Maura Healey

Maura Healey (Democratic Party) is the Governor of Massachusetts. She assumed office on January 5, 2023. Her current term ends on January 7, 2027.

Healey (Democratic Party) is running for re-election for Governor of Massachusetts. She declared candidacy for the 2026 election.^[source]

Healey was born in Bethesda, Maryland, and grew up in New Hampshire. She received a bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1992, where she played basketball before playing professionally in Europe. Healey received a J.D. from Northeastern University in 1998. She worked as a civil rights lawyer, including as chief of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Civil Rights Division.^[1]

Healey was first elected in 2022, defeating Geoff Diehl (R) 64% to 35% and becoming the state's first Democratic governor since 2015. Healey's win also gave Democrats a trifecta in Massachusetts.

In Healey's first State of the State address in January 2024, she said her legislative accomplishments included the state's permanent free school meals program, free community college for students over 25, and a tax package. Healey said her administration would continue focusing on reducing housing and child care costs, including universal pre-K access.^[2]

Healey served as Massachusetts Attorney General from 2015 to 2023. She was elected in 2014 with 62% of the vote. She succeeded Martha Coakley (D), who ran for governor in 2014. Healey was re-elected in 2018 with 68% of the vote. According to EMILYs List, Healey was the first openly LGBTQ+ attorney general in the United States.^[1] According to WGBH, Healey sued the Trump administration more than 100 times, over issues including the travel ban from primarily Muslim countries, family separation at the U.S.-Mexico border, health insurance access to contraception, and adding a citizenship question to the census.^[3]

Biography

Maura Healey was born at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. Healey graduated from Winnacunnet High School. She earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1992 and a juris doctor from Northeastern University in 1998.^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7] Healey's career experience includes working as a private practice attorney with the firm of Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr; a prosecutor with the Middlesex District Attorney's Office; the head of the Civil Rights Division of the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office; and the chief of the Public Protection and Business & Labor Bureaus of the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office.^[8]^[6]^[7]

Political career

Massachusetts Attorney General (2015-2023)

Healey was first elected to the attorney general's office on November 4, 2014. She was sworn into office on January 21, 2015, succeeding Martha Coakley (D).^[9]

Elections

2026

Note: At this time, Ballotpedia is combining all declared candidates for this election into one list under a general election heading. As primary election dates are published, this information will be updated to separate general election candidates from primary candidates as appropriate.

General election

The general election will occur on November 3, 2026.

General election for Governor of Massachusetts

Incumbent Maura Healey and Andrea James are running in the general election for Governor of Massachusetts on November 3, 2026.

		Candidate
		Maura Healey (D)
	Submit photo	Andrea James (D)

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
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Endorsements

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2022

General election

General election for Governor of Massachusetts

Maura Healey defeated Geoff Diehl and Kevin Reed in the general election for Governor of Massachusetts on November 8, 2022.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Maura Healey (D)	63.7	1,584,403
	Geoff Diehl (R)	34.6	859,343
	Kevin Reed (L)	1.6	39,244
	Other/Write-in votes	0.1	2,806

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 2,485,796
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Dianna Ploss (Independent)

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Governor of Massachusetts

Maura Healey defeated Sonia Chang-Diaz (Unofficially withdrew) in the Democratic primary for Governor of Massachusetts on September 6, 2022.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Maura Healey	85.3	642,092
	Sonia Chang-Diaz (Unofficially withdrew)	14.4	108,574
	Other/Write-in votes	0.3	1,972

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 752,638
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Governor of Massachusetts

Geoff Diehl defeated Chris Doughty in the Republican primary for Governor of Massachusetts on September 6, 2022.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Geoff Diehl	55.3	149,800
	Chris Doughty	44.4	120,418
	Other/Write-in votes	0.3	769

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 270,987
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2018

See also: Massachusetts Attorney General election, 2018

General election

General election for Attorney General of Massachusetts

Incumbent Maura Healey defeated James McMahon in the general election for Attorney General of Massachusetts on November 6, 2018.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Maura Healey (D)	68.1	1,874,209
	James McMahon (R)	29.2	804,832
	Other/Write-in votes	2.7	73,624

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 2,752,665
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Attorney General of Massachusetts

Incumbent Maura Healey advanced from the Democratic primary for Attorney General of Massachusetts on September 4, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Maura Healey	100.0	596,474

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 596,474
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for Attorney General of Massachusetts

James McMahon defeated Dan Shores in the Republican primary for Attorney General of Massachusetts on September 4, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		James McMahon	61.1	135,362
	Submit photo	Dan Shores	38.9	86,315

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 221,677
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2014

See also: Massachusetts attorney general election, 2014

Healey ran for election to the office of Attorney General. Healey won the Democratic nomination in the primary on September 9, 2014.^[8] She faced Republican John Miller in the general election to replace outgoing incumbent Martha Coakley, who left the seat open in 2014 to run for governor. The general election took place on November 4, 2014.

Results

Primary

Massachusetts Attorney General, Democratic Primary, 2014
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Maura Healey	62.1%	322,380
Warren Tolman	37.7%	195,654
Write-in votes	0.1%	721
Total Votes		518,755
Election results via Massachusetts Secretary of State.

General election

Attorney General of Massachusetts, 2014
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Maura Healey	61.7%	1,280,513
	Republican	John Miller	38.2%	793,821
	Nonpartisan	Write-in votes	0.1%	2,103
Total Votes				2,076,437
Election results via Massachusetts Secretary of State

Endorsements

Healey was endorsed by The Boston Globe prior to the primary.^[10]

Campaign themes

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

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2022

Maura Healey did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign website

Healey's campaign website stated the following:

“

Child Tax Credit

Maura believes the best way to help families dealing with high costs right now is by making meaningful investments while also putting money back in people’s pockets.

Too many families are struggling to keep up with the cost of living. With housing, gas, and child care costs skyrocketing, we need to give families relief. Maura believes the best way to help families dealing with high costs right now is by making meaningful investments while also putting money back in people’s pockets.

That’s why Maura supports tax relief for families. Under Maura’s Child Tax Credit, more than 700,000 families would receive $600 per child.

Her Child Tax Credit would have numerous benefits. As inflation and the cost of living continues to burden Massachusetts residents, this proposal would put more money back in their pockets. Large families would no longer be excluded from additional assistance. Further, the fully-refundable tax credit would help address the economic crisis stemming from our under-invested child care system, and families who don’t use professional child care would also see an added impact. This will be especially impactful for Black and Latino families, which are more likely to rely on informal child care. Overall, this proposal also would streamline and simplify the tax filing process for Massachusetts families.

