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The Worcester and Middlesex Senatorial District is one of 40 electoral districts that each send one senator to the Massachusetts Senate. The district is represented by state Sen. Jennifer Flanagan of Leominster, a Democrat.

The district consists of several cities and towns in North Central Massachusetts, including Fitchburg, Gardner and Leominster.

Under previous apportionment plans, the district has also been known as the 2nd Worcester and Middlesex District, the 3rd Worcester District and the South West Worcester District.

Cities and towns
The Worcester and Middlesex District consists of the cities of Leominster, Fitchburg and Gardner, and all or part of eight other towns in northern Central Massachusetts.

History
The Worcester and Middlesex District can trace its history back, through the former 3rd Worcester District, to the original state senatorial districts created in 1857. Before the 1857 apportionment, senators were elected by county, with some counties serving as multi-member districts. Worcester County formed a single district with a delegation consisting of four, five or six senators elected at large during the various apportionments of 1780 to the 1850s.

1857-1896
When a statewide system of single-member districts was established in 1957, the South West Worcester District consisted of the towns of Auburn, Brookfield (including present-day East Brookfield), Charlton, Dudley, Leicester, Millbury, Oxford, Southbridge, Spencer, Sturbridge, Warren, Webster and West Brookfield.

In the redistricting of 1866, the town of Sutton was added and the district was renamed the 3rd Worcester District.

In 1886, the town of Douglas was added from the 2nd Worcester District; North Brookfield and Paxton were added from the 4th Worcester District.

1896-1948
The redistricting of 1896 saw a complete change in the 3rd District's composition, as the former district towns were split between the 4th Worcester District and the 5th Worcester District, while several communities of the former 4th and 5th districts, covering a territory roughly corresponding to the Worcester and Middlesex District's present-day boundaries, were collected into the 3rd. The 3rd Worcester District now consisted of Ashburnham, Athol, Fitchburg, Gardner, Leominster, Lunenburg, Royalston, Westminster and Winchendon.

In 1916, Phillipston and Templeton were added from the Worcester and Hampden District; in the 1939 redistricting, Harvard and Lancaster were added from the Worcester and Hampden District.

1948-1975
Redistricting in 1948 reduced the district to its three core cities, Fitchburg, Gardner and Leominster, and just three additional towns, Clinton, Sterling and Westminster. Towns formerly on the eastern side of the 3rd District were moved to the 1st Middlesex District; those on the western side joined the Worcester and Hampden District.

In 1960, Ashburnham and Lunenburg rejoined the 3rd Worcester District from the 1st Middlesex District, and Boylston joined from the 4th Worcester District. Joseph D. Ward was elected senator in this district in 1962.

Hubbardston, Petersham and Phillipston were added to the district from the Worcester, Hampden and Hampshire District in 1970; Boylston was redistricted to the Middlesex and Worcester District.

1975-1979
The redistricting of 1973 eliminated the 3rd District and placed most of its former towns in the new 2nd Worcester District; Sen. Robert Hall was re-elected in that district. The new apportionment plan created a new district, the Worcester and Middlesex District, consisting of the southern wards of the city of Worcester and the towns of Grafton, Hopedale, Hopkinton, Leicester, Millbury, Paxton, Southborough, Upton and Westborough. The incumbent from the former 2nd District, Daniel J. Foley, was re-elected without opposition in the Worcester and Middlesex District in 1974 and 1976.

1979-1995
With the redistricting of 1977, the 2nd Worcester District was also eliminated, and the former Worcester and Middlesex District was renamed the 1st Worcester and Middlesex District. Sen. Daniel J. Foley was re-elected in 1978 in this district.

The 2nd District was replaced by a new 2nd Worcester and Middlesex District, the forerunner of the present-day Worcester and Middlesex District. This district, like the 3rd District before 1973, was centered on Fitchburg, Gardner and Leominster. It also included the suburban towns of Ashburnham, Ashby, Bolton, Holden, Lancaster, Lunenburg, Princeton, Sterling, Townsend and Westminster. Sen. Robert A. Hall was re-elected without opposition in this district in 1978.

Hall did not run for re-election in 1982.

The redistricting of 1987 moved Ashburnham to the Worcester, Franklin, Hampden and Hampshire District. Sen. Padula was re-elected with no opponents in 1988 and 1990. She resigned from the state Senate in 1991 to join Gov. William Weld's cabinet as Secretary of Housing and Community Development, prompting a special election in 1992.

1995-2003
The redistricting of 1993 brought back the name Worcester and Middlesex District. Ashburnham returned to the district; Holden moved to the 1st Worcester District. Communities in the Worcester and Middlesex District now included Ashburnham, Ashby, Bolton, Fitchburg, Gardner, Lancaster, Leominster, Lunenburg, Princeton, Sterling, Townsend and Westminster. Sen. Robert Antonioni was re-elected with no opponents in 1994 and 1996.

Antonioni was re-elected with no opponent in 2000.

2003-2013
In 2001, Ashburnham was moved to the Worcester, Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin District and Princeton to the 1st Worcester District. The northeastern half of Clinton, formerly in the 1st Worcester District, was added to the the Worcester and Middlesex District.

Antonioni was re-elected with no opponent in 2002.

Antonioni was re-elected with no opponent in 2006, but chose not to run for re-election in 2008. In the Democratic primary election that year, state Rep. Jennifer Flanagan defeated former state Rep. Brian Knuuttila. She was elected to the Senate in November 2008 with no opponent.

Flanagan was re-elected with no opponents in 2012.

Flanagan was re-elected with no opponents in 2016.