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On an early Friday morning, Rep. Paul Schmid trod through the grazing pastures of his 250-acre cattle farm in Westport. Wearing rubber boots, a baseball cap and a light blue button-down, he was somewhere between his roles on the farm and in the State House.
“I’ve always tried to bring my own life experience into office,” he said, rolling his sleeves on a sweltering day to check the water tank for a small, springy group of yearling Black Angus calves that recently joined the herd.
This year, Schmid and the South Coast delegation are also making room for a new class of yearling politicians to represent the region. After seven terms, Schmid, 81, is not running for reelection this fall. State Sen. Marc Pacheco and Rep. Bill Straus are also stepping down after more than three decades in office.
“I’m proud to have represented farmers in the State House for the last 14 years,” he said. “But it’s time for me to get back to work.”
Schmid’s family farm has served as the backdrop for a unique political career. There was a time when most politicians had some direct experience with agriculture, he said. But today, there are very few. When he was first elected in 2010, he said he took it on himself to raise the profile of agriculture within the state’s Legislature.
That has included serving as chair of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Agriculture, which he helped establish this past term as an independent body from the Committee on Natural Resources. Through that role, Schmid said the committee has elevated the presence of the region’s fishing industry and created grants for food systems that benefit small farmers, processors and local food hubs like the Coastal Food Shed.
“Over the last 50 years, the number of farms fell by something like 70%, so there is a lot less conversation about agriculture in the Legislature. Massachusetts has basically outsourced its production of food.” he said. “I have been continuing my role in agriculture, but from a bigger bully pulpit.”
Standing amongst his herd of organic, grass-fed Angus cattle, Schmid acknowledged the rural and agricultural towns of Westport, Freetown and Acushnet are both economically and demographically far from the urban and industrial regions of New Bedford and Fall River that he also represents. But Schmid said he didn’t see it as a challenge to represent a district as diverse as Bristol’s 8th — he saw it as an opportunity to bring the urban and rural sides of the South Coast closer together.
“I have always had the view that people in New Bedford should have the same opportunities as people in the south part of Westport. For that, education is the key.”
Rep. Paul Schmid
That starts with education, he said.
Schmid said he was frustrated by the disconnect between the inner-city school districts like New Bedford and the neighboring farming communities like Westport. Through his role on the agricultural committee, he worked to increase funding for farm-to-school programs. “I have tried to raise people’s awareness of how important agriculture is to addressing food insecurity and the importance of getting local, healthy food into our schools and underserved areas,” he said.
In 2019, Schmid and others in the South Coast delegation helped to pass the Student Opportunity Act. The bill altered the funding formula for public schools, directing a bulk of the money toward low-income districts and aiming to close gaps that have long led to disparities in education across the state. Gateway cities like Fall River and New Bedford — struggling with high concentrations of poverty and a lower tax base — were some of the top beneficiaries. The funds are used to reduce class sizes and to add staff and wraparound services. Whereas the cities previously spent about $13,000 per student each year, the bill increased funding to now about $20,000 per student, Schmid said.
The bill continues to receive pushback, mostly from wealthier towns that only received the minimum aid increase and rural districts with declining enrollment. Though Westport was one of such districts, Schmid said the bill was necessary to address the stark disparities in education spending. Graduation rates in New Bedford have increased substantially since the bill was passed.
“I have always had the view that people in New Bedford should have the same opportunities as people in the south part of Westport,” Schmid said. “For that, education is the key.”
In the 2022 election, Schmid faced a challenge from Republican candidate Evan Gendreau, who has since become chair of the Westport School Committee. The district is bending conservative, Schmid said. Redistricting has added more precincts from a conservative region of Acushnet, and in 2022 Schmid won by a narrow margin of just 7% (1,100 votes). That was a big change from 2020, when Schmid defeated Gendreau by 14% (2,898 votes). Acushnet and Freetown were the only two towns to vote in favor of the Republican challenger in 2022.
In the race to succeed him as 8th Bristol District representative, Schmid said he is putting his support behind Steve Ouellette, a Democrat, who is vice-chair of the Westport Select Board and director of facilities for the Acushnet Public Schools. Ouellette will face Republican Christopher Thrasher, an attorney and member of the Westport School Committee and Westport Finance Committee, in the November election. There are also three independent candidates: Manuel Soares, Jr.; Laura Hadley; and Jesse W. St. Gelais.
“This district is middle-of-the-road Democrats and responsible Republicans,” Schmid said. “[Ouelette] is a good centrist. He is the kind of person who knows what is important to the district and will do a good job working with his colleagues on what is important to the South Coast.”
Loading into his pickup truck after a morning of tending to the cattle, Schmid said he is proud of what the South Coast delegation accomplished during his seven terms in office. He said he hopes the next class in the House and Senate will continue the work they started, including infrastructure projects like South Coast Rail and a continued focus on both agriculture and education.
“This will be the beginning of a new chapter,” he said. “It has been an incredible honor to have been part of the longest-running democratic body in the world.”
Email Will Sennott at wsennott@newbedfordlight.org.
