The Working Families Party is a ballot-qualified party in Massachusetts, but Massachusetts doesn’t allow fusion (except that if a candidate wins the primary of the party that he or she is not a member of via write-in votes, which is very difficult, fusion is allowed). The Working Families Party generally desires to cross-endorse the Democratic Party nominee (or, in rare cases, the Republican nominee) rather than running its own nominee.

Massachusetts holds a special election on March 4 to fill the vacancy in the State House, Middlesex 23 district (mostly the town of Arlington). Suzanne Gordon, who has authored or edited 12 books and who is an expert on health care, has submitted petitions to be on the Democratic primary ballot, and the Working Families Party. She needed 150 signatures in each primary. If she gets enough valid signatures on both petitions, she could be the plaintiff-candidate for a proposed lawsuit to gain more complete fusion in Massachusetts. Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1997 that nothing in the U.S. Constitution forbids states from outlawing fusion, it is possible that the Massachusetts Constitution’s guarantees of free association will protect the right of two political parties to jointly nominate a candidate.