John M. Guilfoil Globe Correspondent

Two Boston city councilors and challengers to Mayor Thomas M. Menino are calling for a criminal investigation after a Globe report that revealed that city officials under Mayor Thomas M. Menino have been routinely deleting work emails – a practice that would violate state public records law.

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By Felicia Kazer

Boston teacher Felicia Kazer tells how Barack Obama's election transformed McCormack Middle School in Dorchester the day after the historic vote, stirring excitement, a sense of possibility, and unbridled joy in her students.

Wednesday was a great day to be a teacher.

The excitement started as soon as I entered the school in the morning. It turns out that a small group of students arrived before classes started to decorate our hallways with Barack Obama posters.

They had photocopied pictures of Obama's face. Under it they had written one word: "President."

By the time the rest of the student body arrived, our whole school had been plastered with these signs.

At 7:14 a.m., the hallways at my school looked very familiar: crowded, hectic and loud. Only on this morning, students weren't ignoring their teacher's requests to get to their homerooms because they were too busy gossiping about shoes or TV last night or one another.

Instead, they were simply too busy to get to class on time because they were all talking politics with their friends. It was stunning to overhear conversations between eighth-graders that included words like: electoral votes, democracy, and ballots. And it wasn't just a few kids -- it was all of them.

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McCain won in the red communities. They were few and far between.

By Casey Ramsdell, Globe Correspondent, and Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

The tiny town of Aquinnah on Martha’s Vineyard took the prize for being the biggest stronghold for presidential candidate Barack Obama in Massachusetts, with 90 percent of the 311 voters there casting a ballot for the Democrat who will be America’s first black president.

“It was not unexpected for me, as the clerk, that it would be that way,” said Carolyn Feltz, the town clerk. She said Aquinnah was a "politically liberal town."

With only 15 Republicans among the town's 398 registered voters, "You don't have to be a genius" to know which way the community will vote, she said. McCain actually got 26 votes, she said, meaning that McCain had wooed some voters away from the Democrats, unenrolled, and other parties.

Other communities that came out overwhelmingly for Obama included Cambridge (88 percent), Provincetown (88 percent), Amherst (87 percent), Shutesbury (85 percent), and Pelham (85 percent).

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(Bill Brett for The Boston Globe)

By Matt Viser and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

A beaming Governor Deval Patrick met with reporters today after his return from Chicago and reiterated that he has no interest in a post in President-elect Barack Obama's administration.

After speaking about being "enormously moved and excited and proud" of Obama's electoral landslide, Patrick said definitively that he did not want to return to the White House.

"Are you asking me if I am going to Washington again?" Patrick asked, rephrasing a reporter's question. "No I am not. We have an ambitious agenda and a lot of work to do here. Frankly if the people will have me, I'd be interested in a second term."

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By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

Massachusetts set a new record for voter turnout Tuesday. More than 3 million residents went to the polls as voters overwhelmingly chose Democrat Barack Obama as the country's next president.

Secretary of State William Galvin said in a telephone interview today that the tally of voter turnout has reached 3,042,959, up from the 2.9 million who participated in the 2004 presidential election. He said the totals could rise to 3.1 million when overseas ballots are finally tabulated in the coming days.

"It was an election not to be missed,'' Galvin said. He noted that roughly half the state's 6 million residents participated. "It's impressive.''

The percentage of the 4.2 million registered voters who participated -- about 72 percent -- was not a record.

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(Video by Milton Valencia)

Dozens of young people, elated at Obama's victory, splashed in the reflecting pool at the Christian Science Plaza.

By Milton J. Valencia, Globe Staff, and Gabrielle Dunn, Globe Correspondent

Hundreds of revelers, mostly college students and 20-somethings, took to the streets in Boston early today to celebrate Barack Obama’s triumph in Tuesday’s elections.

Dozens jumped into the reflecting pool at the Christian Science Center after marching from the Boston Public Library, along Huntington Avenue, waving Obama signs and chanting, “USA, USA, USA.”

“It was the excitement of it all,” said Becky Tinker, a 19-year-old sophomore from Connecticut who attends Emerson College. “This was such a historic night, why not do what you want?”

Police reported no arrests as of 12:45 a.m. Wednesday. Instead, police seemed to let the crowd celebrate, guiding revelers along streets while patrolling the area on motorcycles to make sure no one was acting disorderly.

