Your Voice in Government
Legislators
Who Represents Dedham
Dedham’s delegation is unusually easy to learn, because the whole town sits in one district at every level: one state representative district, the 11th Norfolk, one state Senate district, Norfolk and Suffolk, and one congressional district, the 8th. Whatever street you live on, the same three people carry your town’s voice, and the Commonwealth’s two U.S. senators represent the whole state.
State Senator
Senator Rush represents the Norfolk and Suffolk District, which includes all of Dedham. A Democrat and the Senate’s Majority Whip, he is an Iraq War veteran and Navy Reserve commander who taught high school history before entering public life, and his legislative work has centered on veterans’ benefits and budget oversight.
State Representative
All of Dedham is the 11th Norfolk House district, so one representative speaks for the whole town.
Representative McMurtry, a Democrat, has held the seat since winning a 2007 special election, and you may already know him from outside politics: he is the longtime owner and operator of the Dedham Community Theatre, the 1927 movie house in Dedham Square. His legislative work centers on small business, consumer protection, and veterans.
In Washington
All of Dedham sits in the 8th Congressional District, represented by U.S. Representative Stephen F. Lynch, a Democrat who has held the seat since 2001. Before Congress, Lynch spent 18 years as a structural ironworker and became the youngest ever president of Iron Workers Local 7. Massachusetts is represented in the U.S. Senate by Elizabeth Warren, the senior senator, and Edward J. Markey, the junior senator, both Democrats.
Find Your Exact Legislator
Every legislator in Massachusetts is on one page, with the committees they sit on and the bills they have filed, and you can confirm your own districts by address:
Sources
Massachusetts Legislature (malegislature.gov). Verified August 2026.
What this seat decides
The state and federal seats
Your State Representative and your State Senator. State law: the driving age, the minimum wage, the bottle deposit, and Chapter 70, the formula that decides how much state money your schools get. They also carry a home rule petition to the State House when your town votes for something state law does not yet allow it to do.
Your member of Congress and your two US Senators. Federal law and federal money, and help with a federal agency like Social Security, the VA, or immigration when someone in your family needs it. They also nominate candidates to the US service academies.
Knowing who represents you is the first step. Learn how to write to them so it lands.