Here’s how it works.

Currently, the Household Dependent Tax Credit is for all families with dependents, but it is capped at two dependents with a $180 benefit per dependent, for a maximum benefit of $360. The Dependent Care Tax Credit is for child care-related expenses, but it is also capped at two dependents with a $240 benefit per dependent, with a maximum benefit of $480. Under current law, a tax filer may choose either tax credit but cannot choose both. A family with two dependents who previously received the Dependent Care Tax Credit would get a maximum of $480 – under Healey’s plan, that family would receive $1200 in tax relief.

Maura’s Child Tax Credit would combine these two credits. She would more than double the value of the existing tax credits being offered and remove the dependent cap currently set at two dependents. Her plan would also index the credit to inflation moving forward. This would allow tax filers to simply include the number of dependents (children under age 13, individuals age 65 and over, and persons with disabilities) on their returns in order to receive the credits. This tax credit would also be permanent, giving families stability for years to come.

Climate

Maura has the experience, vision, and know-how to lead Massachusetts through the clean energy transition and to deliver on the promise of the opportunities presented. This is our chance to create good-paying jobs, protect our communities, and address environmental injustices that have existed for far too long.

The climate crisis is our greatest risk and our greatest opportunity. Our choice is clear: to protect our families, communities, and the environment that sustains us, we must rapidly transition to clean energy. As Governor, Maura will make climate change a top priority. She understands the critical urgency of this issue and she knows what is at stake—especially for the Commonwealth’s most vulnerable communities. The actions we must take now to protect our families and communities from climate change also present a once in a lifetime opportunity to build a healthier, more equitable future and to position Massachusetts as a global leader in clean energy technology and innovation. She will make that vision a reality by innovating state government, working directly with communities, implementing science-based policy, partnering with clean technology businesses, and supporting clean energy research and development.

Maura is a nationally recognized leader on climate and has led successful efforts to boost clean energy, protect ratepayers from costly and unnecessary investments in fossil fuel infrastructure, fight for health protective federal action on climate and push for market reforms that level the playing field for clean energy. She has the experience, vision, and know-how to lead Massachusetts through the clean energy transition and to deliver on the promise of the opportunities presented. This is our chance to build a better future for all—let’s seize it!

MAURA’S RECORD

Maura knows how to get this done. As Attorney General, she led groundbreaking efforts to combat the climate crisis. In 2019, Maura sued ExxonMobil in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit that alleged the company lied to consumers and investors about the risks of climate change. Maura understands that climate change harms our most vulnerable communities first and worst—she was among the first leaders nationally to draw attention to the unequal effects of COVID-19 on low income communities and communities of color due to environmental factors. She launched several initiatives to support environmental justice communities, including taking on polluters across the state, instituting a program to combat idling vehicles, and installing air monitors in Springfield, which has one of the highest rates of asthma in the country. Maura secured nearly $100 million in mitigation funds from Volkswagen for clean transportation and electric vehicle infrastructure. Her team also led the multi-state effort to block the Trump environmental rollbacks in court and called on the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities to investigate the future of natural gas utilities. Her settlement with Columbia Gas is sending millions of dollars back to low-income communities for climate resiliency and utility relief. As the ratepayer advocate, she worked to keep utility bills low, saving consumers $4.5 billion. Maura will make sure that equity is at the core of all state actions to reduce the threat of climate change and make our communities more resilient.

Last year, Massachusetts enacted An Act Creating a Next-Generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate Policy (the 2021 Climate Act). The 2021 Climate Act requires that, over the next eight years, we reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent below 1990 levels. Massachusetts’ greenhouse gas emission reduction mandates are on track with the most recent recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The next Governor needs to be laser-focused on meeting this requirement, creating good-paying and sustainable jobs, and bringing direct economic benefits to the people most deeply impacted by the climate crisis. Maura has the strongest, proven record on climate change of any gubernatorial candidate in Massachusetts history. She is the right leader at the right time to guide Massachusetts to a clean energy future.

GOVERNMENT MUST ACT NOW ON CLIMATE

Climate change is not just an environmental issue—it is an issue of public health, economics, food security, national security, and housing. Our response to climate change must be as multifaceted as the problem itself. Now is the time to innovate in state government and work hand-in-hand with our local and regional partners.

The Healey Plan

Massachusetts must take swift, decisive, and comprehensive action to mitigate the risks posed by the climate crisis. In order to do this, government must be nimble and action must be coordinated across agencies. Maura will create a cabinet-level Climate Chief who will be responsible for driving climate policy across every Massachusetts agency and ensuring that climate change is considered in all relevant decision-making. The Climate Chief will report directly to the Governor, and coordinate efforts between the Executive Offices of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA), Labor and Workforce Development, Housing and Economic Development, the Department of Transportation, Health and Human Services, Public Safety and Security, MBTA, MassDevelopment, and more. Maura will also establish a network of state, regional, and local partnerships to ensure every community in all parts of the Commonwealth has a say in the energy decisions that affect them and receives necessary support to build climate resilience in ways that address community priorities.

The state will lead by example by achieving net-zero emissions by 2030 across state operations and rapidly transitioning the state fleet to electric vehicles. State agencies on the frontlines fighting climate change must have the funds to win the war. As Governor, Maura will commit at least 1 percent of the state budget to the states’ environmental and energy agencies and work with the Legislature to increase funding for the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) to support its growing mission and responsibilities.

Under Maura’s leadership, environmental and energy permitting agencies will build in equity from the ground up and ensure that new and upgraded infrastructure supports, rather than undermines, our climate mitigation, adaptation, and resilience goals. All agencies and programs will use the best science and forward-looking climate data in their planning and decision-making.

INNOVATE & CREATE JOBS

Massachusetts knows how to solve problems and build new industries. Becoming the nation’s hub for clean energy innovation will bring industry to the state and create thousands of good-paying, sustainable jobs.

The Healey Plan

Maura will establish a Climate Action and Innovation Leadership Council charged with making Massachusetts the best place in the country to start, staff, and grow a firm that solves environmental and climate challenges. This council will bring together the private and public sectors, and our universities and non-profits to continue Massachusetts’ national leadership on incubating and scaling next-generation technology. This includes advanced storage, networked and deep geothermal, hydrogen, distributed energy, floating offshore wind, non-carbon industrial and building processes, smart modular reactors, and fusion.

