hildt	Democratic	1983 – 1993	174th 175th 176th 177th 178th	Elected in 1983. Re-elected in 1984. Re-elected in 1986. Re-elected in 1988. Re-elected in 1990. Ran for U.S. House in 1992.
Frank Cousins	Republican	1993 – 1997	179th 180th	Elected in 1992. Re-elected in 1994. Elected Essex County Sheriff in 1996.
Kevin L. Finnegan	Republican	1997 – 2001	181st 182nd	Elected in 1996. Re-elected in 1998. Retired.
Paul Tirone	Democratic	2001 – 2003	183rd	Elected in 2000. Lost Democratic primary in 2002.
Michael A. Costello [10]	Democratic	2003 – September 15, 2014	184th 185th 186th 187th 188th 189th	Elected in 2002. Re-elected in 2004. Re-elected in 2006. Re-elected in 2008. Re-elected in 2010. Re-elected in 2012. Resigned September 15, 2014.
					2013–: Amesbury, Newburyport, and Salisbury
James Kelcourse [11] [12]	Republican	2015 – June 29, 2022	190th 191st 191st 192nd	Elected in 2014. Re-elected in 2016. Re-elected in 2018. Re-elected in 2020 Resigned June 29, 2022

See also

• List of Massachusetts House of Representatives elections
• Other Essex County districts of the Massachusetts House of Representatives: 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th
• Essex County districts of the Massachusett Senate: 1st, 2nd, 3rd; 1st Essex and Middlesex; 2nd Essex and Middlesex
• List of Massachusetts General Courts
• List of former districts of the Massachusetts House of Representatives

Images

• 
  Samuel Porter
• 
  Albert Wadleigh
• 
  George Briggs
• 
  George Pettengill
• 
  Colin Cameron
• 
  Henry Duggan

References

1. "Massachusetts Representative Districts". Sec.state.ma.us. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
2. Massachusetts General Court, "Chapter 153. An Act Relative to Establishing Representative Districts in the General Court", Acts (2011)
3. David Jarman (July 30, 2019), "Upper legislative district ↔ lower legislative district correspondences: MA", How do counties, House districts, and legislative districts all overlap?, Daily Kos, State House Districts to State Senate Districts
4. Massachusetts General Court (October 17, 1973), "1973 Chap. 0326. An Act Establishing Representative Districts", Acts and Resolves, hdl:2452/26842 – via State Library of Massachusetts
5. "Representative Districts". Massachusetts Register. Boston: Sampson, Davenport, & Company. 1872.
6. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Manual for the Use of the General Court. Boston. 1859 – via Internet Archive.
7. Geo. F. Andrews, ed. (October 17, 1888). "Representatives: Essex County". 1888 State House Directory. Official Gazette, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Lakeview Press.
8. Public Officials of Massachusetts: 1920. Boston Review. October 17, 2023.
9. 1951–1952 Public Officers of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Boston.
10. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Elections Division. "State Representative general election statistics". PD43+. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
11. "The Contested Legislative Races In Massachusetts", Wbur.org, November 4, 2016
12. "Two-Thirds Of State Legislators Are Unopposed In The General Election", Wbur.org , November 1, 2018, Most of the incumbent Republicans are facing a challenge

External links

• Ballotpedia
• "1st Essex District, MA". Censusreporter.org. (State House district information based on U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey).