Michael L. Connolly (born June 3, 1980) is an American activist, attorney, and politician from Massachusetts.

Early life and career

Connolly was born in the Dorchester area of Boston, Massachusetts. From 2004 to 2006 he was a project manager for

Rexel Rexel is a French company specializing in the distribution of electrical, heating, lighting and plumbing equipment, but also in renewable energies and energy efficiency products and services. Founded in 1967, Rexel has broadened its scope of activ ...

. In 2007 he was a legal intern for the

Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society is a research center at Harvard University that focuses on the study of cyberspace. Founded at Harvard Law School, the center traditionally focused on internet-related legal issues. On May 15, 2008, ...

at Harvard University. From 2009 to 2010 he was a communications fellow for the ''Boston College Law Magazine''. While in law school, he volunteered with the Appellate Division of the Committee for Public Council Services where he served as an editor for the Intellectual Property and Technology Forum.Mike Connolly (2012 campaign)
/ref> During this time he also spent summers working for the law firm of Goulston & Storrs, P.C. and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. He is a former staff writer and managing editor for the Journal of Law and Social Justice (formerly known as ''The Third World Law Journal''). From 2011 to 2012 he was a project manager for

HP Autonomy HP Autonomy, previously Autonomy Corporation PLC, was an enterprise software company which was merged with Micro Focus in 2017. It was founded in Cambridge, United Kingdom in 1996. Autonomy was acquired by Hewlett-Packard (HP) in October 201 ...

. From 2013 to 2014 he was the founder and campaign manager of Net Zero Cambridge. Since 2013 he has been an instructor and tutor for

Kaplan, Inc. Kaplan, Inc. is an American for-profit corporation that provides educational and training services to colleges, universities, businesses and individuals around the world. Founded in 1938 by Stanley Kaplan, the company offers a variety of test prep ...

Political career

From 2014 to 2015 he was an aide to Cambridge city councilman Dennis Carlone.LinkedIn Profile
/ref> He defeated Representative Timothy J. Toomey Jr. in September 2016 in the Democratic primary for the 26th Middlesex District, which comprises

East Cambridge East Cambridge is a neighborhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Referred to in modern times as Area 1, East Cambridge is bounded by the Charles River and the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston on the east, the Somerville border on the north, Broa ...

and

East Somerville East Somerville is a neighborhood in the eastern part of the city of Somerville, Massachusetts, Somerville, Massachusetts. The community stretches east along Broadway from McGrath Highway, Massachusetts Route 28 to Sullivan Square (Boston), Sull ...

. Connolly was active with

Occupy Boston Occupy Boston was a collective of protesters that settled on September 30, 2011 in Boston, Massachusetts, on Dewey Square in the Financial District opposite the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. It is related to the Occupy Wall Street movement th ...

and ran unsuccessfully against Toomey in 2012. In 2016, he was backed by

Our Revolution Our Revolution (sometimes known by its initials OR) is an American progressive political action organization spun out of Senator Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign to continue its work. The organization's mission is to educate vote ...

, a

Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Vermont since 2007. He was the U.S. representative for the state's at-large congressional district from 1991 to 2007 ...

-based political organization, and was endorsed by the prominent Cambridge academics

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...

and

Lawrence Lessig Lester Lawrence Lessig III (born June 3, 1961) is an American academic, attorney, and political activist. He is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the former director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard ...

. Connolly beat Toomey by about 300 votes and was elected to represent the 26th Middlesex District after Toomey's term ended; Connolly did not face a Republican in the November 2016 election for the

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into single-member ...

.Kyle Scott Clauss (September 9, 2016
Mike Connolly to Become First Occupier Elected to Beacon Hill
''Boston Daily''. Accessed September 11, 2016. Connolly opposed the November 2016 "ballot question that would lift the charter school cap" and supports the legalization of recreational marijuana. He is a member of the

Democratic Socialists of America The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a Left-wing politics, left-wing Democratic Socialists of America#Tendencies within the DSA, multi-tendency Socialism, socialist and Labour movement, labor-oriented political organization. Its roots ...

Personal life and family

Connolly is 6 feet 8 inches tall and played college football at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

. He is also a graduate of

Boston College Law School Boston College Law School (BC Law) is the law school of Boston College. It is situated on a wooded campus in Newton, Massachusetts, about 1.5 miles from the university's main campus in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. With approximately 800 studen ...

.Chris Faraone (October 26, 2012
Against strenuous odds and a 20-year incumbent, Mike Connolly tries to occupy the State House — without raising a dollar: He Works Hard For No Money
''Boston Phoenix''
Archive URL
Accessed September 11, 2016.

References

External links

Legislative website

Constituent website

Campaign website

Mike Connolly (2012 campaign)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Connolly, Mike 1980 births 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American politicians Massachusetts lawyers People from Cambridge, Massachusetts Massachusetts Democrats Massachusetts Independents Massachusetts socialists Duke University alumni Boston College Law School alumni Duke Blue Devils football players Living people Members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Democratic Socialists of America politicians from Massachusetts

Early life and career

Political career

Personal life and family

See also

References

External links