In Massachusetts, Democrat Jeromie Whalen’s primary bid for the 1st congressional district was always something of a longshot.
From humble beginnings in Whalen’s garage, the grassroots campaign went up against one of the longest-serving members of the House, as the Northampton High School teacher tried to unseat Richard Neal.
Two weeks after his loss on primary night, Whalen is back in the classroom, and as he and members of his campaign tell WAMC, while they fell short on primary day, they won the support of thousands - enough to build a movement they want to see continue.
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Wednesday, Sept. 2: the day it was more or less official that Neal would once again face independent challenger Nadia Milleron in the general election.
It was also the day it became clear the giant Jeromie Whalen-adorned billboard off of Birnie Avenue in Springfield would have to come down - the one that reads “Trust the man in the yellow van,” referencing Whalen’s iconic 1988 Toyota van, with its banana-yellow paint scheme.
A little less than 24 hours earlier, hopes were still high for Whalen's supporters, as they crowded into the White Lion Brewery in downtown Springfield to watch primary night results come in.
Their candidate had just run a marathon of last-minute standouts and handshaking – a Northampton High School teacher with roots in Belchertown, now living in South Hadley.
As he entered the brewery, there was much rejoicing.
Then, came a speech.
At the start, Whalen explained how his communications director, Joey Pisani, advised him to write three speeches – one if he won, one if he lost and one if it wasn’t clear what would happen that night.
But, Whalen says, he wrote just the one.
“No one can ever take this from us - the relationships that we've made, the community we've built, the good we've brought into the into the world - these are ours to keep and ours to give,” he said towards the end. “So, keep giving. Much love, everybody.”
Striking some melancholic notes, the challenger promoted the unity and energy that came with his campaign. Less than an hour later, he would call Richard Neal to concede – a call that featured “no acrimony,” Neal later said.
The incumbent would best Whalen by about 7,500 votes – nearly 50,000 to 42,500. It was one of the narrowest primary wins Neal’s earned in almost 40 years in congress.
There are caveats to that - for example, this year’s primaries were part of a midterm cycle, leading to far less turnout compared to 2020, Neal’s last competitive primary, when Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse was his opponent.
As Matt Szafranski of Western Mass. Politics & Insight told WAMC, higher turnout is usually a plus for the 19-term Democrat.
Two weeks after primary day, Whalen, a journalism and media production teacher, took a walk with WAMC to talk about just what happened – touching on a year that started in a garage and saw him traveling up and down the district.
“I think coming at this from outside of politics was the best possible advantage to have in all of this because, when I first thought about getting into the race… I called up my friend who had been working for the Morse administration and I was kind of tangentially watching that race transpire, and so, I gave him a call, and - he works down in Washington now - I said ‘What would it take to do this? What are the things that you need?’” Whalen recounted. “And the thing that he said to me immediately was, ‘Don't…’ and then he said, ‘Here is - if you were to do this - how it goes.’”
“And I said ‘yes’ to some of those things, and I said ‘no’ to others,” he continued. “And having the ability to do that and create this infrastructure from scratch without any preconceived notion about what it was supposed to be - I think that freed us to be nimble, reactive and responsive to a ever-evolving and changing world. I also think that it was an opportunity to present myself in an authentic manner that was relatable and add a human element to what was going on….”
Whalen’s background has long been in education - he has a doctorate in Mathematics, Science, and Learning Technologies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
The political newcomer approach had plenty of benefits, as he recounted – but issues as well.
Name recognition early on was a huge hurdle, says Joey Pisani, who is no stranger to campaigns but was working his first leadership role.
“The opening days for us were also about: ‘how do we get people to even know who he is?’ and also … how do you tell the story of this district and what people are looking for while also trying to introduce someone who a lot of them haven't met before… but we're hoping by the end of this, they’ll be so willing to trust him and trust his campaign - this movement - with something so sacred as their vote,” he said in a phone interview. “And so, yes … we had maps laid out and we were looking at population sizes and past voter turnout and all these things to decide on where are some target areas, where do we want to really be focusing additional energy, where do we think we could pick up some votes and stuff… but, at least [in] my mind… my immediate thought was ‘how do we brand this?’”
Pisani is now back at school, completing a degree at Suffolk University in political science, now with some significant on-the-ground experience in tow.
That included hours and hours at the campaign’s headquarters in Springfield – a step up from the garage – at the Union Trust building off of Main Street downtown.
