On the night of Tuesday Sept. 9, Attorney General Martha Coakley won the Massachusetts Democratic primary nomination for governor, defeating state treasurer and former Democratic Party chairman Steve Grossman by a narrow six percentage points. She also defeated former health care administrator Don Berwick. General Coakley will go on to run against Republican Charlie Baker in the general election in November. If elected, Massachusetts could have its first-ever elected female governor.

Also victorious in the Democratic primaries state governmental positions were Stephen Kerrigan for Lieutenant Governor, Maura Healey for Attorney General and Deborah Goldberg for Treasurer. These primary results seem to feed the progressive nature of the Democratic Party with a gay man, a lesbian and three women on the party’s ballot for the general election in November.

On the Republican side, former CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Charlie Baker won the Republican primary nomination for governor. He beat his opponent, businessman Mark Fisher by 48 percentage points.