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As a veteran of a number of political campaigns, kickoff events always bring a mix of emotions for me. Excitement, hope, anxiety, fear: they typically run the complete spectrum.
While I have been lucky enough to run and participate in a number of different campaigns at this point, the kickoff for my campaign for the state Senate was particularly emotional and inspirational for me.
I showed up an hour early to meet with the campaign team and prepare for the event. I saw an old friend from high school already there, sitting at the bar eating.
“Are you here for dinner?” I asked him.
“No, I’m here for you,” he replied.
I hadn’t seen my friend in probably 20 years. The last time I had even heard his name was in 2014 when I first took office as a [Somerville] city councilor. I heard that he overdosed on opioids in his bathroom.
One of my very first policy orders as a city councilor was an initiative to require first responders to carry Narcan, the lifesaving medicine that can help revive overdose victims.
Narcan was not well known at the time, but I knew about it because my brother worked with homeless youth in Boston and suggested to me that all first responders should carry it. I filed the policy order later that week and began working with the city administration to implement the policy.
The Fire Department immediately took steps to enact the policy, but there was initial resistance from the Police Department. I was told there were liability concerns and that this policy would impact the union contract being negotiated at the time.
It was around this time that my friend overdosed. Police officers arrived first at the scene, but were unable to revive my friend right away because they did not have Narcan readily available and had to wait for the Fire Department to arrive.
It was another friend of mine, a Somerville firefighter, who was able to successfully administer the Narcan and revive him. Both of those friends were in attendance at my campaign kickoff event. They didn’t show up together, they were just there to support a mutual friend. None of us discussed this decade-old incident.
As I was taking in the emotions of the evening and the karmic coincidence of seeing both friends in the same room, it briefly entered my mind that I should let him know about my work on Narcan policy and that I was glad to have played a small role in keeping him alive.
But I didn’t – because that moment over 10 years ago wasn’t really about my policy, it wasn’t about me, and wasn’t even really my memory to relive with him. I was able to briefly reflect and sit with the fact that what matters to me, and that the only reason he was there to support me in the first place, is that he is alive.
All those years ago, a small miracle by first responders in the Somerville Fire Department meant his parents didn’t have to go to his funeral, his friends and loved ones didn’t have to grieve for him, and I was able to bump into him unexpectedly at a bar in Medford over a decade later and talk like we were just in high school together yesterday.
All the time people ask me, especially friends who don’t think politics is for them, why I wanted to become an elected official. This is why.
First responder administration of Narcan is now a widely adopted best practice. You can buy it over-the-counter and can even get it for free in many municipal buildings.
When I first took office, however, it was a relatively unknown treatment method and my policy order was seen as a controversial decision. At the time, I remember very public debates about whether we should revive overdose victims at all.
Some people argued that Narcan administration would only encourage victims to continue using drugs. Others argued that Narcan was an untested medical drug and that we didn’t properly understand the long-term consequences of the drug.
I argued fervently against the status quo and I replied that we do know the short-term consequences of not administering the drug: the victim would be dead.
This is the power of having elected officials grounded in the real world problems people face. Even back in 2014 I had lost count of the people that I personally knew who succumbed to opioid abuse. Very few of my colleagues knew about Narcan at the time, and many didn’t yet understand we were in the middle of an opioid epidemic.
Somerville may very well have gone on to pass policies to promote Narcan use eventually, but it would have been too late for my friend and too late for many others who have benefited from the life-saving drug. It was my work and the work of our city government that helped expedite the wide implementation of Narcan across the state.
I was able to influence that change as one city councilor in one small city. I fought for that change because I knew opioid victims throughout my life and because I was connected to the people on the ground helping vulnerable community members who knew the right thing to do and how to save lives well before the policy was put in place.
It was my connection to the community and my focused commitment to vulnerable community members that put this policy into place, pushed this city forward, and hopefully led first responders to save many lives.
I believe my perspective is needed at the state Senate, where the voices of many vulnerable community members are too often drowned out by the special interests and crippling bureaucracy that halt progress on essential public goods.
It has been far too easy for elected officials to lose sight of who they serve. I will not lose sight.
My community is who I am and I cannot separate myself from it. As an elected official and as a community leader, I have the distinct honor and the grave responsibility to measure my work and measure my success by the impact I can have on my community: by the lives saved through life-saving Narcan application, the families placed in homes through investment in affordable housing and homelessness resources, and the invaluable community resources allocated to the people who need them most.
As a state senator, I will always place the needs of my community first. My reward for this service is also a call to action: knowing that the lives of the people in my community can be improved as a result of my work here. My community has always been there for me, and I will always be there for my community.
Matt McLaughlin is the Ward 1 city councilor in Somerville and a candidate for state Senate in the Second Middlesex District.
