This has actually happened *twice* in MA since 2018 - weak left-wing candidates didn't back out of the race so the strongest left-wing candidate got clipped by a moderate who got less than 23% of vote.
https://twitter.com/kenklippenstein/status/1302679321039994883
The problem in MA04 wasn't so much Leckey (the Sanders wing candidate) taking voters from Mermel (the Pressley-backed candidate). It was two eventual Mermel endorsers waiting too late to drop out and a no-chance candidate (Linos) siphoning suburban left votes away.
My take after spending some time in the district was that Linos was decisive. She bit into Mermel's Brookline base and her "lead with the science" message was tailor-made for getting Women's March-y suburban voters, even though she had a weak campaign.
Linos ended up getting more votes than Leckey, who got in early and with her husband loaned her campaign $1 million. Linos just held Zoom town halls about science and got some positive "hey, check this out" local coverage.
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