4/28/21--This week on The Horse Race, we bring you some bittersweet news. Our very own, extremely talented, reporter and co-host extraordinaire, Stephanie Murray, will be joining us for just one more episode of The Horse Race! She has been promoted to a national position for Politico, so keep an eye out for her as the new author of The Morning Score.

In other big #mapoli news, Massachusetts is making big reopening moves. New reopening guidelines include, effective May 29th,(dependent on public health and vaccination data) gathering limits will increase to 200 people indoors and 250 people outdoors; May 10th will bring the opening of amusement parks and water parks at 50% capacity; and on August 1st other industries will be permitted to open such as nightclubs, saunas, and ball pits (?).

Jenn has been closely following the Boston mayoral race and analyzes the newest development, or lack thereof. State senator Nick Collins announced he will not be running for mayor of Boston. Many had speculated he might jump into the race, but his official decision not to run means in all likelihood, the race for Boston mayor will for the first time in history not include a white man.

Steve sounds off on Secretary of the Commonwealth Bill Galvin's deflection on the question of whether he'll run for re-election. Galvin has been in office since 1995, and his response to the State House News Service that he "enjoy[s]" his job indicates he might run for an eighth term.

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New data from the 2020 Census is out this week. Some states’ Congressional seats will change as a result, but Massachusetts will keep its same nine. Stephanie Murray explains what the data tells us about our districts and provides national context as well.

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In the wake of devastating mass shootings this year, a Massachusetts reporter looked into why the commonwealth's rates of gun deaths are the lowest in the country. Sarah Betancourt's Guardian article details the work of John Rosenthal, co-founder of Stop Handgun Violence, an organization that is in part responsible for the low gun death rates. She stopped by The Horse Race to tell us what gun restrictions contribute to our state's performance and explains in what other ways Massachusetts is in fact contributing to the gun violence epidemic.