Wareham's 2nd Plymouth House race today: Gaskey and Hewins side by side, topic by topic

WAREHAM One state House seat is on every Wareham ballot today, Tuesday, Nov. 3: the 2nd Plymouth District, where Republican Rep. John Robert Gaskey of Carver faces Democrat Sarah G. Hewins of Carver. The district also covers their hometown and part of Middleborough. Polls are open until 8 p.m.

Below, the candidates are listed in the order they appear on Wareham's ballot, then the same topics in the same order for both: taxes and the town's budget, housing, roads and transit, school money, public safety, energy bills and drinking water. Positions come from the candidates' own campaign sites. Gaskey's recorded votes as the incumbent follow.

Which district are you in

• Wareham: the whole town votes in the 2nd Plymouth District, which also takes in Carver and Middleborough Precincts 3, 6 and 7A.

The state's Where Do I Vote lookup shows the district and polling place for any address.

State representative, 2nd Plymouth: John Robert Gaskey and Sarah G. Hewins

• John Robert Gaskey: Republican, of Carver, the incumbent, seeking a second term. His campaign site says he served 23 years in the U.S. Coast Guard. It also posts his June 3, 2026 statement opposing H.5469, the House bill setting rules for audits of the Legislature: "An audit without enforcement is not accountability."
• Sarah G. Hewins: Democrat, of Carver, the challenger. She is in her sixth term on the Carver Select Board and was the town's conservation agent for 15 years, her campaign site says. The site backs replacing unrecorded voice votes in the Legislature with recorded votes and "a full financial audit of the legislature."

Taxes and the town's budget

Gaskey's campaign has not published a position on taxes and the town's budget.

Hewins's site says she would make sure "our three towns get their fair share of state aid," help them apply for grants and win budget earmarks for local projects. The site also says she would make sure depreciating business infrastructure costs do not end up on residents' tax bills.

Housing

Gaskey's campaign site says he would "end the sanctuary status of Massachusetts and return our shelters back to its veterans and citizens." A September 2025 statement on his site says local and state siting rules are delaying energy projects and that similar barriers are mounting in housing and broadband. Gaskey said in it that the issue is "protecting the fundamental right of individuals to make decisions about their own land."

Hewins's site calls Chapter 40B and the MBTA Communities law "heavy-handed regulations" and says she would work with lawmakers from affected towns "to review, modify, or reject them at the State House before they are enacted."

Roads and transit

Gaskey's campaign has not published a position on roads and transit.

Hewins sits on the Southeastern Massachusetts Metropolitan Planning Organization, which helps put local road and bridge projects on the state's Transportation Improvement Program. Her site cites the Route 6 work at Swifts Beach Road in Wareham, slated to start in 2026, with new traffic lights and a shared path, and a safer walking route from downtown Middleborough to the junior high school.

School money

Gaskey's campaign has not published a position on school money.

Hewins's site says she would make sure the district gets its "fair share of state resources for our schools," and cites her work with the Carver Select Board to win 60% state reimbursement for Carver's new elementary school.

Public safety

Gaskey's campaign site says he would "ensure law enforcement works with federal authorities to enforce the laws of the land."

Hewins's site cites her work writing Carver's emergency management plans and partnering with the Carver Police Department on safety in Pine Tree Village.

Energy bills

In the same September 2025 statement, Gaskey called for a state study of how siting rules delay or block energy projects, saying "unnecessary restrictions are putting progress at risk."

Hewins's site says Carver's electricity supply contract, which she negotiated in 2020, runs about 5% below Eversource's basic supply rate, but that delivery charges keep climbing. She says she would build a coalition with the governor's office "to have the DPU and utility companies respond to all of us."

Drinking water

Gaskey's campaign has not published a position on drinking water.

Hewins chaired the seven-town Plymouth/Carver Aquifer Advisory Committee, which includes Wareham, Carver and Middleborough, her site says, and lists protecting "our environment, our groundwater, and our children" among her goals.

How Gaskey voted

Hewins is not a member of the Legislature. Gaskey is shown on the same four House roll calls SC360 uses for every House incumbent on its Election Day pages.

• State budget, July 1, 2026: The House voted 142 to 6 to enact H.5555, the budget for the fiscal year that began that day (Yea and Nay No. 224). Gaskey voted no.
• Gas tax holiday, Oct. 21, 2026: Amendment 160 to the supplemental budget would have required gas stations to cut prices by the state gas tax for 60 days. It failed 30 to 122 (No. 271). Gaskey voted yes.
• Offshore wind money, Oct. 21, 2026: Amendment 183 would have struck the bill's Section 116, a transfer of state money into the Massachusetts Offshore Wind Industry Investment Trust Fund. It failed 25 to 127 (No. 272). Gaskey voted yes.
• Supplemental budget, Oct. 21, 2026: The House passed the supplemental budget for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 152 to 0 (No. 275). Gaskey voted yes.

The October votes are explained in full in our Legislator Watch for the week of Oct. 19.

Campaign money

What each campaign raised and spent through Sept. 30 is in our Oct. 28 campaign money report.

Where to vote

Polls are open until 8 p.m. What to bring is in our Election Day guide, and Wareham's results will post on the SC360 Election Center as the town clerk releases them after the polls close.

Mail ballots postmarked by Election Day still count if the town clerk receives them by 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, under state election law.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.