As a part of their workforce development agenda, the Healey Administration will work to rapidly deploy workforce development funding to training programs. They will partner with community colleges, vocational schools, workforce investment boards, and labor in order to meet the worker demand of the clean energy economy and transition existing energy workers to high-quality clean energy jobs. They will build a skilled, trained, and large workforce to install electric heat pumps in millions of homes and buildings across the state. Workforce development programs will include wraparound services and stipends to incentivize more women, people of color, and people with low incomes to participate. Training and recruitment programs will be held within overburdened communities.

Maura will reinvigorate the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (CEC) to spur clean tech job growth. With its strong relationships in the private sector and with our world-class academic institutions, the CEC has helped boost the clean energy sector in Massachusetts, which has grown 68 percent since 2010, with over 100,000 people employed as of 2021. Under Maura’s leadership, the CEC will realize its full potential as the state’s clean tech accelerator, driving innovation in everything from high performance buildings to clean transportation to offshore wind, and creating the finance and business models we need to grow the clean energy economy right here in Massachusetts. The CEC will also nurture the skilled workforce needed to meet this growth, creating 40,000 jobs – double the number lost to the pandemic. Maura will work to triple the CEC’s budget and charge it with establishing a Massachusetts Green Bank to facilitate investment in low-carbon, climate-resilient infrastructure and empower it to utilize other economic tools to attract and retain companies that will create new clean energy jobs, particularly in low-income communities. Using the power of public funds to leverage private investment, the Massachusetts Green Bank will finance green projects where they are most needed to deliver community benefits, jobs, reduced emissions, and climate resilience. The Green Bank will also provide seed money to clean energy companies founded in overburdened communities and by people of color.

In a Healey Administration, communities will be empowered to innovate and lead on climate change. Our municipalities have the will to act, but current state law stymies these efforts. Maura will support legislation that provides communities with the legal authority to innovate and demonstrate successful clean energy initiatives. She also will strengthen and expand municipal aggregations and climate partnerships addressing community priorities that create climate co-benefits and the sharing of ideas between communities.

CENTER OVERBURDENED COMMUNITIES

Over the next two decades, we will be investing billions of dollars in clean energy, clean transportation, energy efficiency, and climate adaptation. We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in our environmental justice communities, which bear the brunt of increasing temperatures, dangerous pollution, extreme weather, and rising sea levels, and ensure that all communities in Massachusetts are stronger, more resilient, and benefit from these clean energy investments. This is an opportunity for transformational change.

The Healey Plan

A Healey Administration will ensure that American Rescue Plan and Infrastructure Law climate spending directly benefits our overburdened communities and advances our climate goals. They will address and reverse historical disinvestment and disempowerment, and empower community members as decision makers. Communities will drive this effort from the ground up, so that the people most deeply impacted by the climate crisis are involved at every stage. The Healey Administration will support projects like clean energy improvements in public and subsidized housing, schools, or municipal buildings, converting fleets of dirty fuel vehicles to clean electric buses, and community solar. State, regional, and local agencies in urban, suburban, and rural communities alike will work together to apply for and receive every dollar available for Massachusetts and will do so with efficiency and inclusivity. Maura will work to get rid of the unnecessary fossil fuel infrastructure that plagues so many overburdened communities and will work with these communities to repurpose the land in a way that makes sense for them.

Maura also will ensure that overburdened communities have a seat at the table. Agencies like the DPU, the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office (MEPA), Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB), and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) are making decisions that directly affect the health and economic success of our overburdened communities. Agency decision-making must be equity-focused and responsive to community concerns. Maura will appoint representatives from environmental justice communities to the EFSB, create a new DPU Office of Public Participation, and establish intervenor funds to level the playing field and support all interested parties having a voice in agency proceedings. Maura will require that these agencies have diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Top-level officials will all be trained in environmental and energy justice decision-making. And Maura will finally convene the Environmental Justice Advisory Council, which will advise her and her team on the needs of overburdened communities and ensure that the process for distributing climate investments is inclusive of community voices.

Maura will dramatically expand community-based environmental monitoring in overburdened communities across the state, including air monitoring data, using new and transparent technology, and acting on the opportunities the data present to address local air and water pollution. In a Healey Administration, DEP will be empowered to aggressively implement the 2021 Climate Act’s directives and to address cumulative impacts of air pollution and other environmental degradation.

ELECTRIFY EVERYTHING

Today, fossil fuels used by our gas furnaces, oil-fired furnaces and boilers, water heaters, and gas stoves in residential and commercial buildings are responsible for 27 percent of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. Transportation is responsible for 42 percent of greenhouse gas emissions and industrial uses emit 5 percent. In the next two decades, we need to electrify everything—including our buildings and transportation system. We can do this. Our state is home to industrious and innovative workers who can lead this swift transition. Doing so will create jobs, improve public health, and strengthen our economy.

THE HEALEY PLAN

Clean Buildings

Electrifying buildings will be one of our biggest challenges– but also an opportunity for safer, healthier homes and buildings. We have the technology that we need, but we need a bold set of policies to obtain the level of greenhouse gas emissions reduction necessary and to do so equitably.

We also need to change the business model of our gas utilities, which are, after all, public utilities. The Healey Administration will require the gas utilities to adopt transition plans that are customer-focused, equitable, and consistent with the state’s emission reduction requirements. Maintaining the status quo by kicking the can down the road will not be acceptable. Maura will also work with the Legislature and stakeholders to ensure that the state’s law on gas pipe repair and replacement reduces leaks and is consistent with the state’s climate requirements.

Energy efficiency is the most cost-effective way to address emissions and lower customer costs. We must continue and expand our award-winning MassSave energy efficiency program. But we cannot get the job done by relying solely on the MassSave program or by continuing to build homes and buildings that rely on fossil fuels. That is why, in a Healey Administration, municipalities will have the option to adopt a specialized energy code that gives them the authority to ban gas use in new construction.

A Healey Administration will also install one million heat pumps by 2030 by focusing on market transformation: workforce training, customer and installer education, and lower installation costs. Maura will prioritize whole home retrofits for low-income households to help them weatherize, install heat pumps and other efficient electric appliances, and make other health and safety home improvements. And, she will work with the Legislature to establish building emission standards like the new ordinance in effect in Boston (BERDO) and establish a home energy rating system.

