Alex B. Morse

Alex Benjamin Morse (born January 29, 1989) is an American politician who served as the 44th mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts from 2012 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected the youngest mayor of Holyoke at age 22. He was reelected three times, with his final term expiring in January 2022. Morse resigned on March 26, 2021, to accept a position as the town manager of Provincetown, beginning on April 5, 2021.

Morse was the first incumbent mayor in Massachusetts to endorse the legalization of cannabis during a 2016 ballot initiative, an industry he has since sought to promote in Holyoke's economy, in tandem with information technology startups.

Early life and education Alex Benjamin Morse was born January 29, 1989, in Holyoke, Massachusetts, the youngest of three children of Tracey and Ingrid Morse (née Powell). He took an interest in politics at an early age. In 2001, at age 12, he joined the Holyoke Youth Commission, a group that advises city leaders on issues affecting young people.

A graduate of the Holyoke Public Schools, Morse served two terms as student representative for the Holyoke School Committee and three years on the Massachusetts Governor's LGBT Commission.

Career Mayoral elections In January 2011, while in his final semester at Brown University, Morse announced his campaign for mayor of Holyoke. The previous summer, he had attended a three-day workshop in New York City hosted by Wellstone Action, a grassroots campaign training organization for progressives, and began quietly fundraising at the end of 2010. Morse was reelected that year, and is the first Holyoke mayor to serve a four-year term.

On December 1, 2020, Morse announced that he would not seek reelection as mayor in 2021. Morse was defeated by Neal by around 17 percentage points. the College Democrats of Massachusetts alleged that Morse had used "his position of power for romantic or sexual gain". Morse responded, "I have never violated UMass policy". The local chapter of the Sunrise Movement voted to retract its endorsement of Morse, and the national organization announced that it would no longer campaign for him. Other organizations, including the Justice Democrats and the Working Families Party, affirmed their support of Morse.

On August 12, 2020, The Intercept published an article on chat logs shared with the publication, reporting that the accusations had been organized starting almost a year earlier as part of a sting operation by the UMass Amherst College Democrats in an attempt to aid Neal. The released chat logs discussed looking for Morse's dating profiles and how to lead him into saying incriminating things, and their hopes of gaining internships with Neal in exchange. The Neal campaign and the UMass Amherst College Democrats both denied having cooperated. Timothy Ennis, the chief strategist and former president of the UMass Amherst College Democrats, had taken a class with Neal and was highlighted as a driving force behind the allegations, with members of the group saying that Ennis saw Neal as his "in" for a political career. Former members of the UMass Amherst College Democrats alleged an "anti-Morse bias" in the group. On August 12, Business Insider journalist Grace Panetta wrote on Twitter that she had been contacted anonymously in April 2020 and that the names in the chat logs The Intercept had acquired were the same as those who had written her with vague allegations against Morse.

Massachusetts state senator Julian Cyr said the situation showed how "vague and anonymous allegations can be easily launched against LGBTQ candidates to destroy their campaigns". Journalist Glenn Greenwald expressed a similar sentiment, writing that the allegations were "old homophobic tropes" and calling the allegations a "smear campaign". On August 16, 2020, the Sunrise Movement resumed campaigning for Morse.

That independent investigation found that Massachusetts Democratic Party leaders played a role in encouraging the students to send the letter, intentionally affecting the campaign and violating party rules.

An independent investigation requested by UMass found that Morse had used dating apps to "aggressively pursue dates and sexual relationships with students" but had not violated any school policy. It also found no evidence that Neal's campaign had had a role in the initial report and advised the school to tighten its policies on teacher-student relationships.

Town manager of Provincetown After ending his tenure as mayor of Holyoke, Morse was unanimously chosen by the Provincetown selectboard to be the next town manager, replacing an interim town manager.

Personal life Morse is Jewish and openly gay. In 2012, Morse was ranked #9 in Out magazine's annual list of 100 most eligible bachelors; in 2013 the magazine ranked him #66.