A rematch of sorts is brewing in Lowell's Acre and Highlands neighborhoods, where 26-year-old Democratic incumbent Rep. Tara Hong is facing a primary challenge from 53-year-old former Mayor Sokhary Chau for the 18th Middlesex House seat. The race pits a young progressive who unseated a five-term incumbent just two years ago against a municipal veteran who made national history as Lowell's first Cambodian American mayor.
Hong, an immigrant from Cambodia, has built her brief legislative career on the same neighborhood-level work she did before running for office, according to MassLive, which reports she has worked with the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association, the Coalition for a Better Acre, Lowell Public Schools, and the Lowell Alliance. Her campaign website describes her as someone who addresses urgent neighborhood issues, consistently assists families navigating state programs, and connects residents to local resources, per the same outlet. She is among the youngest people ever to serve in the Massachusetts state legislature, MassLive notes.
Chau, also a Cambodian immigrant, brings a very different résumé to the race. He is a former Lowell city councilor and former Lowell School Committee chair who was unanimously chosen by the Lowell City Council in January 2022 to become the city's 93rd mayor — making him the first Cambodian American mayor in U.S. history and the first Asian American mayor of Lowell, according to Wikipedia. He served in that role until January 2024.
A Refugee's Path to Lowell
Chau's biography is rooted in tragedy and survival. He arrived in Lowell in 1981 as a child refugee after fleeing the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979 through landmine-laced jungles, following the 1975 execution of his father, a Cambodian Army captain, per Wikipedia. He attended Lowell Public Schools and Phillips Academy before eventually rising through the city's political ranks. “I've dedicated my life to public service,” Chau said, according to MassLive, adding, “Every role I've held has been guided by listening first, leading with integrity, and putting the people of Lowell first.”
This is not Chau's first bid for higher office since leaving the mayor's chair. He ran in the September 2024 Democratic primary for Northern Middlesex Register of Deeds, placing second with 7,809 votes across ten communities behind winner Karen Cassella, according to the Richard Howe Blog, which noted Chau carried several surrounding towns in that regional race.
Hong's Rocky Road to Incumbency
Hong's own path to the State House was hard-won. She first challenged then-incumbent Rep. Rady Mom in the September 2022 Democratic primary at age 22, losing by just 56 votes — 41.3% to Mom's 43.6%, according to GBH News. Two years later, she came back and unseated the five-term incumbent outright, winning the 2024 Democratic primary with 47.4% of the vote to Mom's 40.2%, per the same report.
Since taking office, Hong has served on four joint legislative committees during the 2025–2026 session, including Community Development and Small Businesses and Election Laws, and has earned an 86% voting alignment score on the Progressive Massachusetts legislative scorecard — above the House Democratic median of 76%, according to Progressive Massachusetts. Hoodline previously reported that Hong wrote a protest letter over the removal of a historic film pulled from Lowell park, underscoring her willingness to take public stands on local cultural issues.
Fundraising Gap Favors the Challenger
Money is one place where Chau currently has the edge. Between January and July 2026, Chau raised nearly $36,000, outraising Hong's roughly $23,000 over the same period, per GBH News, with Chau's donor base including local business owners and police and government employee unions. GBH News has described the contest as a generational and ideological clash within Lowell's Cambodian community, pitting Hong's progressive, community-organizer approach against Chau's emphasis on his executive record running the city.
The stakes are shaped by the district's demographics and economic pressures. The 18th Middlesex District covers Lowell's Acre and Highlands neighborhoods, where over 60 percent of residents are renters and nearly half experience housing cost burdens, according to InsideLowell. Lowell holds the second-largest Cambodian American population in the country after Long Beach, California, with census data recording more than 15,800 residents of Cambodian descent — about 13.8% of the city — though local leaders estimate the true share reaches as high as 25%, per the Massachusetts Asian American Legislative Network.
The district was drawn in 2021 as a majority-minority seat centered on those two neighborhoods, a design meant to reflect that concentrated Cambodian American population. Housing affordability and economic opportunity remain central to the campaign, with both candidates courting a district where most voters rent and many struggle to keep up with costs. The primary also arrives months after Hoodline reported on another Cambodian American leader's Beacon Hill rise, part of a broader expansion of Asian American representation in Massachusetts state government.
