HOLYOKE — The executive committee of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, which last month backed Alex Morse in his Democratic primary campaign against U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, will meet this week to discuss allegations about Morse’s behavior involving college students.
“The MNA Board will be meeting this week to discuss the issue as they learn about and review the allegations,” said Joe Markman, a spokesman for the 23,000-member nurses’ union. “Candidate for Congress Alex Morse has released organizations from endorsement — the MNA Board will decide what if any action they wish to take in light of this.”
Markman said the organization’s board felt they couldn’t wait until its regularly scheduled meeting later in the month.
The union’s review of its endorsement comes after the College Democrats of Massachusetts and its affiliates at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Amherst College claimed last week that Morse used its events to meet young men and pursue romantic relationships with them.
The organization said Morse had sexual relationships with college students, used social media and dating apps to contact students as young as 18, and that his position as mayor and as a UMass lecturer in political science intimidated students.
Morse, 31, admitted relationships with college students and said he needs to pay better attention to the power dynamics involved. But he qualified his apology saying he violated no university policy, has never had a nonconsensual relationship and that the scrutiny was part of a long history of homophobic attitudes.
In a statement Sunday, he said he “released” those that have endorsed him from their promises.
UMass is reviewing Morse’s behavior and has no plans to hire him back as a lecturer.
Morse has made health care, and his call for Medicare for all, a centerpiece of his campaign. He has also opposed the closure of Providence Behavioral Health’s mental health beds in Holyoke, and plans for Baystate Health to consolidate inpatient behavioral health treatment in one Holyoke location while closing other units.
He shares those positions with the nurses’ union, and members of the union have appeared in Morse campaign ads.
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