A late stage write-in campaign aimed at getting a Republican on the ballot for the Vineyard’s state representative race has fallen short.
Thomas Moakley, the Falmouth attorney who won the Democratic primary on Sept. 3, will not have a Republican challenger in November after write-in candidate Erich Horgan failed to get enough votes.
Mr. Horgan made a last-minute campaign as a write-in candidate for the seat that is currently held by Dylan Fernandes when no Republicans filed nomination papers. Republican town committees just days before the election urged voters to cast their ballots for Mr. Horgan, a Falmouth resident.
To get on the ballot, a write-in candidate needs to get at least 150 votes, as well as file paperwork with the state. According to the secretary of the commonwealth’s office, Mr. Horgan came just shy of the threshold, garnering 131 votes across the district, which includes the Vineyard, Gosnold, Nantucket and parts of Falmouth.
Mr. Horgan did not respond to a request for comment from the Gazette.
Even if he did make it to the general election, Mr. Horgan would have faced an uphill battle. The seat has never been held by a Republican and the Vineyard has the second highest rate of Democratic voters in the state.
Mr. Horgan’s largest voting contingent in the state primary was in his hometown of Falmouth, where he received 66 votes. Second was Nantucket where he had 41 votes.
He struggled though on the Vineyard, winning just 10 votes in Oak Bluffs, 6 in West Tisbury, 1 in Chilmark and zero in Edgartown — the town with the highest Republican registration on the Island.
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