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By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

Sixty-six-year-old Jake Coakley picked cotton as a boy in Beaufort, S.C., just as his father and grandfather did before him. So on Tuesday, as he stood amid a throng of people hugging, high-fiving, and even weeping outside a Roxbury polling place, he wanted to underscore the significance of the day.

‘‘This,’’ he said to a little boy, patting his head and staring deeply into his eyes, ‘‘is history.’’

At another polling station blocks away, Charles Robinson recalled the racial epithets shouted at him as a student at South Boston High School during the busing crisis of the 1970s.

In St. Petersburg, Fla., Ron Dock spoke of the day he learned that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot. Dock was 18, he said, crouching in a rice paddy in Vietnam, preparing for a firefight. In Alexandria, Va., 83-year-old Flossie Parks recalled turning 21 and being forced to pay a $3 poll tax for the right to vote.

Millions of black voters across the country turned out to help elect Barack Obama the first African-American president yesterday, and as they did, they reflected not just on the course of a historic campaign, but on the history of a nation. From Florida to Arizona, Chicago to Boston, black Americans said they were writing a new chapter in a progression that began long before Obama burst onto the scene at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. The moment was tinged with poignancy at the prices paid by generations before them who could have never imagined a black man winning the highest office in the land.

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(Essdras Suarez/Globe Staff)

Beverly Rock of Dorchester waved her cane as she and others celebrated word of Barack Obama's presidential victory at the Fairmont Copley Plaza.

By Jillian Jorgensen, Globe Correspondent

The big moment came at 11 p.m. when the networks declared that Barack Obama was the winner.

The crowd of several hundred at the Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston erupted into applause and began chanting, "Yes, we can." People danced to the oldie, "Signed, Sealed, Delivered," and sang along with "We Are The Champions."

"I'm feeling great," said 16-year-old Robert Dabbas of the South End, who came to the event with his mother.

Caroline Osterman of Arlington, who said she had worked for both Jeanne Shaheen, the Democratic candidate for Senate in New Hampshire, and Obama, said, "I really like the fact that we are going to have change in America. It's about time that we Americans take care of America first."

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(David Kamerman/Globe Staff)

Christine Dorchak, president of Grey2K USA, a greyhound advocacy group, cheered with Kathy Estridge, Leslie Scheideler, and Tracy Casner, during a party for supporters of the dog racing ban at a Boston nightclub.

By Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff

Massachusetts voters today embraced a ballot question to end greyhound racing in the state, rejecting track owners’ arguments that the ban would cost jobs at a time of economic hardship in favor of protecting dogs from harm.

The contentious ballot question passed amid emotional ad campaigns by both sides. Proponents used images of sad-eyed greyhounds that they say are caged inhumanely and raced to injury while opponents put the spotlight on the track employees who would be put out of work if the ballot question passed.

"It's not fair to the dogs," said Dulce Fajardo, 41, a Roxbury Democrat who voted for the ballot question. "I love animals. And for me this is something cruel. They can't defend themselves so we have to do it for them."

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(Darren McCollester/Getty Images)

Shaheen gave two thumbs up as she took the stage to give her victory speech at a Manchester, N.H. hotel.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

LONDONDERRY, N.H. – Former Democratic governor Jeanne Shaheen won a hard-fought rematch for the United States Senate, defeating incumbent Republican John E. Sununu in a campaign that attracted attention and money from across the nation.

NBC called the race at about 8:15 p.m. for Shaheen, who will become the first female US senator in the history of New Hampshire.

In defeating Sununu, Shaheen has ousted the youngest member of the US Senate and a rising star in the Republican Party.

The New Hampshire Senate race has been one of the most carefully monitored campaigns in the country, with two deeply experienced politicians facing off in a rematch of a 2002 contest that ended with two GOP operatives in jail over a phone-jamming scandal.

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By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff

On two of the biggest questions facing Massachusetts in this election, younger voters played a big role, according to exit polls.

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama ran up huge margins among those voters under 30 in Massachusetts, while those over 45 were far less enamored with the Democratic nominee, splitting their ballots between him and Republican John McCain.

