Lennox Withdraws, Scanlon Wins Squeaker In 14th Bristol District

ATTLEBORO, MA — The race for the open 14th Bristol district seat took an unexpected turn Tuesday night when Republican D. Michael Lennox, who was running unopposed for the Republican nomination, announced he was withdrawing from the race due to health concerns and endorsed North Attleboro Town Councilor John Simmons for the nomination.

The Democratic nomination went to North Attleboro Town Councilor Adam Scanlon, who edged former North Attleboro Board of Selectman Chair Patrick Reynolds by 112 votes in the bid to succeed the retiring Betty Poirier.

With 100 percent of the precincts reporting Wednesday morning, Scanlon stood at 50.9 percent (3,225 votes) to Reynolds at 49.1 percent (3,212).

"It's funny that the (U.S. Senate) race for the whole state was called before my one little district but I am happy the way it worked out," Scanlon told Patch Wednesday morning. "My team worked extremely hard to get my message out through a variety of ways (amid the coronavirus health crisis) between listening on phone calls, through Zoom meetings. I had tremendous support in developing a campaign infrastructure ... That's been able to let me be specific about what I want to accomplish at the State House and how we are going to do it."

Scanlon said he was surprised as well earlier in the night when he found out Lennox was withdrawing from the race in a message Lennox put out on social media.

"Unfortunately, after encountering some health challenges over the past several weeks, and in consultation with my physician, I have made the very difficult decision to not continue my campaign on to the general election in November," Lennox said in a message on his Facebook page. "As this decision path became clearer to me over the past week, I wanted to be sure to not cause any disruption or confusion in advance of the state primary. Respectfully, I remained quiet as not to take attention away from any other primary candidate working hard to put their own message out."

Lennox said that since he was running unopposed he sought out advice on the protocols of choosing his successor in the general election — which he said involved dropping out of the race immediately after the primary and promptly endorsing Simmons.

"While there still remains a process for me to work through in the coming days to officially withdraw, I feel confident in knowing someone sharing my similar commitment to the area's success has made such a gracious offer to run," Lennox said. "I urge the town party committees contributing to the appointment of a new Republican candidate to allow John the opportunity to seek this important seat in the state legislature as the representative of our party."

Scanlon said that while he was not sure of the specifics of how a nomination successor is chosen in the unusual circumstance, he wishes the Lennox family well and looks forward to campaigning against Simmons.

"I have known Mike a very long time and he has made pretty significant contributions to this town (of North Attleboro)," Scanlon said. "(Our philosophy) is to fight for equality for the people of our district - working families who are struggling, and seniors who are living paycheck to paycheck through pandemic. Our campaign is all about equality."

Scanlon held a 947 to 917 lead — less than 2 percentage points — with 75 percent of the vote yet to be reported as of midnight.

In Attleboro, which constitutes 8 percent of the precincts in the district, Reynolds beat Scanlon 302 (53.9 percent) to 258 (46.1 percent).

Here are the primary results in the 14th Bristol district:

Democratic Primary

• Patrick Reynolds -3,212 (49.1 percent)
• Adam Scanlon - 3,225 (50.9 percent)

Republican Primary

• D. Michael Lennox - Uncontested; Withdrew