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Housing has surged to the fore as the central issue of the Democratic primary for the Bristol 9th District, with both candidates calling for adjustments to the state’s affordable housing law.
The race has been open since February, when incumbent state Rep. Christopher Markey, a Democrat, announced his bid for the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office. The contest for the Democratic nomination to replace him pits a real estate broker against a transit specialist and former security guard.
Key election dates
The Massachusetts primary election is Sept. 1, with polls open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The early voting period ends Aug. 28.
Stephen J. Medeiros, 48, owner of real estate firm Spark TNS, Inc., said he’s always been civically minded, both intellectually and through volunteer work. He served terms as president of the Realtor Association of Southeastern Massachusetts and the state association. In 2018, he became Southeastern regional representative for the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, a post that has frequently brought him to Beacon Hill.
He said the relationships he has built with politicians through those interactions situate him for a running start at the Statehouse.
“It’s something I always had an interest in, but I never saw myself in politics running for something like this,” Medeiros said. “I want to be somebody who meets with people, listens to the needs of the people in the district, and actually makes a difference.”
The Massachusetts Realtors Independent Expenditure Committee Political Action Committee sent out mailers calling on people to vote for him this week.
Edward M. Pacheco, 51, transportation manager for a community nonprofit in Fall River, bartender, and former Dartmouth High School security guard, said he understands the struggles of the average family.
“Dartmouth gets a rap for being a very affluent community,” he said. “And really we’re not. What we are is, we’re a community that has some pockets of affluence. But I believe that the overwhelming majority of the town are working-class families like myself.”
Pacheco said he has always sought to contribute toward his community’s vitality.
“This is a passion for me that has been sitting in my heart for many years,” he said. “This is something that you’re born with and you have a genuine desire to do better by other people. I have that desire.”
Endorsements for Pacheco include the Greater Southeastern Massachusetts Labor Council, UMass Faculty Federation, and Massachusetts AFL-CIO.
Democratic voters in the 9th Bristol, which includes all of Dartmouth and parts of Ward 1 in New Bedford, will choose between the two candidates in the upcoming state primary on Sept. 1. Whoever wins the Democratic primary will face the winner of the Republican primary, which includes candidates Chester Tam and Henry Bousquet.
Medeiros said a conversation with Markey, the incumbent state rep, convinced him to run. Markey confirmed that the conversation did happen but refrained from endorsing either candidate in the election. State records show Markey has donated $100 to both Medeiros and Pacheco.
40B Housing
Both Democrats’ campaigns are reacting to three housing developments in the pipeline in Dartmouth that fall under Massachusetts’ affordable housing law, commonly referred to as 40B. Both candidates want to reform the state law to include greater local control over project approvals.
Currently, 7.8% of Dartmouth’s current housing stock is considered affordable, according to the state’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities. Under 40B, 10% of a municipality’s housing must be classified as affordable.
The three proposals combined would create 549 units of housing, including 149 new affordable units — restricted to those making 80% or less of the town’s average income. (In Dartmouth, the average is $95,960 for a family of four.)
Of the properties, only the Residences at Hawthorne have so far been approved. If they’re all built, it would still leave the town 126 units short of state requirements.
The candidates said that Dartmouth could do more to meet its share of affordable housing, but the town’s infrastructure needs to be upgraded to handle such capacity.
“There were just so many projects dropped on us,” Pacheco said. “[The] issue is just the sheer number of units they’re proposing.”
One of the proposed units, The Hathaway, would bring 300 units, in four-story buildings, to a 113-acre plot of land near the New Bedford Country Club.
“We need affordable housing,” Pacheco added. “But I don’t think that by stacking people in [300 units], we’re really doing what we can be doing.”
Medeiros said that Dartmouth has an abundance of open land that can contribute to alleviating the housing crisis but that greater local input was needed to maintain the town’s “character.” He also emphasized the need to have time to bring infrastructure to accommodate the units.
“What makes this town unique is the amount of land that we have,” he said. “We have a lot of farms, which I think is important so that you have food access in your community.
“It’s a large amount all coming in within a certain amount of time that is going to put a strain on the resources,” he added. “We need smart development.”
Both candidates also staked positions against the proposed South Coast Renewables waste transfer facility project that would impact New Bedford’s 1st Ward, parts of which are in the 9th district. (The company is currently in court, appealing a New Bedford Board of Health decision denying the facility’s construction.)
“It’s really creating a challenge for the residents, and I understand what they’re going through,” Medeiros said. “I don’t think that that is going to be in the best interests of the residents in that district.”
“They’ve been fighting successfully to stop that from being built,” Pacheco said. “That would be a severe detriment to Dartmouth if it was built, because of its proximity to the Paskamansett River.” (The river starts in the Acushnet Cedar Swamp State Reservation, less than a mile from the South Coast Renewables site.)