Voters under 30 -- along with liberals and college-educated and middle-income voters -- also were key to the wide margin that opponents racked up in defeating the ballot initiative that would have eliminated the state's income tax.

Those are the conclusions of interviews with voters, who, after casting their ballots today, were contacted by a national survey company, Edison/Mitofksy, which performed state-by-state exit polling for the national media.

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(David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)

Kerry and his wife, Teresa, celebrated tonight at the Fairmont Copley Plaza.

By John C. Drake, Globe Staff

Four years after coming up short in his bid for the presidency, John F. Kerry settled today for a return trip to the United States Senate, easily defeating a little-noticed GOP challenger to earn a fifth term.

"I am humbled to receive the support of voters from Williamstown to Provincetown and every city and town in between, and I promise to continue to prove worthy of your confidence in me over the next six years," Kerry said in a statement released soon after the polls closed. "I have always been honored to represent the people of Massachusetts, and I can't wait to return to Washington with my friend Ted Kennedy by my side and continue to deliver for you and your families."

The race between Kerry and Jeffrey K. Beatty, a counterterrorism expert, never gained much traction, with the incumbent focusing much of his political might on helping Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama win New Hampshire.

And even before the first vote was cast, speculation had already turned to how much of his term Kerry would actually serve, with both Beatty and Kerry's Democratic primary opponent suggesting he was pining for a Cabinet post should Obama win the presidential race.

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(John Bohn/Globe Staff)

Chang-Diaz declared victory in a speech to supporters tonight at a restaurant in Boston's Jamaica Plain.

By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff

Sonia Chang-Diaz declared victory tonight in her campaign for state Senate in Boston, a hard-fought but nonetheless bittersweet win after incumbent Senator Dianne Wilkerson dropped out of the race last week following her arrest on federal bribery charges.

Chang-Diaz made the declaration at about 9:15 p.m. based on unofficial reports from polling places that she had received more than 80 percent of the votes cast in the Second Suffolk District. Official results were not expected until late tonight because city election officials had to hand-count each ballot after the polls closed at 8 p.m.

If she indeed secured the seat, Chang-Diaz, a former school teacher from Jamaica Plain who lost to Wilkerson in a race in 2006, still faces a big challenge winning over some of Wilkerson's core supporters. Some voters going to the polls today said they felt Wilkerson was victimized by authorities, and they voted for her despite the stunning FBI images of her allegedly accepting bribes.

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(Barry Chin/Globe Staff)

Whitney Taylor, chairwoman of the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy, left, and Question 2 supporter Dr. John H. Halpern, associate director of substance research at McLean Hospital, celebrated after hearing that the measure passed.

By David Abel, Globe Staff

Massachusetts voters today approved a ballot initiative to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, making getting caught with less than an ounce of pot punishable by a civil fine of $100. The change in the law means someone found carrying as many as dozens of marijuana cigarettes will no longer be reported to the state’s criminal history board.

“The people were ahead of the politicians on this issue; they recognize and want a more sensible approach to our marijuana policy,” said Whitney Taylor, chairwoman of the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy, which campaigned for the ballot initiative. “They want to focus our limited law enforcement resources on serious and violent crimes. They recognize under the new law that the punishment will fit the offense.”

The proposition will become law 30 days after it’s reported to the Governor’s Council, which usually meets in late November or early December. But the Legislature could amend or repeal the new law, as they've done with some prior laws passed by the voters, said Emily LaGrassa, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Martha Coakley. The Associated Press called the outcome at about 9:20 p.m.

The proposition will require those younger than age 18 to complete a drug awareness program and community service. The fine would increase to as much as $1,000 for those who fail to complete the program.

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By Eric Moskowitz, Globe Staff

Massachusetts voters once again rejected a ballot question to eliminate the state's income tax, six years after the question lost by such a slim margin that supporters hoped it would pass on a second try. The Associated Press called the outcome at about 8:45 p.m.

The victory for opponents of repealing the tax was a lesson in what money and organization can accomplish on Election Day.

A similar question to repeal the tax in 2002 attracted little advance notice and no formal opposition but nearly passed. Stunned income tax supporters took no chances this time, spending millions of dollars on an aggressive campaign that included TV ads, direct mail, and door-to-door outreach warning of the likely damage to the state and public services as well as the other taxes and fees that might be raised to offset it -- and voters were listening.

