The two-way race for the Vineyard’s state representative seat will be decided Tuesday as Islanders head to the polls for the biennial state primary.

Arielle Faria, a West Tisbury resident and a project manager at Island Housing Trust, will face off against Thomas Moakley, a Falmouth resident and former Vineyard prosecutor, for the state representative seat held by Dylan Fernandes. 

The pair are running in the Democratic primary for the seat, which oversees the Vineyard, Gosnold, Nantucket and parts of Falmouth. With no candidates in the Republican primary, whoever wins Tuesday’s Democratic race is essentially guaranteed a win in November’s general election. 

Polls open at 7 a.m. Tuesday and are open until 8 p.m. in all six of the Vineyard towns. 

Arielle Faria has made housing one of the cornerstones of her campaign. — Maria Thibodeau

Mr. Fernandes won the seat in a contested primary in 2016 and has held the position ever since. Four terms later, he has set his sights on a mainland state senate seat, leaving a wide open race for Ms. Faria and Mr. Moakley. 

A housing activist and the co-chair of the Coalition to Create the Martha’s Vineyard Housing Bank, Ms. Faria has centered housing as one of her main issues, along with the environment and mental health. 

“Everyone needs housing, and if we don’t have people, we don’t have community,” Ms. Faria said in an interview last month. 

Mr. Moakley, who served in the Cape and Islands District Attorney’s Office as the Island’s assistant district attorney, has focused on affordability, women’s reproductive health and climate change. 

“Sustainability is directly related to affordability,” Mr. Moakley told the Gazette in August. “It’s all about having a vision of this sort of community we want to be in the future, one that has a more robust and conscientious year-round population.”

Thomas Moakley said he's focused on affordability, reproductive rights and the climate. — Maria Thibodeau

The Steamship Authority has also been a hot topic throughout the campaign. At a voter forum in Edgartown, Ms. Faria said she’d be interested in shaking up the boat line’s board to get better oversight and Mr. Moakley said the state could push the ferry service in the right direction when the Steamship’s enabling act has to be renewed. 

Both candidates have racked up endorsements. Mr. Moakley boasts backing from Mr. Fernades, the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund and district Attorney Rob Galibois. Ms. Faria has been endorsed by Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts, health care worker unions and Massachusetts U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley. 

Both candidates are relatively new on the political scene. Ms. Faria has never run for office and Mr. Moakley has only run once, losing in the five-way primary for the Plymouth and Barnstable state senate seat in 2020. 

The state representative seat, in its current configuration, has never been held by a Vineyarder, nor a Republican. Before Mr. Fernandes, the position was held by Nantucketer Tim Madden and Falmouth attorney Eric Turkington. 

The only other race that is contested on either ballot is the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat. Robert Antonellis, Ian Cain and John Deaton are all vying for the chance to run against longtime incumbent U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren.