Andover state Rep. Tram Nguyen told voters at a six-candidate forum Saturday, Aug. 8, that the federal government must send more money to states to build homes and bring down housing costs, drawing on her own upbringing in public housing to frame the pitch.

"We have to make investments that are needed to lower the cost of housing," Nguyen said at the Lynn event, hosted by the North Shore Juneteenth Association, the MA Women's Political Caucus and League of Women Voters chapters. "But we can't do that alone."

The forum gave Andover and North Andover residents a fresh look at where their local representative stands on affordability alongside five rivals for the 6th Congressional District seat ahead of the Sept. 1 Democratic primary.

Nguyen, who has represented Andover, Boxford, North Andover and Tewksbury in the state House since 2018, pledged to pursue more federal funding for Massachusetts to expand housing construction and reduce the cost of homeownership. The median price of a single-family home in the state now tops $700,000, according to data cited at the forum, and rents are outpacing incomes.

Her rivals offered competing approaches. Salem veterinarian and former State Department official Mariah Lancaster called herself "the only renter in a race against landlords," jabbing at candidates with multiple real estate holdings and pushing for rent stabilization programs. Lynnfield attorney John Beccia said the answer is tax incentives for developers, lower construction costs and zoning reform.

The seat opened when Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton decided to run for the U.S. Senate.

The district covers most of Essex County and eight Middlesex County towns. As we reported Aug. 5, Progressive Massachusetts has endorsed Nguyen in the primary. Her campaign reported raising $266,000 in the second quarter of 2026, bringing her total past $690,000 from more than 2,800 individual donors, with a median contribution under $25, according to Andover MA News. Dan Koh, a former White House Deputy Cabinet Secretary and Andover resident, leads the fundraising field with more than $4.5 million raised overall.

The Andover Townsman reported the Lynn event was one of the last scheduled meetings of all six candidates before the primary. The winner on Sept. 1 will face Republican Micah Jones, a U.S. Army veteran and lawyer from Essex running unopposed in his party's primary.