Tara Jacobs for Massachusetts Governor’s Council District 8
Our Revolution is proud to endorse Tara Jacobs for re-election to the Massachusetts Governor’s Council in District 8.
Some of the most consequential decisions in government happen far from the spotlight. Tara Jacobs is making sure working people and communities across Western Massachusetts have a voice in those decisions.
Since joining the Governor’s Council in 2023, Tara has brought a clear progressive mission to the job: make the justice system more equitable, accountable, transparent, and responsive to the people it serves.
The Governor’s Council has enormous influence over Massachusetts’ justice system, including confirming judges, clerk magistrates, Parole Board members, and considering pardons and commutations. Tara believes those decisions should be informed not only by what happens inside a courtroom, but by what people experience in their communities.
And she has put that philosophy into action.
Tara has actively recruited candidates to fill judicial vacancies across Western Massachusetts, helping bring forward judges who understand the real-world issues that can bring people into the justice system — including trauma, substance misuse, mental health challenges, cognitive development, and other societal struggles.
She has also worked to expand access to justice and confront bias from the bench, while opening up a process that too often feels inaccessible to ordinary people.
Tara has hosted public forums explaining how executive clemency works and encouraged people who could benefit from a pardon or commutation to apply. She has brought confirmation hearings into local communities and worked to help Western Massachusetts residents better understand how judicial nominations work.
That commitment to accessibility reflects Tara’s larger vision for the office: justice belongs to all of us.
Tara isn’t a lawyer. She’s a social psychologist and community organizer who believes the people affected by our justice system deserve a meaningful voice in shaping it. She listens, brings communities into the process, and approaches the work with an understanding that a fair justice system must be compassionate, unbiased, and respectful.
And she has never forgotten where she comes from.
Tara represents communities across Western Massachusetts — from the Berkshires and Hill Towns to the Pioneer Valley, Greater Springfield, and North Quabbin — and has made regional equity central to her work. She is fighting to ensure Western Massachusetts has a seat at the table when decisions are made about the courts and boards that shape people’s lives.
Before joining the Governor’s Council, Tara served her community on the North Adams School Committee and as chair of the Trustees of the North Adams Public Library. She also served on the Berkshire County Commission on the Status of Women and the Northern Berkshire Local Cultural Council.
Throughout it all, her values have remained clear: social, racial, gender, geographic, economic, and environmental equity should matter in the decisions government makes.
This is what progressive governing looks like at the state and local level.
It means bringing democracy into institutions too many people don’t even know they have a voice in. It means challenging systemic injustice, demanding transparency, and making sure government hears from the communities most affected by its decisions.
And it means electing leaders like Tara Jacobs who understand that public office isn’t simply about holding a seat — it’s about using that seat to change the system.
Our Revolution is proud to endorse Tara Jacobs for Massachusetts Governor’s Council District 8.
Let’s keep a progressive voice for justice, accountability, and Western Massachusetts on the Governor’s Council.
When we organize, we win.
Our Revolution