Clean Transportation

Affordable, reliable transportation is a crucial backbone of the economy. Massachusetts is among the lowest ranked states when it comes to commute times, and the Greater Boston area has some of the worst traffic congestion in the country. Impoverished riders all face longer commute times, often because their communities are poorly served by public transit, or the cost of housing near transit is prohibitive. Maura understands that access to transportation is access to opportunity. And she knows that transportation is also the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Massachusetts, and a source of other dangerous air pollution. Fixing the state’s transportation system is a win-win-win for equity, the Commonwealth’s economy, and the environment.

We need to quickly electrify all modes of transportation. At the same time, we need to reduce car usage by improving the reliability and frequency of transit services, expanding transit to economically growing zones, and adjusting land use patterns so more homes and jobs are near transit. Maura’s vision for a clean transportation system will increase transportation choice, reduce emissions, and improve public health. As a part of her transportation agenda, a Healey Administration will electrify public transportation so that all modes operate on 100 percent clean power by 2040, starting with school and MBTA buses by 2030.

Maura will ensure that the nearly $3 billion in new federal transit funding for Massachusetts state and regional transit authorities will pay dividends in better, expanded, and affordable MBTA and RTA service and she will leverage state dollars to target additional federal funds. But she knows that these additional funds are not sufficient to maintain and expand the Commonwealth’s public transportation system to meet our goals. The Commonwealth needs long term, sustained state funding sources to support the RTAs and tackle the projected shortfalls in the MBTA capital and operating funds. Maura will evaluate options, including revenue-generating incentives to decarbonize transportation, as part of her commitment to solving this longstanding problem.

Maura will also put 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2030 by providing larger rebates for used and low-cost electric vehicles, while making it easy for customers to access these rebates at the time they buy or lease their vehicle. She will prioritize public spending on electric vehicle charging infrastructure projects that benefit low- and moderate-income households and overburdened communities.

The Healey Administration will end the sale of new passenger cars and light duty trucks powered by gasoline or diesel by 2035. All public fleet purchases will be electric by 2028. They will require utilities to offer discounts for charging at night when electricity demand is low. The Healey transportation agenda will also include bold investment in electric vehicle infrastructure and strong incentives for their adoption, including for heavy duty vehicles, as well as pedestrian walkways, and safe, expanded bike lanes.

The last two years have demonstrated that telework is a viable alternative to the daily commute for many jobs and industries. The Healey Administration will work with employers to reduce car usage through smart telework policies and expand on measures to reduce single occupancy vehicles. These policies are not only good for the environment, but they also reduce commuting times.

Recognizing that different communities and regions have different clean transportation needs, Maura will put communities in the driver’s seat by establishing a community-based transportation equity program to support planning for projects that local communities most need.

BUILD A MODERN, CONSUMER-ORIENTED CLEAN ENERGY GRID

To meet the goal of electrifying everything, Massachusetts needs to exponentially expand clean energy to power all electricity. This means deploying wind, solar, hydro, storage, and other emerging clean technologies—and to do so faster than ever before. We need to expand our electric transmission system to move power to where people are, modernize our distribution grid, and invest in energy efficiency and long-duration energy storage. Accelerating the pace of renewable development will create jobs, strengthen our economy, and enhance reliability while addressing climate change and local air pollution.

The Healey Plan

Under a Healey Administration, Massachusetts will achieve 100 percent clean electricity supply by 2030.

Maura will position Massachusetts as the nation’s offshore wind capital by expeditiously permitting the 5,600 MW of offshore wind procurements currently authorized by law and more than doubling the Commonwealth’s target to 10,000 MW offshore wind by 2035. She will do that by increasing our offshore wind procurements and exploring market mechanisms to procure wind-powered energy at the lowest cost as well as facilitating corporate, municipal, and non-profit agreements to buy directly from the power producer. Through project labor agreements, she will ensure that union workers build this industry and do so with prevailing wages. Maura will also increase investments in port infrastructure to $200 million to ensure that Massachusetts retains its leadership role in offshore wind development.

The Healey Administration will capitalize on the strong existing Massachusetts solar industry with a total of 10 GW of deployed solar by 2030. They will deploy rooftop solar installations in the communities where widespread adoption is lacking and encourage smart siting of large solar facilities. Maura will also press utilities to plan for and upgrade the distribution system to integrate this new solar equitably, without the delays customers face today due to utility backlogs. Investing in a smarter grid will help ensure that it will continue to perform as we increase our dependence on electricity for heating and transportation.

Maura will quadruple energy storage deployment by 2030 and invest in research and development to make long-duration storage a reality. She also will build upon Massachusetts’ award-winning energy efficiency programs by ending fossil fuel incentives, encouraging fuel switching and beneficial electrification, and focusing on whole building electrification in low-income and overburdened communities. And a Healey Administration will give customers greater control over their energy use through home solar and storage systems, community energy systems, advanced meters, time varying rates, and smart appliances.

Regional transmission lines, both within New England and connecting with other regions, will allow Massachusetts to import and export power. These lines are crucial for a reliable and clean electric system. There are large reserves of reliable hydropower from existing dams in Canada which would complement solar and offshore wind energy, but thus far, Massachusetts has not succeeded in finding a way to bring these supplies to the Commonwealth. Maura will be a leader among our neighboring states that, like Massachusetts, are seeking to decarbonize their economies and leverage our region’s shared vision for our energy transition. Maura will work closely with regional partners to ensure that ISO-New England markets for buying and selling power do not discriminate against clean power. Federal markets, transmission planning, and siting all must align with our path to a modern, renewable energy grid focused on consumers. In the first six months of a Healey Administration, Maura will convene a regional energy summit to develop a strategy for addressing transmission, siting, market reform, and cost allocation issues. A Healey Administration will also reduce technical process delays that keep clean energy from connecting to the grid, increase the states’ roles in transmission planning, and ensure that our distribution and transmission systems are up to date and can work with each other.

Maura will establish a new DPU division on grid modernization to remove delays and barriers to renewable resources connecting to the distribution grid and ensure that utilities plan for and build a modern grid that will support distributed resources and building and heating electrification. She will support programs that decrease electricity use during times of high demand and incentivize electricity use when demand is low. Maura will direct the EFSB, together with an advisory group, to review and make recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature on how the Commonwealth can best facilitate the siting of clean energy in appropriate places. The recommendations will prioritize energy and environmental justice and develop options for more efficient and less costly permitting processes.

