After serving in the House for about a year, first-term Representative Jake Oliveira has decided he'd like to move on to the Senate.
Oliveira is mounting a campaign for the seat that Sen. Eric Lesser (D-Longmeadow) is vacating to run for lieutenant governor.
The Ludlow Democrat told the State House News Service that he planned to officially announce his campaign in the next week, though his campaign issued a press release Thursday morning detailing his intentions. Oliveira updated his status Wednesday with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance to indicate that he is seeking the Senate Hampden, Hampshire, and Worcester district.
It's a reshaped district that includes three communities -- Ludlow, Springfield, and Palmer -- that Oliveira's ancestors settled in when they immigrated to the United States from Portugal and Poland in the early part of the 20th century.
"I'm really excited to utilize not only my experience as a House member but also to utilize my experience as a local elected official, spending 12 years on the School Committee, four years as a representative Town Meeting member, and building on that experience to represent the district as a strong voice for Western Massachusetts in the Senate," he said in an interview.
Oliveira previously worked as then state Representative Michael Rodrigues' legislative director from 2008 to 2009 and worked on Senate President Karen Spilka's first two Senate campaigns when he was a student attending Framingham State University.
