Scrutinel— 2026 midterms

UpdatedOct 10, 2026, 11:27 AM EDT
To election day24 days
Simulations200,000

Massachusetts 1st District

Currently held by a Democrat · incumbent running

Democrat
Richard Neal
99.8%
Republican
Republican candidate (MA-01)
0.2%
ForecastSafe D
Projected margin
D+30.3
80% range
D+18.7 to D+41.8
Partisan lean
D+16.3
Uncertainty multiplier
1.80×

The 80% range comes from 200,000 simulations in which this race’s error is correlated with every other race through the national, state and demographic layers.

How the estimate is built
Fundamentals >99.9%
Polling average
no polls
Fundamentals
D+30.5
Blended
D+30.5
Similar-race shift
−2.0
Polling

No public polling of this matchup. The forecast rests on fundamentals plus the polling residuals of demographically and politically similar races — which is the normal case: most of the 435 House seats are never polled.

Fundamentals
Partisan lean
D+16.3
Elasticity
1.10
Incumbency
+3.4
Candidate experience
0.0
Fundraising
+4.2
National environment
D+7.1
Expected margin
D+32.5
How it voted for presidenttwo-party
2024 margin
D+13.9
2020 margin
D+22.1
Shift 2020 → 2024
R+8.2
Votes cast, 2024
381,359

Presidential results reaggregated onto the 2026 district lines. This is where the seat’s partisan lean comes from, and it carries most of the forecast in a race nobody has polled.

Who lives hereCensus ACS
Population
625,152
Median age
51.2
Median household income
$71,000
Bachelor’s degree or higher
32%
White
73%
Black
7%
Hispanic
16%
Asian
3%

Used to find demographically similar districts, so a race with no polling can borrow the polling error of races that look like it.

Campaign fundraisingFEC filings to Invalid Date
CandidatePartyRaisedCash on hand
Richard E NealDEM$2.5M$3.3M
Nathan Alexander BechREP$80k$28k

Receipts across the cycle, from FEC bulk filings. The model uses the ratio between the two sides rather than either total, and weights it lightly — money follows a competitive race at least as much as it causes one.

← Back to the full forecast