KEEP CARBON IN THE GROUND AND PROTECT OUR FARMS & FORESTS

To meet our climate goals, we have to both reduce emissions from all sectors and remove existing carbon dioxide pollution from our atmosphere. Protecting our forests, agricultural soils, and wetlands reduces emissions, and removes carbon pollution from our atmosphere. Massachusetts’ forests are of an age and condition to draw down significant quantities of carbon from the atmosphere in the next decade, by 2050 and by 2100. These natural climate solutions offer other benefits, including making our ecosystems more resilient, providing natural cooling and shade, flood control, protecting species, promoting biodiversity, recreation, and supporting local agriculture and access to healthy food. Establishing Strategic Forest Reserves to provide these services and preserve our matured forests to draw down carbon is essential to meeting our climate goals. Providing incentives for sustainable forest and farm management practices will allow us to preserve our agricultural heritage and continue to produce forest products over the long term.

The Healey Plan

There are currently about 3 million acres of forested lands in Massachusetts, and most are unprotected or lack sufficient protections. The Healey Administration will establish a Forest Protection Program that will provide enhanced incentives to willing private landowners to keep their trees growing rather than harvesting them. The program will reward private landowners who manage their forests for reducing emissions over each harvest cycle, including by increasing intervals between harvests, conserving the oldest mature trees, protecting soil carbon during harvest, and other improved harvesting and management practices.

Rapid growth in solar power is crucial to ensuring Massachusetts meets its emission reduction mandates, yet it must be sited appropriately. The Healey Administration will carefully tailor solar incentive programs to ensure a balanced approach that achieves our solar potential while protecting our mature forests. They will do this by prioritizing deployment of rooftop solar and solar installations in parking lot canopies, brownfields, landfills, unused industrial or commercial sites, powerline and other rights of way, and suitable agricultural and horticultural lands.

The Commonwealth’s wetlands also store large volumes of soil carbon. While we can be proud of our strong wetlands protections—among the most effective in the world—our wetlands are still being lost, in part because our no-net-loss policy permits wetlands to be replaced with man-made alternatives. Maura will strengthen wetlands protections to ensure they remain carbon sinks, not sources.

Burning wood for bioenergy depletes our forests, increases greenhouse gas emissions, and is a threat to human health. Maura will end subsidies for forest bioenergy for electricity and commercial-scale heat.

Maura will place a temporary moratorium on commercial harvesting on state-owned public forest land. Within her first year as Governor, she will develop and implement a science-based state forest management plan that accounts for the impacts of climate change on our forest resources and the role our forests can play in protecting the climate.

Massachusetts has a vibrant farming community, including young farmers, and farmers markets and Community Supported Agriculture opportunities are popular across the state. Through the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, Maura will establish a Climate-Friendly Farming program to provide technical assistance to farmers interested in farm management practices that can reduce emissions and help drawdown carbon. And, the Healey Administration will measure and track outcomes to verify reductions and gain more knowledge about the techniques that work best for our soil types and crops. Through this voluntary program, they will also provide information and assistance to farmers seeking to reduce costs and climate-warming nitrous oxide emissions through smarter use of fertilizers—a measure that also protects our streams, wetlands, and waterbodies from polluted runoff.

MASSACHUSETTS STRONG—BUILDING RESILIENCY

Climate change is already causing more extremes in temperature, precipitation, runoff and flooding, extended droughts, high winds, and storms. Faster-than-historical increases in temperature and sea-level rise cause disruptive and irreversible shifts in seasons and shorelines. The expected extremes and gradual changes will combine in unexpected ways to cause ecological, agricultural, infrastructure, human, and economic impacts sooner and larger than expected. Making the needed investments now will strengthen our communities and protect our vital resources, while addressing community priorities.

The Healey Plan

The urgent need for adaptation measures is one that spans our state, and adaptation needs vary from community to community. Rural Western Massachusetts has different needs from our coastal areas, which are in turn different from the needs in the urban centers of the Boston metro region, Worcester, and Springfield. 93 percent of Massachusetts cities and towns (328 municipalities) have enrolled in the Massachusetts Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) program. Maura will increase the budget for this successful program, allowing more communities to focus on implementation and action. She will also work to build capacity in and provide technical assistance to lower-capacity rural and urban communities so that they can take advantage of funding opportunities to improve planning for climate resilience.

Maura will prioritize efforts to ensure storm and flood preparedness (coastal and inland), with a focus on reviewing and improving existing flood protection and insurance, awareness campaigns, and training for emergency management personnel. She will establish a blue-ribbon commission charged with developing a statewide framework devoted to addressing the impacts of sea level rise, erosion, and extreme storms on our treasured and vulnerable coast. This commission will leverage our scientific community’s increasingly sophisticated data about the risks we presently face and consider best practices to encourage retreat in areas where sea level rise or riverine flooding is too extreme to be addressed by reasonable modifications.

One of the most immediate impacts of climate change in Massachusetts will be heat. Heat waves disproportionately impact people of color, the elderly, people with disabilities, and people living in public and subsidized housing. Maura will implement an Extreme Heat Action Plan to build community resilience. The plan will include large-scale tree planting, identifying heat islands, training for local health officials, cooling schools, and a public health monitoring system to identify heat illness events early, and monitor trends.

Climate resilience includes creating awareness of the potential health, including mental health, impacts of climate change. Maura will partner with Massachusetts’ leading health care providers to promote awareness of climate change related health issues.

Criminal Justice Reform

We have a lot more work to do to address systemic racism in our criminal justice system – and across all realms of our society. Maura will continue to advocate for criminal justice reforms.

Maura’s background is as a civil rights lawyer, and her work has been and continues to be guided by a commitment to equity. It’s why she’s brought cases against predatory landlords and lenders. It’s why she’s worked to address the broken student loan system and reduce the debt burden on families of color and immigrants. It’s why her office has invested in recovery services in Black and Latino/Hispanic communities. It’s why she revealed civil rights violations in the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office, leading to the termination of its contract with the federal government. It’s why she’s taken on pollution and environmental injustices.

And it’s why she’s supported criminal justice reforms – the 2020 police reform bill in Massachusetts, repealing mandatory minimums, bail reform, adopting uniform policies on eyewitness identification, increasing the property crime thresholds amounts and thereby downgrading many of these offenses from felonies to misdemeanors, releasing terminally ill incarcerated individuals, ending mandatory drivers license revocations for non-driving offenses, creating and supporting Conviction Integrity Units in all her prosecutorial offices to address wrongful convictions, and more.