"We're in enough trouble as it is," said Leonard LeBlanc, a 78-year-old retired carpenter from Lynnfield who voted no.

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(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

A line of voters stretched for a hundred yards up Exeter Street outside the Boston Public Library in the Back Bay.

By Andrew Ryan, Donovan Slack, and Maria Cramer, Globe Staff

Waves of eager voters swamped polling places across Massachusetts today as officials grapple with a surge in turnout expected to top three million voters in a landmark presidential election.

With radiant sunshine pushing temperatures to the mid-60s during the day, block-long lines snaked around corners in Davis Square in Somerville, Boston's South End, Pittsfield, and Lawrence, where an election clerk called it a "madhouse." Shorter lines were reported, but business remained brisk during the evening hours.

By 3 p.m., 200,040 people had cast ballots in Boston, about 13,000 more than had voted by that time in the presidential election of 2004. Turnout was highest in Ward 19, Jamaica Plain, where 62.88 percent of registered voters had already been to the polls. The largest number of voters came from Ward 18, which includes Mattapan and Hyde Park, where 20,523 have already cast ballots.

Election clerks also reported "extremely high" turnout in Worcester, Wellesley, Newton, Georgetown, Salem, and other cities and towns.

"This is a historic event no matter how you vote," said Annette Grant, 42, a "Hillary girl" who cast her ballot for Democratic Senator Barack Obama in Roxbury. "You have the chance to pick the first woman for vice president or a biracial candidate for president."

Those historic overtones seemed to be driving early turnout, especially in African-American neighborhoods where voters snapped photographs of each other as they braved long lines. In Davis Square, a line of voters filed past a day-care center where a group of mostly black toddlers waved as they marveled at the crowd.

"Who's going to be the next president?" the toddlers' caretaker asked the children. "You all can be."

A little boy called out, "Happy vote!" again and again.

"This is history, you've got to vote,'' said Jackie Lewis, 45, an Obama supporter who cast a ballot in Boston's Hyde Park neighborhood. "This is a moment I'll never have again in my lifetime. Maybe in my son's lifetime, but not in mine."

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By Matt Collette, Globe Staff

A spokesman for Secretary of State William F. Galvin criticized two local talk radio hosts after a number of people called the Massachusetts Election Division to complain that they had told listeners that the election had been postponed from today until Wednesday.

The spokesman, Brian McNiff, said John Dennis and Gerry Callahan said on their morning radio show on WEEI-AM that the election had been pushed back a day. Both Dennis and Callahan have declared themselves McCain supporters, the Associated Press has reported.

“We got complaints at the Election Division that there were people on the radio who were saying that the election had been postponed until Wednesday, so some people were being told to vote on Wednesday,” McNiff said. “Gradually, more calls came in and we focused it down to this show on WEEI.”

McNiff said there were no plans to take legal action against the hosts or the station. He said he contacted both hosts and the station manager by phone and e-mail, but had not heard back from them by this evening.

The Globe was unable to reach Dennis or Callahan for comment. The person who answered the phone at Entercom Communications, WEEI’s parent corporation, directed questions to the radio station’s Boston office, where no one answered the phone.

McNiff said state law prohibits interfering with elections.

“I said [to WEEI] these are the voting hours today and it’s false to say there is anything different,” McNiff said.

Photo by John Bohn/Globe staff
Milton Beecher, 99, delivers his ballot as his son, Edward, and grandson, Robert, look on at
Hopkinton Middle School.

By Christina Pazzanese, Globe Correspondent

HOPKINTON -- This was one presidential election the three generations of Beecher boys weren’t about to miss.

Amid the crowds streaming in and out of Hopkinton Middle School this morning, Edward Beecher, 59, his 99-year-old father, Milton, and his teenage son Robert pulled up in a silver station wagon to cast what was a historic vote for a family that traces its lineage back to the famed abolitionist and author Harriet Beecher Stowe.

For the first time, all three men voted together in an election, and all three said they came specifically to vote for Barack Obama .

Edward Beecher said the Illinois senator's candidacy stirred an excitement in him that he hasn’t felt in four decades.

“The last time I felt such hope was the day Robert Kennedy won the California primary,” said Edward, an adult-services coordinator for the state Department of Mental Retardation. “But it was so short-lived.”

