Neil Miller for State Rep

When my wife and I were looking for a place to live near her family, we got lucky: a friend was moving out and helped us get an apartment we could afford. But for thousands of neighbors who are priced out every year, or stuck in homes that don’t work for them anymore, the housing crisis has made it impossible to call Cambridge and Somerville home.

Whether you’re “from here” or from halfway across the globe – and whether you’ll be here forever or for just a few years – I believe you deserve a place in MA.

That’s why I’ve spent six years organizing with A Better Cambridge (ABC), an all-volunteer housing advocacy group. Thanks to ABC’s advocacy, there’s hundreds of permanently affordable homes going up all around us, and I’m proud to have been a leader of so many pro-housing victories. Together, our coalition ended wasteful parking mandates, secured dedicated new funding for affordable housing, and reversed exclusionary zoning to legalize multi-family housing city-wide. I’ve personally knocked on thousands of doors, planned outreach events in every neighborhood, and managed 60+ volunteers to elect a pro-housing City Council majority in 2025.

Cambridge and Somerville have shown Massachusetts that we can make progress tackling our housing crisis, but the State House needs to play its part too. I’m running to be the pro-housing champion our community deserves on Beacon Hill.

From keeping food on people’s tables during COVID to tackling the climate crisis, the government is responsible for solving our biggest challenges. But too often, government is set up to fail: it's mired in rules that don’t make sense and its denied the resources it needs.

When I became a federal civil servant in 2021, my team’s mission was simple: make the government work better. How’d we do it? 

• Strengthen public service. We reformed the hiring process government-wide, so the IRS had agents who can make sure the rich pay their taxes and the VA could help veterans get healthcare.

• Prioritize customer experience. To deliver great services, agencies should listen to what you need, instead of making you jump through hoops. We simplified forms, hired people to answer the phone, and made it so you only have to apply once for the services you need.

• Hold contractors accountable. Too many government outsources are outsourced to big corporations that are good at winning contracts but don’t care about helping people. We rewrote contracts to increase accountability, and made it easier for smaller companies to compete.

I left the federal government in January 2025, refusing to support Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s destructive agenda. At a time when Trump and D.C. Republicans are weaponizing the government to sink our economy and attack vulnerable communities, Massachusetts residents deserve public services they can rely on. 

I’m running because it’s painful to see the breakdown of public services here in Massachusetts. Neighbors who lose their job face one of the slowest unemployment insurance systems in America. We’ve gotten used to the T not working. When helping an elderly family member who didn’t speak English stay on MassHealth, I saw how one missed phone call could put critical care at risk.

I’ve spent my career fighting to make government work. Procurement laws and hiring rules might sound boring. But even if seamless services don’t make for the most exciting headlines, it will be my top priority as your state representative.

Our district is home to some of the most innovative scientists, mathematicians, and engineers in the world. From biotech workers whose COVID vaccines saved millions worldwide, to green tech entrepreneurs who are building a fossil-free future, our residents are finding solutions to society’s hardest problems. Now look – I love lawyers. I’m even married to a lawyer! But with all the challenges Massachusetts faces, our future is too important to leave up to the lawyers alone. I'm running to turn our progressive values into real results.

After studying theoretical math in college, I’ve worked as a data scientist and quantitative researcher in mission-driven organizations. I started as a policy researcher helping local and state agencies support vulnerable children and families. My first job in Boston was as a data analyst with Framework Homeownership, a social enterprise that empowers first-time and first-generation homebuyers with education and affordable mortgages. As a federal data scientist, I built dashboards used by thousands to see which companies were winning government contracts, and I pulled performance data out of inaccessible PDFs to enhance accountability. Massachusetts residents want transparency from Beacon Hill – I’ll build it myself if I have to.

For our Commonwealth to protect its residents and thrive economically, our legislators need to understand technology beyond just talking points. I’ve trained hundreds of government employees on how to use data and taught statistics to my graduate school classmates. Here are the principles I’ll bring to the legislature:

• AI, like lots of computer programs, can help people do their job more effectively. But since a computer can’t be held accountable, no computer can make a decision that requires human judgement.

• The Trump administration is using technology to target our neighbors – suppressing free speech, detaining community members, and denying public benefits. The old model of constituent services isn’t good enough anymore. People shouldn’t need to call their state rep’s office for help. I’ll work with other legislators, their staff, and civic technologists to build tools for proactive constituent services.

I am currently a graduate student at the Harvard Kennedy School for Government, where I’ve prioritized being a welcoming neighbor for international students amid the Trump administration’s attacks. I’m also a graduate student worker and dues-paying member of the Harvard Graduate Student Union. Since leaving the Federal workforce in January 2025, I have worked as a researcher with leading good government advocates like Jennifer Pahlka and the Project on Government Oversight.

I have been an advocate for progressive causes since high school, when I worked for my hometown state representative. As a former member and chair of the Cambridge Ward 5 Democratic Committee (Cambridgeport, MIT, Central Square), I was elected to be a delegate for Ed Markey in 2020, organized canvasses for the Fair Share Amendment and Work and Family Mobility Act in 2022, and rallied dozens of neighbors to elect Biden, Harris, and Democrats nationwide.

I rent in Central Square with my wife Ariella, a brilliant civil rights lawyer who was born and raised nearby. Ariella and I celebrated our wedding at Temple Beth Shalom in the Port and at Dana Park in Cambridgeport, with flowers, food, and fashion from Central Square’s wonderful businesses. We’ve lived together in neighborhoods throughout the 26th Middlesex District, first on Merriam Street in Union Square and then on Pearl Street in Cambridgeport. This community has given us so much, and we strive every day to give back to the home we love.