Voters can count on Maura to use this same equity lens as Governor. She knows that we have a lot more work to do to address systemic racism in our criminal justice system – and across all realms of our society. That includes:

Police reform: Maura will be committed to seeing through full implementation of the landmark 2020 police reform bill. The new Peace Officer Standards & Training Commission has a lot of work to do to ensure that our departments and officers have uniform training standards, certification and decertification policies, de-escalation tactics and other life saving procedures, and so much more. Massachusetts was one of the last states to adopt this type of independent oversight Commission, but Maura knows they are up to the task.
Appointments: Maura will appoint leaders who share a commitment to public safety, equity and criminal justice reform.
Prevention: Maura will continue to support investments that prevent entry into the criminal justice system in the first place, including, expanding affordable housing, increasing access to behavioral health care and recovery services, and hiring more social workers in schools. For those re-entering our communities, she will look to advance opportunities that increase access to jobs and education. Real alternatives, when partnered with housing, health care and other support services, can help reduce recidivism.
Workforce development: Maura sees workforce development opportunities as a means to support people who are re-entering society, especially if we invest in wraparound services and provide stipends for people to live off while they train. Maura will continue to advocate for removing barriers to employment because of someone’s criminal record.
Other reforms: Maura will also continue to advocate for passage of several reforms currently before the legislature. She supports legislation to ensure that incarcerated individuals are not charged for phone calls to their loved ones. She believes we must remove barriers to re-entry, like losing a driver’s license or being barred from good-paying jobs or affordable housing. Maura will also support investing in multidisciplinary crisis response teams to respond to certain emergency calls, including those involving behavioral health and homelessness. And she’ll continue to advocate for reforms to protect the confidentiality of crime victims.

Economic Development

Maura will promote economic development that creates opportunity, serving and balancing the needs of all stakeholders – our communities, workers, employers, and investors.

With a visionary public-private partnership, we are poised to create the next Massachusetts Miracle, expanding our place as a world leader, engaging our resources in investment and capital, high-tech innovation, and academic creativity to build a dynamic economy that embraces climate resiliency and sustainable growth. Maura will make certain that these partnerships, first and foremost, serve the current and future needs of our residents and our environment.

Maura knows that a healthy economy for all our citizens must be built from the bottom up, the middle out, and the top down. She will continue to lift up workers by advocating for universal child care, fair wages, and strong benefits. She will build out our middle class by investing in education, workforce training, housing affordability, and public transportation. Maura will also take a close look at our tax policy to make sure it addresses today’s extreme concentration of wealth and income such that our sources of revenue and our expenditures lead to a fairer and more balanced economy.

Maura’s economic development agenda will include the following:

Approach all efforts through an equity lens, ensuring that everyone in Massachusetts has the opportunities to access high-quality jobs and careers by supporting wraparound services like child care and living stipends.
Undertake historic investment and recommitment to connecting workers everywhere in the Commonwealth to good jobs, including to critical industries like health care, education, clean energy, advanced manufacturing, and behavioral health.
Lead the nation in training and preparing workers to participate in the clean energy economy by establishing a Climate Action and Innovation Leadership Council charged with making Massachusetts the best place in the country to start, staff, and grow a firm that solves environmental and climate challenges, as well as tripling the budget for the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (CEC) to spur clean tech job growth.
Promote and expand Early College efforts across the Commonwealth, providing more young people with pathways to opportunity and post-secondary success.
Encourage entrepreneurism, especially for women and people of color by creating an Office of Economic Assistance to advise and assist in developing business plans, facilitate regulatory compliance, and help people access needed capital and borrowing.
Partner with labor and industry to create pathways to meaningful opportunities and steady careers in important sectors.
Ensure that Massachusetts remains competitive by creating a regulatory environment that encourages and supports opportunities for start-ups, as well as growth of existing businesses, that are consistent with our community’s vision.
Bring new resources and attention to Massachusetts’ robust network of vocational and technical high schools, coordinating those assets with regional community colleges and industries to maximize their impact and fulfill their potential.
Enact stronger protections against wage theft so that workers are better protected.
Expand opportunities for employment, housing, and more for individuals leaving places of incarceration.

Education

Maura comes from a family of educators. Her mom, Tracy, is a middle school nurse and her stepdad, Edward, was Maura’s basketball coach and the president of their local teacher’s union. As a middle school basketball coach herself, Maura believes strongly in the importance of a well-rounded, quality education for every child in Massachusetts.

Massachusetts is home to globally-recognized public schools and educators. But this achievement masks the persistent reality that Massachusetts is also home to wide opportunity gaps that plague our students of color, English language learners, students with disabilities, and low-income students. The past two years have been especially hard on our students, educators, and parents. Our entire education system has been upended by COVID-19. Every child has had their education and development disrupted at some level and the disparities that existed before the pandemic have only widened. As we emerge from the pandemic, we need to rebuild our education system so it works better for everyone and to ensure that all children have equal access to a quality education.

As Governor, Maura would be laser-focused on closing these opportunity gaps, from early childhood, to K-12, to higher education.

EARLY CHILDHOOD

Our early childhood education and care system – which is essential to the basic functioning of our economy – is in desperate need of investment. We saw what happened during this pandemic to our child care system – children suffered, parents couldn’t go to work, and businesses and the economy struggled. Now, two years later, we still have 10 percent fewer child care slots than we had before the pandemic and families are struggling to afford the cost. Massachusetts ranks second in the country for infant care costs, higher than what most would pay to attend a public university. It’s not surprising that the percentage of women in the workforce has dropped significantly. And our early education and care workforce – 40 percent of whom are women of color – is depleted by burnout and low wages.

Maura has been a strong advocate for greater investment in early education and care. She called on Congress to invest billions in the industry, pass federal child care legislation, and make the child tax credit permanent.

As Governor, she will continue to advocate for federal funding for early education and care, as well as explore state solutions to the child care crisis. Maura supports the Common Start proposal, which would make child care free for the lowest-income families, limit child care costs for most families to no more than 7 percent of their income, and significantly increase pay for early educators to address the workforce crisis in the early education field.

Maura will also support early education and care providers. As Governor, she will partner with educational institutions to create an early education and care workforce pipeline – including expanded access to career development opportunities – and implement strategies focused on workforce retention. Maura also supports efforts in the Legislature to increase salaries of early education providers and the effective implementation of the Early Education and Care Public Private Trust Fund.

K-12 EDUCATION

Maura is a longtime advocate for equitable funding for our public schools and improved behavioral health services for our students. She supported the Student Opportunity Act, which provides more equitable funding for our school districts. She opposed the 2016 ballot measure that would have drained millions from our public schools by expanding the number of charter schools in the state. And she’s funded groundbreaking programming across the state to prevent substance use disorder, combat sexual assault, stop gun violence and bullying, and help young people build healthy relationships in school. Her partnership with Sandy Hook Promise has helped deploy their violence prevention program in 50 school districts throughout the state.