Immigration
As the president’s mass deportation campaign has taken over the national conversation, Greater New Bedford has not escaped its impact. The Light has confirmed that at least 90 local people have been among the 60,000 taken by federal agents in immigration enforcement operations since January 2025.
Both candidates expressed concerns about the way the campaign has played out and its implications for civil rights.
“Immigration is something right now in this country that is very divisive,” Medeiros said. “People should be here legally. The people who are not … I do believe that they have basic human rights and need to be treated that way.
“I think there needs to be a better process for giving these people dignity,” he added. “If somebody has come here illegally, then there needs to be a process for them either to find a pathway to citizenship or they do need to go through the process of [removal].”
Pacheco placed more emphasis on his opposition to the campaign’s aggressive nature.
“The United States is a nation of laws,” he said. “We have laws on the books for just about everything, including what the immigration process should look like.
“If we’re going to call ourselves a nation of laws, then we have to make sure that we’re applying those laws equally across the board to all people,” he continued. “That doesn’t mean pulling up on the side of the road and throwing a sack over the back of someone’s head … and throwing them in the back of a truck without due process.”
Both candidates said they support Massachusetts’ PROTECT Act, a recently passed law that will restrict the circumstances under which ICE can operate in state courts, require procedures for handling ICE at schools and clinics, and permit civil litigation in state courts for civil rights violations during immigration enforcement.
Political donations
As of the latest campaign reports filed in early August, Medeiros had raised $36,997 for his campaign and had $6,144 cash on hand. Pacheco had raised $19,721 and had $6,982 cash on hand.
Meanwhile, Medeiros’ own campaign donations to others has become an issue in the race.
A mailer from the New Bedford-based Coalition for Social Justice criticizes Medeiros for having donated almost $4,000 to Republican candidates in races nationwide and another $6,715 to real-estate-related political action committees. Medeiros told The Light he donated $4,500 to nine Republican candidates since 2015.
According to federal records, Medeiros has donated to Republicans including U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, U.S. Rep. Young Kim of California, and U.S. Rep. Andrew Garbarino of New York.
But Medeiros has also donated to Democrats such as U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas of New Hampshire and U.S. Rep. Bill Keating, who represents Dartmouth and New Bedford.
“Over my entire career, I have supported Democrats by more than a 2-to-1 margin,” Medeiros said, adding he supported Republicans willing to work across the aisle to “keep a more extreme Republican candidate from getting in.”
Kim’s current campaign page emphasizes her support for Trump’s “bold America First agenda,” but Medeiros said that was not how she presented herself when he met her at a real estate convention. According to federal records, he donated $500 to Kim in 2021 and another $500 in 2025.
“If candidates have left the [Problem Solvers] Caucus or have become more extreme since I contributed, that is unfortunate and they are not a consideration for me in the future,” he said.
At the state level, Medeiros has donated to Democrats including Reps. Chris Markey, Antonio F.D. Cabral, and Mark Sylvia and Sen. Michael Rodrigues. The only Republican in those records was former Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, to whom he donated $475 in 2019.
Pacheco has never donated to a race at the federal level, according to Federal Election Commission records. But state records show multiple donations to New Bedford politicians from 2015 to 2022, when he owned a transportation company in the city, including to Mayor Jon Mitchell and current At-Large City Councilor Ian Abreu.
Contact Kevin G. Andrade at kandrade@newbedfordlight.org.
Neither will help change the current situation on beacon hill, our area needs major help and we have enough rubber stamps in office.
Why housing resonates beyond the 40B controversy
Housing affects renters, prospective first-time buyers, existing homeowners, and local businesses trying to retain workers. The South Coast has historically been less expensive than Boston, and some other parts of Massachusetts, but rising housing costs threaten that advantage.
And the issue is tied to another major change: South Coast Rail. Earlier debates in the district have centered on whether new transit access could increase development and property values. That creates both an opportunity- more housing near transit- and a concern that outside investors could accelerate price increases.
That’s why the Bristol 9th housing debate is more complicated than a typical partisan argument over whether government should build more affordable housing.
The candidates broadly agree that more housing is necessary. They disagree over how much local control should exist and how development should be sequenced.
In effect, the primary is asking voters to weigh two competing priorities:
• Build substantially more housing to address affordability and meet the state’s housing goals.
• Give Dartmouth greater control over development so that housing growth is compatible with infrastructure, environmental considerations, and the town’s existing character.
That tension helps explain why Chapter 40B has become a major issue in the campaign. The law is designed to increase affordable housing, but in Dartmouth it has sparked a debate over how much control the state should have over local development. With major projects now being proposed in town, voters are seeing that debate play out in their own community.