Earlier this month, amid Amtrak and CTrail engines coming and going, a small army of elected officials crowded the Springfield Union Station concourse.
Among them — U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, the city’s former mayor-turned-congressman, who joined Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey to announce new funding for west-east rail.
“I stood under this clock, Governor, a few years ago, as a candidate for the Springfield City Council in 1977 — and promised all of this was going to happen,” he said, speaking of efforts to revitalize the transportation hub. “I'm not sure I knew [it’d happen] — but it worked, and the announcement today, highlighting once again the federal government's relationship with east-west rail… $9 billion came to the state under the infrastructure bill and the governor has committed substantial parts of it to these initiatives…”
The Oct. 16 announcement was for $130 million in new Federal Railroad Administration grants.
Union Station’s restoration and boosting rail project grants via an infrastructure bill his House Ways and Means Committee passed are just some of the things Neal has touted on the campaign trail. With that trail nearly at its end, the dean of the Massachusetts U.S. House delegation said he’s feeling confident heading into Tuesday.
“We've done our work — I think we've done all of the things that you have to do to sustain not only a campaign, but the essential element of what we call governance as well,” Neal said, speaking at a campaign HQ off of Wilbraham Road in Springfield. “After having been an incumbent, clearly, you're measured by the achievements you've offered and I think that the verdict that will be rendered next Tuesday will reward that hard work over all of these years. We've done remarkable legislation."
Speaking with WAMC a week out from the general election, Neal didn’t mention challenger Nadia Milleron by name, though there was plenty of that a week ago, during the 1st Congressional District debate hosted by a local television station.
The race is a rematch of their 2024 contest — one that saw Neal beat the Sheffield, Massachusetts, attorney and anti-corporate activist by about 90,000 votes.
Both camps have fired salvos off at the other this season — Milleron continued attacks on Neal’s support from political action committees, while Neal has tried tying Milleron to the Trump administration, including mentions of her views on tariffs.
Both have gone out of their way to debunk the other’s attacks during their debate. During his interview with WAMC, though, Neal's focus remained on legislation.
“When you stop and think of 100,000 citizens of Massachusetts now have had their Social Security benefits restored, two million Americans are going to get a good night's sleep tonight because of what we did with pension reform. How about the CARES Act/pandemic relief? How about the rescue package, the infrastructure bill, the CHIPS [and Science] Act – rail: east-west, west-east,” he said. “And this week we will begin to dedicate the Holyoke Soldiers' Home- $264 million of federal money, plus the story of how I was able to get the ‘event’ rescheduled on the Department of Veterans Affairs' output - we were able to convince, at the time, Dennis McDonough to reschedule the construction and move it up on the list…”
After about 38 years in Congress and time spent leading the Ways and Means Committee, there’s no lack of things for Neal to point to. That includes the Veterans’ Home at Holyoke itself — one of the easiest to literally point to, given its size and how it overlooks much of the Pioneer Valley’s south.
Pressing the then-Veterans Affairs secretary to prioritize the $483 million project, convincing the Trump administration to let up on freezing rail car production in Springfield and more have been getting emphasis for months — including during his primary race against Northampton High School teacher Jeromie Whalen.
Whalen came closer than most during the primary, though Neal ultimately saw off the newcomer by just over 7,000 votes.
In the months that have followed, while still cautious, even amid polling that shows his party retaking the House, Neal is quick to discuss priorities if re-elected, including protecting the Affordable Care Act.
“Well, I think that we should begin right away by restoring the ACA tax credits — already, about 4 million people have fallen off and I think that the ACA was working just the way we saw that it would, about 22 million people signed up… I also think there's an opportunity here to begin hearings on Social Security — to make sure that we come up with an adequate piece of repair work for Social Security,” he said. “I think that those are essential elements, and I certainly intend to challenge the Trump tax bill on the basis of the cuts that will come to every other place in American life, including nutrition programs and big cuts to our hospitals.”
Before that, though — Election Day. Neal’s campaign has spent considerably, including tens of thousands of dollars on mailers and digital ads.
Ultimately, Neal concedes this year’s race has been a long one, though he is upbeat about his party's chances and his own.
“I've noticed that even at the national level — some of our more assertive members in the Democratic Caucus are now beginning to do a reset about the conversation - how you get things done,” he said, voicing disdain for social media’s role in modern politics. “ I think that a strong Democratic Party coming out of this election is going to have a very important impact - elect Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker of the House, and begin to ask questions of the Trump administration that have not been asked heretofore, because the Republican Congress has been compliant in much of what Trump's tried to do.”
“So I have no regrets about the campaigns,” he added. “Actually, I’m very pleased with the outcomes in both instances. Our polling was pretty consistent — we were able to foresee what actually was coming and you learn a lot of lessons.”