As Governor, Maura would continue her focus on closing achievement gaps and better supporting students and their families, including:

Fully fund the Student Opportunity Act. Our Gateway Cities and rural communities have historically been underfunded. These districts serve large populations of Black and brown students, and they deserve equitable funding.
Invest in behavioral health and wraparound services. With the disruptions and isolation of the pandemic, a rise in hate nationwide, and the stresses of the digital world, we are in the midst of a youth behavioral health crisis. There are long wait times for pediatric psychiatric beds and alarming instances of bullying across the state. As Governor, Maura would seek to invest in more school counselors and social workers to better address the behavioral health needs of students and their families. She also would prioritize more programming to identify other needs of families – such as housing, health care, or food insecurity – and work with school districts to connect them with the services they need.
Update our school buildings. Many of our school facilities are in disrepair, outdated, lack modern science labs and equipment, suffer from poor ventilation, and are not environmentally sustainable. The buildings most in need of renovation or replacement are disproportionately in lower-income communities that serve larger populations of Black and brown students and educators, who deserve to learn in modern and healthy environments. Maura would lead efforts to reevaluate the Massachusetts School Building Authority’s reimbursement formula to support districts in need.
Recruit, retain, and promote educators of color. Our students of color deserve to walk into a classroom and learn from someone who shares their lived experiences. But in Massachusetts, where more than 40 percent of our student population are students of color, less than 10 percent of our educators are people of color. Twenty-five percent of Black students in Massachusetts attend a school without a single Black teacher. Research shows that having a single teacher of color can boost academic achievement, high school graduation rates, and college enrollment for students of color. As Governor, Maura will promote policies and legislation that will create a pipeline to better recruit, retain, and promote educators of color. This includes legislation that would explore alternatives to the teacher licensing exam (the MTEL), improve financial support for prospective teachers, invest in professional development, hire more support staff, and promote Diversity, Equity & Inclusion programs in local districts to better retain and elevate teachers of color to administrative positions.
Assess the role of standardized testing. Maura supports the efforts of the Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment and will work with stakeholders to determine what reforms to our assessment and accountability system would best support the goals of advancing excellence and equity, especially for students with disabilities, English learners, and those from marginalized communities.
Expand early college programs. The Massachusetts Early College Initiative helps students from low-income families and communities of color earn free college credits and receive support while still in high school. Maura will expand early college programming to help make higher education more attainable and equitable.

HIGHER EDUCATION

Massachusetts’ colleges and universities are some of our greatest resources. They drive economic growth and higher wages, and foster an environment of curiosity and innovation for which our state is renowned. But underneath these achievements are persistent disparities. In 2001, our public university graduates had one of the lowest student debt in the nation. By 2016, debt levels climbed to 10th. One important driver of this change is cuts to state spending on higher education – Massachusetts spends 31 percent less on higher education per student than it did 20 years ago, and instead places that burden on our students in the form of increased tuition and fees. Higher education can be an important pathway to economic mobility, and our public university graduates are much more likely to stay in Massachusetts after graduation, starting their families, contributing to our economy, and forming the fabric of our communities. The jobs are here – a 2016 report predicted that many good-paying jobs in our thriving tech and health care industries would go unfilled. Today, that’s truer than ever.

Maura knows all too well how student debt holds back our residents. She is the first and only Attorney General in the country to create a Student Loan Assistance Unit, and she’s helped thousands of borrowers navigate our broken student debt system. She sued the Department of Education and brokered huge settlements with Navient and FedLoan that will help borrowers pay down their debt and receive loan forgiveness. She led the call with Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley for President Bident to cancel up $50,000 in federal debt per borrower. For Maura, tackling our student debt crisis is a matter of basic economics and racial justice. Too many borrowers can’t buy a home, start a family, or get ahead because of their debt. And Black and brown borrowers bear a disproportionate debt burden. As Governor, Maura would continue her focus on improving access to affordable public higher education and reducing student debt, including:

Continue to urge President Biden to cancel up to $50,000 in federal student debt per borrower;
Invest in our community colleges, which are an important driver of economic mobility;
Increase investment into our public colleges and universities, update school facilities, and better support students, adjunct faculty, and other staff at these critical institutions.
Work to improve access and affordability of higher education so more students can graduate debt-free.

Health Care and Behavioral Health Care

Maura is focused on addressing the affordability crisis and promoting health equity, while maintaining the highest quality of care.

Massachusetts is lucky to have the best hospitals and health care institutions in the world. The strength of our health care system has never been more apparent than during the last two years of the pandemic. In particular, we have seen the best of our health care workforce, as they have gone above and beyond to serve our communities. But Maura knows that, despite the world class care here in Massachusetts, families are still struggling to afford it, as we have some of the highest costs in the country. Racial and ethnic disparities that have existed for generations continue to prevent equitable access to care and have been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Maura is focused on addressing the affordability crisis and promoting health equity, while maintaining the highest quality of care. Last year, her office released a robust report on racial inequity in health with recommendations in key areas to move toward racial justice in health care. As Governor, Maura will build on that vision to ensure we have a system that serves every community. This includes:

Treating mental and behavioral health care as seriously as all other forms of health care. Maura will invest in workforce development and support, create enforceable standards for parity in coverage, and build on successful models for providing behavioral health access in the community.
Lowering the cost of prescription drugs by increasing transparency in the pharmaceutical industry and exploring ways to ensure that prices correlate with the value new drugs add to available treatment regimens.
Focusing on ways to lower overall health care costs for families, including rising premiums and out-of-pocket costs, and ways to address unwarranted increases in provider prices.
Requiring health care providers and insurance carriers to improve the collection and reporting of patient race, ethnicity, and other demographic characteristics.
Including health equity as part of the state’s Annual Health Care Cost Trends Hearing to measure the state’s progress towards identified equity benchmarks.
Expanding access to telehealth services by increasing the availability of free and low-cost broadband, internet plans and devices, and making sure that underserved patients are aware of available resources.
Expanding affordable and inclusive educational opportunities to increase access to health professions
Ensuring that anti-racist, cultural humility, and implicit bias training is required of all licensed providers.
Expanding and supporting our local and regional public health agencies and integrating their expertise into our health care system.
Promoting the use of community health workers to meet the needs of underserved communities.
Fostering greater integration of our health care system with other public and private resources and experts to address key social determinants of health that are outlined in other sections of this page – including education, employment, housing, and the environment.
Working together with our health care, health sciences and information technology research leaders to maintain and grow our robust biotechnology sector, creating opportunities for young people to develop careers and contribute to scientific advancement.

