FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 13, 2026
Contact: Jeremy Rasmussen, Campaign Manager Poulos for Massachusetts jeremy@poulos.house poulos.house
Poulos Qualifies for September Primary Ballot, Setting Up First Contested MA-04 Democratic Primary in Six Years
Progressive challenger turns in 2,600+ certified signatures from 31 of the district’s 35 cities and towns. With Rep. Auchincloss also certified, the September 1 primary is now a two-person race.
MASSACHUSETTS FOURTH DISTRICT — May 13, 2026 — Jason Poulos, an independent researcher with expertise in artificial intelligence and policy and a product of Massachusetts public education, has officially qualified for the September 1, 2026 Democratic primary ballot in Massachusetts’ Fourth Congressional District. The campaign submitted more than 2,600 certified voter signatures collected by volunteers in 31 of the district’s 35 municipalities — well above the 2,000-signature minimum required by the Commonwealth for U.S. House candidates.
With incumbent Rep. Jake Auchincloss also certified to the ballot, the September 1 primary is now a head-to-head race between two candidates — and the first contested Democratic primary for the Fourth Congressional District seat in six years. Rep. Auchincloss has not faced a primary challenger since winning the open seat in 2020.
A grassroots petition operation across the district. The signature drive ran from February through early May, powered by volunteers from cities and towns across the district. The campaign accepts no corporate PAC money, no money from AIPAC, and no money from crypto super PACs. Average individual donation: $32. Eighty-four percent of every dollar raised has come from inside the Fourth District.
The race the district has not had in six years. Mr. Poulos’s campaign is running on Medicare for All, overturning Citizens United, ending U.S. participation in foreign wars, lowering prescription drug prices, expanding Social Security, and confronting the corporate consolidation of housing. The campaign has framed the choice as a contrast between a grassroots progressive campaign and an incumbent who, in Mr. Poulos’s words, has voted to authorize record-high Pentagon spending, voted to renew warrantless mass surveillance under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and voted to formally thank Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Statement from Jason Poulos:
“For the first time in six years, voters in the Fourth District have a real choice in their Democratic primary. Thank you to the volunteers who knocked the doors and to the more than 2,600 voters who signed our petitions — you are the reason we are on the ballot.
“This is the campaign the Fourth District has been waiting for: Medicare for All instead of trillion-dollar war budgets. Public schools and public housing instead of tax breaks for billionaires. An end to the blank checks for foreign wars and the money brought back home, where it belongs.
“Eighty-four percent of every dollar we have raised has come from inside this district. The average donation is thirty-two dollars. We are not a campaign of consultants and corporate PACs. On September 1, this district gets to decide what kind of representation it wants in Washington.”
Statement from Campaign Manager Jeremy Rasmussen:
“Two thousand six hundred signatures from thirty-one municipalities, gathered by volunteers, with no paid signature gatherers and no corporate money, is a serious operational result. It is also a preview of how this campaign intends to win on September 1: by organizing the people who actually live in the Fourth District, every week, until election day.”
About Poulos for Massachusetts. Jason Poulos is an independent researcher with expertise in artificial intelligence and policy, a former union member (HUCTW at Harvard University, UAW Local 2865 at the University of California), and a product of Massachusetts public education — Dover-Sherborn Regional High School, UMass Amherst, and UC Berkeley. He earned his Ph.D. in Political Science with a Designated Emphasis in Computational Science and Engineering from UC Berkeley as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, and completed postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The Poulos for Massachusetts campaign committee (FEC ID C00925479) is funded entirely by individual contributions, with an average donation of $32 and 84% of every dollar raised coming from inside the Fourth District. The campaign accepts no money from corporate PACs, AIPAC, or crypto super PACs. The campaign’s policy platform, volunteer sign-up, and contribution page are at poulos.house.
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