Mara Dolan’s District 3 is made up of a sizable portion of MetroWest, reaching up to Chelmsford in the North and Harvard in the West.  It includes, among others, Lexington, Concord, Sudbury, Arlington, Brookline, Newton, Belmont, and Watertown, as well as several wards in Boston and Cambridge. 

On her second try, in 2024 Dolan defeated longtime Governor’s Councilor Marilyn Devaney in the Democratic primary. She was uncontested in the general election.

Mara Dolan is the first public defender elected to the Governor's Council. She ran on a platform that included criminal justice reform, substance and alcohol use disorder alternatives to incarceration, ending racial discrimination in our courts, and ensuring equal justice under the law, and was the most endorsed Democratic primary challenger in Massachusetts in living memory. She continues her work as a public defender in our District and Superior Courts. Mara previously worked in political communications, serving as communications director for the Massachusetts State Senate President, as campaign press secretary for the Massachusetts Secretary of State, and as communications advisor to the campaign of U.S. Senator Ed Markey. She previously worked extensively on television as a political commentator, and got the bug early as a champion debater in college.