A veteran Beacon Hill aide on Tuesday captured the Democratic nomination for the state Senate seat that was vacated when her boss died of brain cancer in April.
Cindy Friedman, the longtime chief of staff to the late Senator Kenneth Donnelly, clinched the party nomination for the Fourth Middlesex District seat, which represents Arlington, Billerica, Burlington, Woburn, and parts of Lexington.
The tally from all five communities was not immediately available. But her two rivals, state Representative Sean Garballey and Mary Ann Stewart, a member of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, both congratulated her late Tuesday.