Barry Finegold was raised in Andover and Tewksbury and attended public school in both towns. He played football at Andover High School and went on to play for Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania. He graduated from F&M with a major in government and a business concentration. Once he returned to Andover, Barry decided to run for the Board of Selectman, taking on longtime incumbents to win and become the youngest Selectman in the town’s history at age 24. A year later, in 1996, he won election to the Massachusetts House of Representatives as a Democrat representing the 17th Essex District consisting of parts of Andover, Tewksbury and Lawrence. He was the youngest member of his freshman class. Working during the day and going to class at night, Barry put himself through Massachusetts School of Law in Andover, graduating in 1998, and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar the same year. He holds a Masters in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. In 1999 he won the Kennedy School Fenn Award for Political Leadership, and in 2003, he was selected as one of the top 100 young “Democrats to Watch” by the Democratic Leadership Council. In 2009, he was named Chairman of the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy. In this position, he championed renewable energy policies that have helped make Massachusetts a leader in clean energy.Barry took on a contested primary and general election for the State Senate seat in 2010, and went on to win the race to represent the Second Essex and Middlesex District that includes all of Andover, Dracut, Lawrence and Tewksbury. He won reelection in 2012, sweeping every precinct of all four communities. He has served as the Senate Chairman of the Joint Committee on Election Laws since first being sworn into the Senate in 2011. Now in his second term as State Senator, Barry has continued with this spirit of taking on new challenges – this time with education and election law reform. Under his leadership, the Senate recently passed the most significant election reform bill in decades, modernizing our election laws and making Massachusetts a national leader in ensuring free, fair and accessible elections. The bill included provisions providing for early voting, same day registration, election audits, online voter registration, and pre-registration for 16 and 17-year olds. At age 29, he founded the law firm of Dalton & Finegold in Andover. He continues to work as a partner at the firm, which specializes in real estate, estate planning and corporate law. Barry lives in Andover with his wife, Amy, and three children, Ava, Ella and Max.