Charter Boat Captain Bob DeCosta Completes Remarkable Write-In Campaign Amid High Turnout

Charter boat captain Bob DeCosta finished first in Tuesday’s Select Board election with 1,919 votes. It is the most votes any Select Board candidate has won since 2008. And he wasn’t even on the ballot.

DeCosta’s write-in campaign has propelled him back onto the Select Board, where he served two terms previously. In 2014, he received 1,101 votes. In his first campaign, 1,731 voters cast their ballots for him. He exceeded both totals easily this year without his name appearing on the ballot.

In 2008, former Select Board member and Nantucket police officer Brian Chadwick secured 1,959 votes. That was the last time any Select Board candidate received more votes than DeCosta won on Tuesday. Chadwick, however, was on the ballot.

DeCosta’s write-in campaign may have also contributed to the turnout that Nantucket saw Tuesday. Local elections tend to have very low turnout, as there are no high-profile state or federal races on the ballot. Only 28.7 percent of voters cast ballots Tuesday, but that was enough to secure the highest turnout in a local election on-island since the 2019 race that featured six candidates vying for the Select Board. A full 48 percent of voters weighed in during the 2022 local special election, but that was held in November, overlapping with the 2022 national midterm elections.

While DeCosta cruised to victory Tuesday, some of the races were closer. The closest race was for Planning Board, where fellow charter boat captain Brian Borgeson defeated incumbent Hillary Hedges Rayport by 103 votes. The School Committee also featured a close race: incumbent vice chair Shantaw Bloise Murphy edged out challenger Jennie Cook by 120 votes.