Alex 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.

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.

He was a participant in Upward Bound, a federal program that facilitates higher education in students from low-income families.

During his time at Holyoke High School, Morse formed a chapter of the Gay-Straight Alliance, and was the inaugural recipient of Boston's Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays Elsie Frank Award, a scholarship named in honor of the mother of Congressman Barney Frank.

The following autumn Morse entered Brown University, working part-time as an assistant for David Cicilline, the mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, and a future Congressman.

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 graduated in the spring of 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts in urban studies.

In January 2011, while in his final semester at Brown University, Morse announced his campaign for mayor of Holyoke.

Morse's election in 2011 at the age of 22 received national coverage, as he was the city's youngest and first openly gay mayor and, at the time, among the youngest mayors in the United States.

During Morse's 2011 campaign, a prominent issue was plans for a casino in the city, with then-mayor Elaine Pluta supporting such plans and Morse opposing them.

In an October 2012 editorial, Morse elaborated on his position, concluding, "I oppose a casino in Holyoke because I have not given up on Holyoke".

On November 26, 2012, Morse held a press conference announcing his reversal on this stance, vowing to work with local businessman Eric Suher and others to build a casino at Mountain Park, with the city accepting a $25,000 payment from the developer for the costs of a review process.

Facing backlash from supporters of his previous campaign against casinos, by December 2012 Morse reversed course and returned the funds, citing a "resounding voice against the casinos".

He was reelected in 2013 and 2015.

In 2014 the city council criticized Morse for refusing to disclose the reason for providing a $45,000 exit agreement to city solicitor Heather Egan, a year after her appointment.

In response, Morse said in a Reddit AMA: "I do admit that I should have briefed the City Council before executing the settlement agreement with this former employee as to avoid issues of perception. Again, when faced with the decision to potentially spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal costs to fight frivolous lawsuits, or to execute a settlement agreement with funds that were already allocated in the budget, I chose the latter. Separation agreements are not uncommon in both the private and public sector."

In 2015, Holyoke's mayoral term was extended from two years to four, effective 2017.

Morse was reelected that year, and is the first Holyoke mayor to serve a four-year term.

As the chair of the Holyoke School Committee, Morse opposed state receivership before the 2015 state takeover, saying, "We should agree that local control matters, which is to say that a corporate takeover of our district or a charter organization running our district is not acceptable".

Since receivership he has become increasingly supportive of state implementation, as public schools have seen marked improvement, with graduation rates increasing 20%.

Morse has also publicly supported state expanded programs such as bilingual education, and the tentative construction of two new middle schools for a reported estimate of $132 million.

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.

In 2016, he completed Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government as a David Bohnett LGBTQ Victory Institute Leadership Fellow.

On August 1, 2016, Morse became the first Massachusetts mayor to publicly endorse the legalization of cannabis.

Following legalization, Morse has encouraged investment of marijuana cultivation in the city, calling Holyoke "the Rolling Paper City"; he vetoed a 2017 moratorium the city council placed on recreational retailers.

Morse has attended several cannabis cultivation forums as a speaker, including several on the industry hosted in Holyoke.

In 2017, following a trial shutdown, or "brownout", of a local fire engine company, the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1693 made a vote of no confidence in Morse, saying in a press release, "Chief Pond's continued reductions to the Department and practice of operating the Department at unsafe levels, all with the support of [the] Mayor".

Morse has repeatedly affirmed support of the fire chief and denied the validity of these concerns, saying at a protest outside of a fundraiser that "the points that they're making just are untrue."

The Pioneer Valley AFL–CIO and the New England Regional Council of Carpenters Local 108 endorsed Morse in his 2017 reelection campaign.

Among the earliest projects to open in Holyoke was a $10 million cultivation facility for Chicago-based Green Thumb Industries (GTI), which was operational by mid-2018.

Several other businesses have since purchased facilities in the city, including a $3.2 million sale of a former American Thread Company mill to Trulieve, a company seeking to produce and sell retail marijuana at the site.

Following the resignation of the city auditor in 2018, who suggested receivership and said he did not believe the mayor's office followed protocol, state auditor Suzanne Bump responded to a city council request stating, "I do not believe the circumstances in Holyoke rise to the level of warranting a state audit".

In September 2020, Morse lost the primary for Massachusetts's 1st congressional district to incumbent Richard Neal.

On December 1, 2020, Morse announced that he would not seek reelection as mayor in 2021.