Final List: Candidates In The Worcester 2021 Election

WORCESTER, MA — 2021 will be an interesting election year in Worcester with many incumbents returning, a strong slate of challengers and at least two primary elections on tap ahead of the general in November.

The deadline for candidates to return signatures to get on the ballot passed on Tuesday, which means this list is mostly final — unless candidates are disqualified due to invalid signatures. On top of the 30 candidates who met the signature requirements, 16 candidates didn't collect enough and won't be on the ballot.

Two incumbent Councilors, Sarai Rivera and George Russell, won't face a challenger in 2021, and will most likely coast to reelection. The District 5 Council race is wide open in 2021 with incumbent Matthew Wally opting to seek an At-Large seat.

As usual, the Council At-Large race features the biggest field of candidates at 11. That includes incumbents Kate Toomey, Khrystian King, Donna Colorio, Mayor Joseph Petty, Morris Bergman and Wally.

In the School Committee race, four incumbents are running again, but 16-year member John Monfredo and 21-year member John Foley did not return signatures. That means the committee will have two new faces in 2022, and four challengers have signed up to run. On the Council side, Gary Rosen is the only member who will retire this year.

Here's the list of candidates who returned enough signatures by the filing deadline, according to the City Clerk. The candidates are ranked by the number of signatures they gathered.

City Council At-Large

• (i) Kate Toomey — 446
• (i) Donna Colorio — 440
• (i) Khrystian King — 426
• (i) Joseph Petty — 400
• Thu Nguyen — 394
• (i) Morris Bergman — 384
• (i) Matthew Wally — 361
• Deborah Hall — 336
• Guillermo Creamer — 325
• Bill Coleman — 317
• Peter Stefan — 315

City Council District 1

• Richard Cipro — 196
• (i) Sean Rose — 129
• David Shea Jr. — 104

City Council District 2

• (i) Candy Mero Carlson — 134
• Johanna Hampton-Dance — 122

City Council District 3

• (i) George Russell — 198

City Council District 4

• (i) Sarai Rivera — 109

City Council District 5

• Etel Haxhiaj — 209
• Yenni Desroches — 178
• Gregory Stratman — 117
• Stephen Quist — 106

Worcester School Committee

• Sue Mailman — 419
• Jermoh Kamara — 410
• (i) Molly O'McCullogh — 366
• Jermaine Johnson — 363
• Shanel Soucy — 349
• (i) Tracy O'Connell Novick — 339
• (i) Laura Clancey — 316
• (i) Dianna Biancheria — 308