Milton Beecher, who turns 100 in March, calls himself an independent and said the first president he voted for was Herbert Hoover, in 1928. Although he has difficulty hearing and needs the assistance of a wheelchair, the retired highway engineer for the state of Connecticut wanted to vote as a way to make his feelings known about the current occupant of the White House, George W. Bush: “He’s the worst president we ever had!”

Another motivating factor: he “doubts” he’ll be around for the next presidential election.

Robert Beecher, 18, a senior at Hopkinton High School, said he’s been looking forward to voting for the first time.

“I’m glad this election got to be the one I voted in,” he said, especially since many of his friends and classmates were not yet of voting age. “I feel lucky I’m old enough to vote in this.”

The family says Beecher Stowe, the author of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” a novel published in 1852, is a direct cousin who descended from a common relative, English colonist John Beecher.

Edward Beecher said that even before the family officially learned of its connection to the author a few years ago through genealogical research, it long suspected it had ties to her and instinctively shared her views on equality.

“From the time I was young, my mother and father raised me to respect that everyone was equal,'' he said. "It didn’t have anything to do with color or race or ethnicity.”

His own philosophical kinship to the abolitionist spirit grew stronger during his days as a politically-active student at Boston College in the late 1960s and early '70s, he said.

So what would Beecher Stowe likely say about her relatives supporting an African-American man for president?

“She’d probably say, ‘It’s about time!’” Edward Beecher said with a laugh. “I think she’d be proud [of us] and proud of the American people.”

By Lisa Kocian, Globe Staff

ASHLAND -- Eighteen-year-old Stephanie Cowern and her older sister Amanda, 20, walked out of Ashland High School this afternoon bubbling with the visible excitement of first-time voters.

That enthusiasm, however, quickly gave way to sibling rivalry. Stephanie, a high school senior, gave her vote to Democratic Senator Barack Obama. Amanda, a sophomore at Massachusetts Bay Community College, opted for Republican Senator John McCain.

"You got to go with experience when you're voting," said Amanda, who high-fived her father, Don Cowern, another backer of McCain.

Stephanie argued that she agreed with Obama on a host of issues such as healthcare and countered that she did not like that McCain has voted so consistently with President George W. Bush. Then, the younger sister brought out her big gun to end the conversation, invoking the name of the Republican vice presidential candidate.

"Palin," Stephanie said. "Done."

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

Scores of angry Cambridge registered voters this morning discovered that their names were missing from lists of eligible voters as city election officials alerted the state to the problem -- and provided a solution.

“They have no problem collecting taxes from me, but they can’t get my name on the (voting) roster,’’ said Laura Gamel, whose husband was on the list but she was not. Gamel was married earlier this year, but has lived in the same Cambridge neighborhood and voted in every election, including the September primary, at the same polling place during that time. She also personally filled out the city census card.

Gamel said workers at her Ward 11, Precinct 3 polling place on Churchill Avenue telephoned the Cambridge Election Commission, checked Gamel’s name on a different master list, and eventually handed her a ballot. She said the mix-up added about 10 minutes to the hour she spent waiting to vote.

This afternoon, Cambridge Mayor E. Denise Simmons said she regretted the snafu, but insisted it was quickly corrected and said that the overwhelming majority of voters in her city zipped through the polling places.

“Some Cambridge residents encountered unexpected difficulties when they were attempting to perform their great civic duty by voting in the federal election. It turns out that an incomplete voter list had been distributed to the City’s polling locations,’’ the mayor said in a statement released by her office. “As soon as this was realized, a correction was made and a new, complete list was immediately distributed to all polling locations.’’

She added, “I deeply regret any inconvenience this may have caused voters.’’

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By Anne Baker, Globe Correspondent

While Barack Obama came up big this morning in Dixville Notch, N.H., Tanner Tillotson scored a victory of his own in the historic hamlet: Just after midnight, he cast the country's first Election Day ballot.

Tillotson this morning

“It was a great honor,” Tillotson, said of voting in the village that is his primary residence and childhood home. “My grandfather was the one who started the first in the nation, so it was cool to be carrying out his legacy.”

Tillotson, 20, who was born in Boston and graduated from the Commonwealth High School in the Back Bay in 2006, is a third-year computer engineering major at McGill University in Montreal. He said his name was selected from a pot to vote first, but came close to missing the chance.

