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

The district includes several suburban cities and towns in western Middlesex County and eastern Worcester County, from which it takes its name.

The exact towns in the district have varied with each redistricting since the district was created in 1960, but it has always included Marlborough and, except for four years in the eary 1970s, Acton.

Cities and towns
Under the apportionment plan of 2011, the Middlesex and Worcester District consists of Ayer, Boxborough, Harvard, Hudson, Littleton, Marlborough, Maynard, the eastern third of Northborough (precinct 3), Shirley, Southborough, Stow, the southern half of Sudbury (precincts 2 and 3), and Westborough.

The towns of the district follow roughly a south-to-north line along Interstate 495, with a dogleg northwest along the Route 2 corridor. Most of the district towns fall within the broadest definition of the MetroWest region, the outer suburbs west of Boston.

History
The Middlesex and Worcester District can trace its history back to the apportionment of 1960. Before the middle of the 20th century, senatorial districts in Massachusetts tended to stay within county lines, particularly in the populous counties of Eastern Massachusetts.

Up to 1857, Massachusetts state senators were elected on county-wide ballots, with larger counties electing several candidates at-large. Middlesex County had three to five at-large senators; Worcester County chose a slate of four to six.

Following the institution of single-member districts, Worcester County towns of today's Middlesex and Worcester District were part of the East Worcester District (Southborough, Westborough) or the North East Worcester District (Harvard); most of the Middlesex County towns were collected, with others, in the inaugural 4th Middlesex District, with the exception of Sudbury in the 3rd Middlesex District.

As legislative district boundaries changed over the next 100 years, the principle of keeping Middlesex towns in Middlesex districts, and Worcester towns in Worcester districts, held true along the border between the two counties, although constant renumbering and redrawing of the intra-county lines meant that the towns of the future Middlesex and Worcester District found themselves in various districts over the years.

1960-1970: Harvard to Holliston
The first district to straddle the Middlesex-Worcester line included several of the present-day Middlesex and Worcester District towns, but with additional communities added, particularly to the southwest in the Framingham-Natick area of southern Middlesex County. The district covered Acton, Ashland, Berlin, Bolton, Boxborough, Framingham, Harvard, Holliston, Hopkinton, Hudson, Lancaster, Marlborough, Maynard, Natick, Northborough, Sherborn, Stow, Sudbury and Wayland.

The northeastern part of this district -- Acton, Boxborough, Hudson, Maynard, Stow and Sudbury -- had been part of the 5th Middlesex District in the previous apportionment, in 1948; the southeastern tier, Ashland, Framingham, Holliston, Hopkinton, Natick, Sherborn and Wayland, had been in the Middlesex and Norfolk District. Berlin, Bolton, Harvard, Lancaster and Northborough, all in Worcester County, were all previously in the 4th Worcester District.

1971-1974: Boylston to Medway
All of the northeastern towns were removed from the district in the redistricting of 1970, along with three towns on the eastern border, Natick, Sherborn and Wayland, and two towns in the northwestern border, Harvard and Lancaster. Five other towns were added to the west and south. The district now consisted of Ashland, Berlin, Bolton, Boylston, Framingham, Holliston, Hopedale, Hopkinton, Marlborough, Medway, Northborough, Southborough and Upton. Despite the addition of a Norfolk County town, Medway, the district retained the name Middlesex and Worcester District.

1975-1994: Ayer to Marlborough
Three years later, another redistricting split the southern half of the district between several other districts, mainly the 1st Middlesex and Norfolk and Worcester and Middlesex districts, and returned several towns to the north of the Middlesex and Worcester District. Cities and towns in the district now included Acton, Ayer, Berlin, Bolton, Boxborough, Concord, Harvard, Hudson, Littleton, Marlborough, Maynard, Northborough, Shirley, Stow and Sudbury.

Edward L. Burke was re-elected in the 1st Middlesex and Norfolk District. The Middlesex and Worcester District inherited incumbent Senator Chester G. Atkins from the former 5th Middlesex District

Atkins moved to Harvard before the 1976 election.

The reapportionment of 1977 returned Wayland to the district and dropped three towns on its western edge. Cities and towns in the Middlesex and Worcester District were Acton, Ayer, Berlin, Boxborough, Concord, Harvard, Hudson, Littleton, Marlborough, Maynard, Stow, Sudbury and Wayland,

Atkins moved to Concord before the 1978 election, in which he faced no Republican opponent after defeating Robert C. Bowler in the Democratic primary. He beat Bowler again in the 1980 primary election.

Atkins ran successfully for Congress in 1984, leaving an open seat. Joseph W. Mullin won a three-way race for the Democratic nomination; state Representative Paul Cellucci of Hudson was the sole Republican candidate.

Cellucci was re-elected with no opponents in 1986.

Redistricting in 1987 removed Concord and Wayland but added Westford, for a Middlesex and Worcester District incorporating Acton, Ayer, Berlin, Boxborough, Harvard, Hudson, Littleton, Marlborough, Maynard, Stow, Sudbury and Westford.

Cellucci continued to represent this district after being re-elected with no opponents in 1988. He gave up his Senate seat in 1990 to run successfully for statewide office as Bill Weld's lieutenant governor.

For the 1990 open seat in the Middlesex and Worcester District, the GOP chose William M. Monnie of Stow in its primary election; the only Democratic candidate was state Representative Robert Durand.

1995-present: Shirley to Westborough
Lines drawn in 1993 removed Sudbury and Westford, and returned Northborough, Southborough and part of Westborough to the district. Communities in the Middlesex and Worcester District were Acton, Ayer, Berlin, Boxborough, Harvard, Hudson, Littleton, Marlborough, Maynard, Northborough, Shirley, Southborough, Stow and three precincts of Westborough.

Durand resigned in early 1999 to become secretary of environmental affairs in the cabinet of Paul Cellucci, who had by then succeeded to the office of governor. In the ensuing special Democratic primary election, state Representative Pam Resor defeated four others for her party's nomination.

In 2001, the district was redrawn to again to exclude Berlin and part of Northborough, and include part of Sudbury. The Middlesex and Worcester District now consisted of Acton, Ayer, Boxborough, Harvard, Hudson, Littleton, Marlborough, Maynard, part of Northborough, Shirley, Southborough, Stow, part of Sudbury, and Westborough. These lines remained unchanged in the redistricting of 2011.

Resor was re-elected with no opponents in 2006. She decided not to run for re-election in 2008, instead endorsing her former aide and state Representative Jamie Eldridge.

Eldridge was re-elected with no opposition in 2014.