It’s a huge complex, complete with multiple bank vaults, which were less than ideal for cell reception, said Campaign Manager Ellen Moorhouse as she gave a tour a few days after the primary.
“This was a vacant bank building that we scooped up for an absolute song, and we did a short-term, six-month, month-to-month lease,” she said, showing an old picture of the structure that dates back to the early-1900s. “… this office has been the joy of my life – it really has.
At the time of recording, Sept. 4, the complex was still home to the campaign. Moorhouse herself was still in the early phases of picking apart the rows and rows of photos Whalen took while on the campaign trail.
At one point, it was a common sight to see on the trail: Whalen appearing at community forums, cultural celebrations and groundbreakings with his Canon R8, including engagements Neal himself spoke at.
Hallmarks of the campaign included non-stop, in-person campaign stops, a seemingly-never-offline online presence and at one point, a possible collaboration with a brewery, though that fell apart when the campaign learned it could run afoul of campaign finance rules.
There was plenty of hitting at Neal as well, though as Moorhouse recounted, going negative was never a priority.
“… I didn't want to antagonize him - I didn't want to run a negative race and … pooh-pooh the man. For me, it was always about ‘Thank you so much, Congressman, for a lifetime of service. I just want something new,’ and I think when you're looking at his record … I forget which outlet it was, but someone said that, if we were to have won, [Whalen] would have been the fifth man in a century that has held the seat,” she said, sitting in what was her workspace for the past few months. “If nothing has changed in my 37 years of life… look at the trajectory of leadership and those that have held it around me – again, I don't wish to disparage it: I know what it's like to run. I know what it's like to hold office, to wield power - the responsibility you have, how heavy that weighs - but I also don't wonder if it's not time for something new…”
At one point during the tour, Moorhouse brought out a series of large posterboards, containing months’ worth of scribblings, including vote targets and hopes early on in the campaign.
One page referenced an OUI from Whalen’s college days that could come up on the campaign trail. What prompted The New York Post to first report on it late in the primary season - and its impact - has yet to be determined.
It was one of several frustrations for the Whalen camp. One that weighed especially on Moorhouse – a late series of television buys and mailers from the Neal campaign that seemed to undermine a year’s worth of name recognition building for her candidate.
“I had just thought/hoped that our groundwork, our legwork - I mean, we had 30 people show up to a Springfield [canvassing event]. We had 60 people come to a canvas in a blizzard for us in Easthampton… you see these kinds of grassroots numbers, and it tells you something about the people on the ground and then you look at your mailbox and you see the sixth flyer for the incumbent, and you're like ‘It can't be. There's no way he can buy visibility,” she said. “And it turns out: you still can. So I look, again, fundamentally, right back to the political system, to Citizens United, to the 2011 decision that made this money possible, and I say ‘No, I don't want that, actually.’”
“Separate from any of this, I used to work for a company called RepresentUs in Northampton - I used to work on money and politics issues before my current position, and I fundamentally believe that the system we have built is inherently working as designed, right? It's benefiting the few off the backs of the many and, unless the many say ‘No thank you,’ we will just continue to get what we've always gotten,” Moorhouse added. “But I didn't want that to be the story of this. I wanted it to be a better story - I wanted it to be a story of people, of hearts - you looked around the office and you saw all these pictures on the walls - I wanted it to be the story of every one of them.”
That story included pledges of supporting Medicare for All, staying away from corporate money and promising a new kind of district engagement. Whalen repeatedly hit Neal on all fronts and more, including during the one debate held shortly before the primary (Whalen himself demanded more public discussions between candidates earlier in the primary cycle).
Political action committee and corporation donations especially weighed on the challenger – and continues to do so, even now that he is out of the race.
“I think that we as a country are in more trouble through the corporatization of the political campaign finance,” Whalen said. “When I was railing on the congressman, it wasn't to separate our platforms or to put space between us. It is a real problem - it's an existential threat to democracy, and that was a thread line through all of this, and will continue to be.”
As Neal has previously told WAMC and other media outlets, the money he receives and raises comes from a variety of sources, including labor unions. He’s also pointed to the funding and support he’s raised for Democrats across the country.
Regardless, weeks out from primary day, Neal ultimately had $3.2 million in “ending cash on hand,” compared to the final $39,000 Whalen’s camp reported to the Federal Election Commission.
The challenger ultimately spent most of what he raised - more than $300,000 collected between June of last year and mid-August.