“I almost didn’t put my name in,” he said, but added it at the last minute.

Tillotson said that all of the residents of Dixville Notch save one, who voted by absentee, lined up and individually cast their votes. They waited in the next room to hear the results.

Tillotson's presidential choice? Barack Obama.

“It was honestly a lot of things,” he said. “I think you can’t count out the fact that he’s someone the people can believe in,” Tillotson said. “In my mind, that’s a big thing right now.”

Tillotson was not alone in Dixville Notch: Obama defeated John McCain 15-6.

John Bohn/Globe staff
Boston University students study ballot questions before voting at a campus polling station.

Milton

"What's waiting two or three hours when we've been waiting two of three generations for this type of leadership.''
-- Governor Deval Patrick at St. Mary's School, quoting a Floridian who voted early over the weekend. See video

South End, Boston

"I think this time everybody has something to say."
--Roland Baron, 64, standing in an hour-plus long line outside Cathedral High School

"I expected to wait a half an hour to an hour. That's why we came early as opposed to after work. The nice day made it easy."
--Bill Wolff, a 63-year-old retiree who voted at Washington Manor Apartments

Lynn

Calvin Anderson

“I’m here just to encourage people to exercise their right to vote. If you don’t bother to vote, don’t bother to complain.” -- Calvin Anderson, who was dressed in a flag suit outside North Shore Community College

Jamaica Plain, Boston

“We’re not a swing state, but people still want to get their voices heard.”
--Erin Knepler, 28, who dreamed last night of an Obama victory

Roxbury, Boston

"Given how our economy is going, it's worth getting out of bed to go vote."
--Annette Grant, 42, who got up at 4:20 a.m. to be at her polling place before 7 a.m.

"Obama and Chang-Diaz! Both are historic! Obama and Chang-Diaz! Both are historic!"
--Antonio Oritz, 59, referring in the latter reference to Democratic state Senate candidate Sonia Chang-Diaz.

Natick

"Obama hasn't got the experience in my opinion. We need someone with real strong experience."
- Paul Carew, 56, feeling " grossly outnumbered" as he held a placard for Republican state Senator Scott Brown in a blue sea of signs for Obama and Kerry.

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By Globe Staff

Boston voters today are urged to bring canned goods and other non-perishables to polling places for a citywide food drive.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino's staff and local volunteers will be at polling places collecting the donations. The effort is part of Menino's Food & Fuel Campaign, which targets struggling families who may have to decide between heating their home and eating this winter.

A list of polling places can be found here.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

Embattled Democratic state Senator Dianne Wilkerson may have ended her sticker campaign, but her name was still visible today at some polling places in Roxbury.

Taped over the blue signs of her challenger, a white flier asked: "What happened to innocent until proven guilty?" It urged voters to "write in Dianne Wilkerson."

The fliers outside Orchard Gardens Community Center covered the name of Sonia Chang-Diaz, a former schoolteacher who narrowly beat Wilkerson in the Democratic primary. Wilkerson, a 15-year incumbent, had been running a sticker campaign until she was charged last week with accepting $23,500 in bribes in a federal corruption probe.

Wilkerson announced on Friday that she was ending her write-in campaign, but she resisted mounting pressure to resign from the Senate. Wilkerson said she would make an announcement on Wednesday regarding whether she will leave office before her term ends in January.

As the election approaches, many people are waking up having had powerful dreams about the election.

If you have had a memorable dream in recent days, please contact David Abel at dabel@globe.com for a story he's preparing on the subject of dreams and the elections.

Please include a phone number and email address where he can reach you today.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

Challenger Sonia Chang-Diaz this afternoon said she felt "a sense of relief" after Senator Dianne Wilkerson, the embattled Democratic incumbent, ended her bid for reelection.

“The events of the last few days have, I think, been both shocking and sad for all of us,” Chang-Diaz told reporters in a press conference outside the State House. “They’ve shaken our faith in the notion of public service and prompted many citizens to question whether they can trust elected leaders to act with the best interests of the community at heart.”

Chang-Diaz commended Wilkerson's decision to withdraw from the race and acting “with the best interests of our community at heart.”

“For that,” she said, “I thank her."

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