Schoolteacher to challenge Neal for Congress
South Hadley’s Jeromie Whalen launches progressive campaign against 36-year incumbent in 1st District
By: Alexander MacDougall
A public school teacher defeating a 36-year veteran congressman seems like something out of a Hollywood screenplay. But Jeromie Whalen wants to make that a reality.
Whalen, a teacher at Northampton High School who lives in South Hadley, confirmed he plans to run as a Democratic challenger in the 2026 primary against U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, who represents the 1st Congressional District of Massachusetts. The district, which is the largest and most sparsely populated in the state, includes 11 Hampshire County communities; the towns of Rowe, Monroe, Charlemont and Hawley in Franklin County; all of Hampden and Berkshire counties; and 13 communities in Worcester County.
“My activism in life has always been on the front lines of being an educator, making sure that the next generation is thinking about being good people,” Whalen said. “Seeing the potential of that and spreading that message on a larger scale, I think the time is now. … It’s time to rethink not only what’s going on in western Mass, but use this as a catalyst for something larger.”
Born in New Hampshire and raised in Belchertown, Whalen has spent the last 11 years working as a communications and media production teacher at Northampton High School. Whalen’s students work to put together the school’s weekly digital video news program “The Transcript,” as they learn to work in digital production and management, and even have interviewed state officials in the past.
Unsurprisingly, Whalen said his desire to run for Congress came from his students. Whalen recalled the first time Donald Trump won a presidential election in 2016, and the heavy atmosphere in the room among students. Though rarely political in the classroom, he told his students that “this isn’t normal. This isn’t something that you should be seeing all the time. And I apologize on behalf of adults for creating the situation you’re watching.”
When Trump was elected for his second term in 2024, Whalen said he gave the same speech to his classroom. Only this time, the reaction from students was different.
“The kids are looking at me unfazed. And I said to myself, ‘Oh no, this has become normalized,'” Whalen said. “Trump was first elected when these kids were 7, 8 years old. Now the world they know is a world in which we have such animosity every single day from the president.”
Though Neal is a Democrat who is opposed to Trump, Whalen criticized him for taking money from corporate donors and not being physically present in parts of his district. He also said Neal has not done enough to oppose Trump’s presidency, contrasting him with other members of the state’s delegation such as Rep. Jim McGovern and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who have been more vocal in their criticism of the president.
“You start to unroll the ball that is Richie Neal, and you see that the apathy and the lack of leadership is directly connected and correlated with how much money he gets from people that aren’t his constituents,” Whalen said. “You realize why we have these entrenched ideologies from an old-school Democratic Party.”
According to nonprofit watchdog group OpenSecrets, Neal raised $3.31 million during the 2024 election cycle, putting him on par with the average amount raised by House members that year. Some of Neal’s top contributors included large investment firms such as the Blackstone Group, Fidelity Investments and Apollo Global Management. Neal’s largest contribution was $37,100 from the pro-Israel lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
Whalen’s platform is a progressive one, focusing on the economy, education and health care. Whalen criticized the Trump administration’s suggestions of abolishing the U.S. Department of Education, calling it “unacceptable.” He also advocated for adopting at the federal level a tax reform similar to the Fair Share Amendment in Massachusetts, which funds transportation and public education by taxing households with very high incomes, as well as raising the federal minimum wage.
“You don’t see the amount of millionaires going down or fleeing from our state. In fact, you see the opposite,” said Whalen, a claim supported by a report from the progressive think tank The Institute for Policy Studies. “The idea that the minimum wage is still $7.25 in some parts of the nation, you just can’t do anything with that.”
But it will take more than just policy ideas and determination to defeat Neal, a longtime fixture in Congress and a ranking member of the influential Ways and Means Committee in the House of Representatives.
Whalen said he is undaunted by the challenge, and plans to take a year off from teaching to focus on his campaign to travel throughout the district to meet potential voters. Should he fail, he says, the teaching job will be there waiting for him.
“I’m going to dedicate every waking second of my life to going into every neighborhood, every event that I can, and having the authentic conversations and showing that there is a real person running for this seat,” Whalen said. “I have really nothing to lose and that frees me to talk authentically.”
The Hampshire County communities in the 1st Congressional District include South Hadley, Easthampton, Belchertown, Granby, Cummington, Huntington, Middlefield, Plainfield, Southampton, Ware and Worthington.
Source: https://recorder.com/2025/08/21/northampton-teacher-to-challenge-neal-for-congress/