It was funding that fueled multiple cross-district trips, from the Berkshires to the Hilltowns to Springfield and its immediate suburbs to the corners of Worcester County that are also in 1st District.
They weren’t just meet-and-greets either, as demonstrated during WAMC’s interview with the candidate Tuesday, when two locals in Childs Park in Northampton stopped to thank Whalen for being at Holyoke Community College rally against Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
It happened again soon afterwards – a former student of Whalen’s drove by at one point during the interview, shouting “we’ll get him next time” - all while Whalen explained where his campaign’s ground game struggled most.
“I’m from Belchertown and there was a tremendous turnout there – South Hadley really showed up, as well. The challenge, and we knew it was going to be a challenge from the get-go, was turnout in Springfield. It's a stronghold traditionally and historically for Richie, and, unfortunately, we did a lot of work and we developed a lot of relationships, but if you look at the numbers from Alex Morse in 2020 and our numbers in 2026, I think that Alex Morse was at somewhere around 33% and we were at 35% - so, we barely moved the needle [with] those traditional primary voters," Whalen recounted. "That was heartbreaking because we spent a lot of time developing relationships in Springfield, and I think that we did a great job at energizing a certain base, particularly within the Black and Brown communities, and I think that when we look back on this, the individuals that we need to further inspire in Springfield … we just need to do more work there.”
Whalen has not said much about his political future. Right now, his focus is on the new school year at Northampton High School.
For listeners outside of western Massachusetts – Northampton is not in the 1st Congressional District – it’s Jim McGovern territory: the 2nd district.
On that note, township results show Whalen ultimately won big in the municipalities bordering the 2nd Congressional District.
That being said, with so many votes in Springfield and immediately around it, the path to victory relied heavily on splitting parts of Neal’s longtime stronghold.
Neal is a former mayor of Springfield – a period largely remembered positively by a number of voters. Not only that – the 1st district has benefited from billions in congressional spending during his tenure, Neal touted during the campaign.
As Whalen, Moorhouse and Pisani tell WAMC – a win on Sept. 1 would have been nice – and capitalize on one what all three have come to call a movement.
“I think what we were able to do is take a place where a lot of people have felt a limited amount of hope and energy and belief in something bigger than themselves, or that they can be a part of these things - and reminded them you can, especially if you're doing it with a lot of other people as well,” he said. “That's what I view really as that movement component, and yes, there were the policy ties to it, that had to do more so with ‘Okay, if we do get Jeromie elected, what's the platform, what solutions do people want to see?’”
“But I think, fundamentally, this was a movement of people's belief and hope and willingness to engage in a system and in a political landscape that has failed them for a really long time,” he added.
As reiterated by Whalen on social media this week – Neal does not have his endorsement yet.
In a Facebook post loaded with Lord of the Rings references, like the replica “One Ring” Whalen wears himself, the now-former candidate says it’s not impossible to get his endorsement, but the process starts with a phone call.
Even then, Whalen has said he doesn’t necessarily see himself giving one in the race.
“When it comes to endorsements, I don't see myself endorsing anyone and that's for a couple of reasons. When it comes to Richard Neal, I think that in order for an endorsement to happen, one - we would need to get a phone call. I don't think that the current congressman is going to call me for an endorsement, to be honest," he said. "I also would have requirements for an endorsement and the main requirement would be to say, ‘Hey, enough with the corporate money’ and ‘we need to move in a different direction.’ Is that possible? Absolutely. Would I would take that call enthusiastically. Yes! I can't envision that happening, unfortunately.”
As for Neal’s independent challenger, Nadia Milleron – it’s more complicated. On Thursday morning, Whalen announced he would not be throwing his weight behind her bid.
He implied as much during his interview with WAMC.
“We created a community of people that were believing in what we were doing and, I hate to say it, but I don't know if the Milleron campaign truly believed in any of what we were doing, and now, afterwards, seeing what we created and then wanting help and aid in taking that community - that special inspiring component of everything that we just did - and saying that we're going to help you and support you, even though we didn't believe in what you were doing - that's a hard that's a hard ask right there,” he said.
“I think that voters themselves have options - it's always good to have options. I think that what I'm going to focus on now, rather than endorsements, is how to cultivate that community and keep it alive and see what the will of the individuals that helped us get this far is,” he further explained. “And if that is political, that's political. If that's some enactment of change in other aspects, well, we'll cross that bridge when we get there.”
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A significantly shorter version of this story ran Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026.
