Maura Healey Is Poised to Turn the Mass. Governorship Blue — and Become Nation's First Openly Lesbian Governor
Chris Christo/The Boston Herald via AP Maura Healey
Massachusetts's attorney general could turn her state's top seat blue in November — and make history in the process.
Maura Healey is heavily favored to win the race for governor of Massachusetts this fall. If she does, she'll become the state's first female governor and will be among the first out lesbian governors in the country.
CNN reports that 51-year-old Healey won more than 85% of the vote in the Democratic primary Tuesday — for which she had just one opponent, who remained on the ballot despite dropping out of the race in June.
Massachusetts' current governor, Charlie Baker, is a Republican, but much more moderate than most of the party base, having supported abortion rights and the impeachment of former President Donald Trump.
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While popular in the state, Baker faced a tough primary challenge from former state Rep. Geoff Diehl, who has been endorsed by Trump and has echoed some of the former president's talking points about election fraud.
Baker announced in December that he would not be running for reelection, paving the way for Healey to face Diehl come November.
So far, polls are in Healey's favor, with recent numbers showing the Democrat leading the Republican by 18 points.
As attorney general, Healey has made a name for herself by repeatedly suing the Trump administration, pitting her against the former president over issues that ranged from water quality to immigrant separation policies. In most instances, Healey's office prevailed in the suits.
In a Dec. 2020 interview with Vanity Fair, Healey touched on the more-than 100 suits state attorneys general filed against the Trump administration, saying, "I don't think you can overstate how much energy and effort it took to hold the line against the Trump administration that was doing things so entirely unprecedented and in violation of so many norms and the rule of law."
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She continued: "What a sad commentary that in order to defend the Constitution, to protect the rule of law, we found ourselves taking Donald Trump and his administration to court over 100 times, but it was absolutely necessary."
"The good news is we won over 80% of those cases … The numbers are staggering, but when you have a president looking to gut health care or roll back environmental protections or reverse years of progress and reproductive freedom, that's why it's been really important for us to be active," she told Vanity Fair. "I'm fortunate that as a state attorney general, I was able to do something."
