| Jennifer Flanagan | |
| Office1: | Member of the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission |
| Term Start1: | 2017 |
| Term End1: | 2021 |
| Predecessor1: | Initial member of commission |
| Successor1: | Kimberly Roy |
| Office2: | Member of the Massachusetts Senate from the Worcester and Middlesex district |
| Term Start2: | 2009 |
| Term End2: | 2017 |
| Predecessor2: | Robert A. Antonioni |
| Successor2: | Dean Tran |
| Office3: | Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from the 4th Worcester district |
| Term Start3: | 2005 |
| Term End3: | 2009 |
| Predecessor3: | Mary Jane Simmons |
| Successor3: | Dennis Rosa |
| Party: | Democratic |
| Residence: | Leominster, Massachusetts |
Jennifer L. Flanagan is a former member of the Massachusetts General Court and the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission.
Leominster High School; University of Massachusetts Boston, B.A. Political Science; Fitchburg State College, M.S. Mental Health Counseling.
Flanagan served as a legislative aide and then chief of staff to then-Leominster State Rep. Mary Jane Simmons.[1] In 2004 Simmons announced she would not seek re-election to the 4th Worcester district due to health concerns,[2] and Flanagan ran for the open seat. Flanagan won the primary and general election, and served two terms as a Massachusetts State Representative.
Flanagan served as a Massachusetts State Senator for the Worcester and Middlesex district, which includes her hometown of Leominster. She is a Democrat who served from 2009, to 2017. She first won the State Senate seat in 2008, winning a contested Democratic primary and facing no general election opponent.[3] When running for re-election in 2014 the nomination forms to get Flanagan on the primary ballot were filed with an incomplete address,[4] forcing her to run a write-in campaign during the primary in order to be on the general election ballot.[5] There was no candidate for the seat on either the Republican[6] or Democratic[7] primary ballots. Her general election opponent, Richard Bastien, also got on the general election ballot with a write-in campaign in the primary.
In 2017, Flanagan was chosen by Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker as his pick for the newly formed Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission.[8] The appointment was notable because she opposed cannabis legalization and is from a different party than the governor. She stepped down in 2021 to become the director of regulatory policy at Vicente Sederberg.[9]