Who could be the next Senate president? These names get mentioned

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The next House speaker, in the eyes of the insider crowd that moves around Beacon Hill, is expected to be North End Rep. Aaron Michlewitz, the Ways and Means Committee chair since 2019.

But who is in line to be the next Senate president? Nobody knows. Here in the last weeks of August, when the tourists outnumber the lawmakers inside the State House, let’s engage in some speculation.

First, the big caveat: Karen Spilka, an Ashland Democrat who's been in the Senate since 2005, does not appear anywhere close to leaving the top post she’s held since 2018. Senators in 2023 voted to lift term limits on the presidency, ending a 30-year policy of keeping tenures to no more than eight consecutive years.

That’s made the speculation less about who’s next and more about how long she plans to stay. “I’ve given it a lot of thought. I decided I am running for president,” she said in a sitdown with NBC10 Boston back in May, referring to the 2027 legislative session.

That caveat aside – with a sub-caveat, if that’s a thing, that it’s not uncommon for top lawmakers to say they’re going to run again before they peace out – here are some of the names that insiders float when asked.

The early frontrunner, by virtue of his position as Ways and Means chair, is Michael Rodrigues. He first arrived on Beacon Hill as a House member in 1996, won his Senate seat in 2010, and has a good working relationship with his House counterpart. (Spilka also served as Ways and Means chair before she was elected to the presidency.)

“My hands are full with the great work that the Senate is engaged in under the steady leadership of Senate President Spilka,” Rodrigues said in a statement, adding that the focus is on navigating “continued federal uncertainty.”

His Senate colleagues like him but also see him as more conservative than the overall body  – the Westport lawmaker hails from a purple district which includes Fall River, a recent addition to Trump country. Someone could emerge as a more liberal counterweight.

Geography is another factor, which came up in the last fight for the presidency, between Spilka and Sal DiDomenico of Everett. As with Spilka, senators might prefer someone farther from Boston, to balance out the House and its metro area-heavy leadership hierarchy.

Other names mentioned in conjunction with Rodrigues in local bars and hallways are Arlington’s Cindy Friedman, a former Beacon Hill aide and teacher first elected to the Senate in 2017, and Northampton’s Jo Comerford, who joined the Senate in 2019.

Comerford noted that Spilka has indicated she is going to run. “I’m on her team in the Senate,” she said.

Friedman sounded a similar note. “I think that right now we have a great team and she’s in the leadership position, and she’s the Senate president,” she told MASSterList while leaving a bill-signing ceremony earlier this month. “And I think that’s just working really well.”

Am I missing anybody? Any angles I didn’t touch on? Let me know: [email protected].

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