State Representative, First Plymouth District. Check your sample ballot for your precinct. Every line on this page is a recorded vote, a signed candidate questionnaire, or the candidate’s own words in print. Tap any receipt.
Michelle Badger of Plymouth flipped this long-held Republican seat in 2024 and is running for a second term.
Receipts
- 2024 General, First Plymouth: Michelle L. Badger 52.2%, Jesse G. Brown 47.7% — she won a seat that had been Republican since 1998: Secretary of the Commonwealth, ElectionStats
- Voted Nay on cutting the state sales tax from 6.25% to 5%: House roll call 158, Apr. 27, 2026 (failed 25 to 131)
- In her signed 2024 Progressive Massachusetts candidate questionnaire she answered Yes to raising the state corporate tax rate from 8% to 9.5%: Progressive Massachusetts 2024 questionnaire, answered by Badger
Voted no on cutting the state sales tax and no on the Republican income-tax-cut amendments. Her questionnaire: raise revenue from the richest residents and corporations.
“Higher utility bills, rising taxes, and Beacon Hill policies that put Boston first and communities like ours last. That’s not right.”
Receipts
- Badger recorded Nay on cutting the sales tax to 5%, House roll call 158 (25 to 131), and Nay on two Republican income-tax-cut amendments to the 2026 budget, roll call 159 and roll call 162 (each 25 to 132). In her 2024 questionnaire she backed raising the corporate tax rate to 9.5% and raising revenue from the richest residents and corporations: Progressive Massachusetts 2024.
- Golden: Plymouth Independent, Feb. 11, 2026
Voted for the 2026 state energy bill that every House Republican opposed. New England already pays some of the highest electric bills in the country.
Electric Bill
“MassSave is a fundamentally flawed program.” On utility oversight, he wants accountability “through elected officials.”
Receipts
- Badger recorded Yea on the 2026 energy bill, H. 5151, on passing to be engrossed: House roll call 141, Feb. 26, 2026 (passed 128 to 27; all 27 Nays were Republicans)
- Golden: Plymouth Independent, Feb. 11, 2026
A reliable vote for Democratic leadership in a House where her party holds the overwhelming majority.
vs. Your Town
Says Beacon Hill “put Boston first and communities like ours last,” and that “true public accountability should be through elected officials.”
Receipts
- Golden, in his candidacy announcement: Plymouth Independent, Feb. 11, 2026
- Badger’s recorded votes above are with the Democratic majority (the budget passed 149 to 9; the energy bill 128 to 27): Clerk of the Massachusetts House.
A first-term state representative since January 2025, after thirteen years on the Plymouth School Committee.
Are
Chair of the Plymouth Select Board, who says he keeps “putting everyone’s items on the docket” so the whole community is heard.
Receipts
- Badger: first-term representative since Jan. 2025; thirteen years on the Plymouth School Committee (her 2024 questionnaire): Progressive Massachusetts 2024; ElectionStats
- Golden: Plymouth Select Board member since 2024, chair since September 2025: Plymouth Independent, Feb. 11, 2026
Three more, from the questionnaire she signed and submitted as a candidate.
Receipts
- All three are her own Yes answers in her signed 2024 Progressive Massachusetts candidate questionnaire — lifting the statewide ban on rent control, enacting a single-payer health system, and a $20 minimum wage: Progressive Massachusetts 2024 questionnaire, answered by Michelle Badger.
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Election Day
Votes are from the roll calls of the Massachusetts House. Badger’s stated positions are her own Yes/No answers in the signed 2024 Progressive Massachusetts candidate questionnaire. In 2024 Badger won this seat 52.2% to 47.7% (Secretary of the Commonwealth). Golden holds no state office; his side is his own words in the Plymouth Independent. Quotations are trimmed for length only, never reworded. Sources were read on October 6, 2026. Photo: Badger official House portrait (malegislature.gov).