In last week's elections, there was a Massachusetts upset you probably didn't hear about. It happened in Lawrence: The perceived front-runner, interim mayor Kendrys Vasquez — endorsed by Senator Elizabeth Warren, former mayor Dan Rivera, the local teachers union, and the Globe editorial board — lost to businessman and former city councilor Brian De Peña by a decisive margin. De Peña's electoral win in Lawrence stands for a localized version of one current ailment of the Democratic Party. In this race, the more liberal candidate — the one endorsed by Warren, who chose Lawrence to launch her failed presidential candidacy, in early 2019 — was bested by a Democratic politician whose message was based on economic opportunity and public safety. Lawrence, a Democratic stronghold, has nearly 90,000 residents and the highest proportion of Latino residents in the state, at 82 percent. Only 14 percent of Lawrencians are college graduates; roughly 1 in 5 residents lives in poverty. In the decade before the coronavirus pandemic disproportionately hit the city, Lawrence saw its schools put into state receivership and struggled with political scandals. Who can forget Willy Lantigua, the first Latino mayor this city and the state had? Lantigua became mayor in 2010 after serving four terms as a state representative. But his single mayoral term was mired in controversy and allegations of corruption and cronyism. Though he was never indicted, Lantigua was reportedly investigated by federal authorities and the state attorney general sued him for campaign finance violations. Never one to stay on the sidelines, Lantigua ran for mayor again this year, came in fourth in the five-way preliminary, and reportedly supported Vasquez in the final. More recently, the Lawrence schools have been dealing with a spike in school fights among students, like many other school systems across the state. Advertisement "I think voters identified with my message and my life story," De Peña told me in an interview in Spanish. "I presented a plan, and people understood that vision. But it wasn't a political vision. It was realistic because I come from that plan." De Peña vowed not to run for another office after being mayor. He's an entrepreneur who financed his first business venture with $10,000 he obtained by maxing out his first credit card, he said. "I speak the language of poverty because I come from poverty. People used to call me 'el gomero' [the tire dealer]," he said.