Jamie Belsito
Jamie Zahlaway Belsito (born November 22, 1973) is an American politician who serves as Town Moderator in Topsfield, Massachusetts. She previously represented the 4th Essex district in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, elected on November 30, 2021, in a special election following former Representative Brad Hill's appointment to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. Belsito was the first democrat to represent the 4th Essex district since 1858, and was sworn in on December 8, 2021. The district was eliminated in statewide redistricting at the end of the term. Belsito is the first Arab American woman to be elected to office in Massachusetts. Prior to running for the Massachusetts House of Representatives, Belsito ran for the United States House of Representatives, challenging Democratic Representative Seth Moulton in the primary for 6th District of Massachusetts. She had previously supported Moulton's Republican opponent, Richard Tisei, in the 2014 election before switching her party affiliation from Unenrolled to Democrat following the election of Donald Trump. Moulton went on to win the primary, but endorsed Belsito in her campaign for the Massachusetts House of Representatives the next year. In the final days of her term as a state representative, she accused Israel of genocide. She tweeted that the US should acknowledge the Israeli administration was "an apartheid run thuggery terrorist regime" and that "killing and land taking has nothing to do with anti-semitism. It is genocide." Belsito is the founder of a national nonprofit, the Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance, based in Washington D.C. Prior to running for office, she served on the Bord of Trustees for Salem State University. She is the great-niece of USAF Technical Sergeant Richard B. Fitzgibbon, Jr., the first American to die in the Vietnam War. Electoral history

See also
 2021–2022 Massachusetts legislature

References

Living people
1973 births
People from Topsfield, Massachusetts
Democratic Party members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
Politicians from Boston
21st-century American politicians