Political Newcomers Schiavi and Cyr Win Primary Races; Will Face Off in November

CCB MEDIA PHOTO: Anthony Schiavi delivering his victory speech in West Yarmouth Thursday night

YARMOUTH – A pair of political newcomers will meet in the November general election in the race for Cape and Islands State Senate.

In the Democratic primary Thursday night, Julian Cyr of Truro overwhelmingly defeated Barnstable County Commissioner Sheila Lyons of Wellfleet for his party’s nomination.

Cyr beat Lyons by 17% with all precincts in the district reporting late Thursday.

He’ll face off against Republican Anthony Schiavi of Harwich, who defeated Barnstable Town Councilor Jim Crocker by 5% points.

CCB MEDIA PHOTO: Julian Cyr speaking to supporters in Eastham

“So many people lift you up, carry you, do the work, do the hard work of making sure that we reach voters. We started off with a grassroots campaign. We started knocking on doors in February and we’ve kept at it,” he said at his campaign reception in Eastham Thursday night.

It was the first run for public office for both Schiavi and Cyr. One of them will replace Democratic State Senator Dan Wolf, who decided not to run for re-election.

“When you put the shoe leather to the streets, when you knock doors, when you make calls, when you introduce yourself to voters, when you show people how hard you are working and going to work for them, they put their faith in you,” said Cyr.

He was most recently director of policy and regulatory affairs for environmental health at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

Under former Governor Deval Patrick, Cyr worked with members of the State Senate as deputy director for government affairs at the Department of Public Health.

Schiavi retired as a Brigadier General with 30 years of service of the Air Force and Massachusetts Air National Guard and was the commanding officer of the 102^nd Fighter Wing and 102^ndIntelligence Wing at Joint Base Cape Cod.

“We have the right message, the right solutions and we just need to stay on message and keep moving forward over the next 60 days as we get ready for the general election. I think it’s resonating with folks,” said Schiavi.

He stepped down as the town manager in Ashland to run for the job.

“This was an opportunity to put a strong, experienced leader in the Statehouse. We have a lot of issues on our plate, whether it’s the opiate crisis, homelessness, affordable housing, working on our economy and certainly our environmental and wastewater issues, as well as helping veterans,” Schiavi said.

Listen to our conversation with Cyr and Schiavi below: