Full Northampton election results can be found at the bottom of this article, based on unofficial results released by the city.
Amid a whirlwind of state and municipal elections across the U.S. on Tuesday, incumbent Gina-Louise Sciarra ’96 narrowly secured a second term as mayor of Northampton. Though the results have yet to be finalized, the city’s unofficial count indicates that Sciarra won by a mere 76-vote advantage over her opponent, Jillian Duclos. These results reflect a highly contentious election season and indicate a growing split down the middle of Northampton’s electorate.
About 40% of Northampton’s registered voters showed up at the polls this year, including those in the city’s villages of Leeds and Florence. Sciarra and Duclos hosted election watch parties on Tuesday evening at Spoleto on Bridge Street and JJ’s Diner in Florence, respectively.
Duclos made strong headway at many points throughout the evening, the final tally showing a significant leap from the preliminary elections in September when she earned only half of the votes Sciarra did. Ultimately, Sciarra pulled through by a slim margin, boasting incumbency advantage and endorsements from Massachusetts governor Maura Healey and lieutenant governor Kim Driscoll.
Duclos, who was endorsed by the Massachusetts Teachers Association and backed by the Support Our Schools (SOS) activist coalition and associated political action committee, focused primarily on funding Northampton’s public schools — an issue that SOS claims has fallen to the city’s wayside. The SOS PAC saw mixed results citywide, winning four out of nine City Council seats and eight out of nine School Committee seats, five of which ran unopposed. SOS-backed candidate and Smith alumna Meg Robbins ‘82 won one of two at-large City Council seats.
Duclos also criticized Sciarra’s office for what she called a lack of transparency. In October, Duclos told The Sophian, “We have a very educated community that’s very hands-on, that really wants to be part of the solution. … They have found that (when) reaching out to the mayor’s office, they’re not being let in.”
Sciarra, who was elected mayor back in 2021, has pushed back on these claims and emphasized financial constraints on the city’s ability to meet schools’ full budgetary demands. She previously told The Sophian, “All of these different factors have created deficits in districts all across the country. But, I’ve done everything I can do to direct as much sustainable funding as I can to our public schools.”
Sciarra’s campaign honed in on her efforts to redesign Northampton’s downtown infrastructure through the “Picture Main Street” project, which received $26 million in state funding. A component of Sciarra’s downtown plan also includes a Resiliency Hub in the former First Baptist Church, which the city purchased in 2023 for over $3.175 million. The hub is meant to be a shelter for climate-related emergencies and a composite space for organizations like the Division of Community Care, which Sciarra established.
So far, Sciarra is the only Smith alumna to be mayor of Northampton. Her B.A. is in English, and she later earned a PhD in the philosophy of sociology from the City University of New York. Right out of Smith, she worked at a political consulting firm in San Francisco and then at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Sciarra previously told The Sophian, “I appreciate all that Smith has done with the city, and I really believe that it is a symbiotic relationship. I would like to strengthen that relationship and have Smith contribute more to the city.”
Duclos was born and raised in Holyoke, working her way through the restaurant and service industry to Holyoke Community College. She was a Francis Perkins Scholar at Mount Holyoke, earning a B.A. in politics. She most recently served as the Executive Director of the Downtown Northampton Association.
In an interview with The Daily Hampshire Gazette, Duclos was asked whether or not she would run again, to which she said, “I’m here to bring a voice to the table. I’m not going anywhere.”
Northampton 2025 Municipal Election Results
- Mayor: Gina-Louise Sciarra
- At-large city councilors: Meg Robbins, Garrick Perry
- Ward 1 city councilor: Gwenevra Nabad
- Ward 2 city councilor: Deborah Klemer
- Ward 3 city councilor: Laurie Loisel
- Ward 4 city councilor: Jeremy Dubs
- Ward 5 city councilor: Aline Davis
- Ward 6 city councilor: Christopher Stratton
- Ward 7 city councilor: Rachel Maiore
- At-large school committee: Roberta “Robbie” Saner Sullivan, Tiffany Jewell
- Ward 1 school committee: Alena Bartoli
- Ward 2 school committee: Anat Weisenfreund
- Ward 3 school committee: Renika Montgomery-Tamakloe
- Ward 4 school committee: Michael Stein
- Ward 5 school committee: Amy Martyn
- Ward 6 school committee: Cynthia Mahoney
- Ward 7 school committee: Valerie Reiss