Housing

Massachusetts has a housing crisis. Maura and Kim are committed to access to safe and affordable housing for all.

Housing affordability is one of the top issues Maura and Kim hear about from residents and business owners across the state. In the average household budget, housing is the single largest living expense category. More expensive housing means residents have less to spend on food, health care, transportation, and other necessities, and it holds people back from building wealth. Our current housing shortage has driven up home prices to record levels, often in communities that can least afford it. Massachusetts provides abundant job opportunities, world-class health care, and a top tier education system. Yet, current residents and their families fear that they can no longer afford to live within the communities where they work and send their children to school.

Maura and Kim know that affordable, accessible, and well-maintained housing is critical for the physical health and mental well-being of our residents. In particular, they understand that renters, children and older adults, people of color, and low-income families are at an especially high risk for experiencing housing-related health conditions. Maura and Kim want to ensure that housing is available at all income levels, especially for our public sector workers, such as teachers, public safety workers, and others that may be currently priced out of local markets.

Housing prices also threaten the long-term economic competitiveness of our Commonwealth. The average fair market rent in Massachusetts is nearly 50% higher than the national average. Massachusetts employers struggle to recruit and retain high-performing employees, which is further exacerbated by employees’ inability to find housing. If the current trend continues, Massachusetts will struggle to attract new residents, while driving out longtime residents who form the fabric of our communities.

Maura and Kim are deeply committed to tackling the housing crisis using an equity lens and creating a Commonwealth where every resident has a place to call home where they feel safe and secure. Their Administration will prioritize dramatically increasing production, preserving existing housing stock, supporting individuals and families struggling with homelessness, and fully harnessing the power of housing to create economic mobility for all.

TAKE IMMEDIATE STEPS TO ALLEVIATE THE CRISIS

The housing market, as it stands, is unsustainable. As of July 2022, one study found that Massachusetts has a shortage of 108,157 homes. While Maura and Kim believe that we need long-term strategies, they also understand that a multi-pronged approach is necessary to ease people’s housing burdens now.

The Healey-Driscoll Plan

The Healey-Driscoll Administration will establish a Secretary of Housing position to lead the growth of housing in the Commonwealth. The current Secretariat of Housing and Economic Development structure consolidates two separate policy areas under one post. By adding a Secretary of Housing to her Cabinet, Maura will prioritize housing as a key driver of economic growth and increase focus and resources on housing production and preservation. The elevation of the Secretary will also allow for more cross-disciplinary collaboration within the Cabinet to better connect housing to education, transportation, public safety and climate. Bolstered by support from the Governor’s Office, which will make housing a priority, the Secretary will be responsible for implementation of a coordinated housing policy with a goal of working with local officials, state agencies, existing housing stakeholders, and public and private sector housing developers to meet our housing needs in a manner that enhances communities and expands opportunities.

The Healey-Driscoll Administration will also establish a state-led pro-housing campaign to educate residents about our housing shortage and advocate for the creation of enhanced housing options in the Commonwealth. This effort will include public advocacy, training and education for community members and business leaders, toolkits and technical assistance for local officials, along with support for establishing local and regional housing production goals.

The immediate need for housing provides an opportunity for Massachusetts to review and simplify the production process. The Healey-Driscoll Administration will look for ways to streamline state permitting, address utility connection delays and refine the housing process for developers to apply for and receive funding from the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). The Administration will also consider reforms to current practices for obtaining state funding for affordable housing, including increasing the number of applications each developer can submit per year. While Massachusetts values thoughtful housing production, we do not want our developers bogged down by paperwork or lengthy delays at a time when housing production is desperately needed.

Every community across the Commonwealth is grappling with housing shortages and rising costs, but each community has its own issues contributing to the crisis. Rural developments need increased funding and support for infrastructure and utilities. Public housing developments need capital investments for maintenance, safety upgrades, and modernization. Naturally occurring affordable housing requires funding for acquisition and maintenance to keep them affordable on the market. Communities on the Cape and in the Berkshires experience additional housing pressures due to tourism. Gateway Cities struggle to keep rents stable as demand for their housing increases. Western Massachusetts’s housing needs are different from those of Eastern Massachusetts, in part due to aging housing stock. Maura and Kim will empower communities to enact local policies that best address their own, unique housing challenges, while encouraging regional cooperation and technical assistance. This may include local rent stabilization policies, zoning reforms to allow housing at greater densities, specific housing production supports, and more. Maura and Kim recognize that one size does not fit all and will help municipalities be creative in their solutions to tackle housing, as well as building a larger regional and statewide strategy. They envision a Massachusetts where all residents have access to safe and affordable housing options, regardless of the region in which they live.

Massachusetts has an opportunity to prioritize investments in housing with the influx of federal dollars through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and other vehicles. The Legislature has recognized this opportunity and already allocated significant funds to this end, including $885M in the FY23 Budget and $595M from ARPA. The Healey-Driscoll Administration will work to quickly deploy the housing funds that have already been allocated and will work with the Legislature to secure additional funds for affordable housing production and preservation with the next round of ARPA funding.

While funding from ARPA has given Massachessetts an opportunity to address critical housing issues exposed and exacerbated by the pandemic, many of our Commonwealth’s housing problems are long-standing issues that require long-term solutions and continued efforts. To that end, the Healey-Driscoll Administration will seek opportunities for partnership and support from the federal government to meet our state’s housing needs. They will advocate for Massachusetts to receive expanded federal resources and increase flexibility in administering those resources so they best suit the needs of our state.

While Massachusetts’ housing crisis is unique, Maura and Kim also know that many states across the United States are currently experiencing similar difficulties. Maura will work with governors from across the country to learn how they are addressing their housing needs for potential replication of successful strategies in Massachusetts. Furthermore, Maura and Kim understand the deep connections between the housing needs across Massachusetts and the willingness of local officials to permit and approve new housing. They are eager to work with municipal leaders to take a broader, regional view of housing issues. The Healey-Driscoll Administration hopes to build strong coalitions for housing advocacy within Massachusetts, across New England, and across the country.

ADDRESS CRITICAL SUPPLY NEEDS THROUGH PRODUCTION & PRESERVATION

Far and away the single most effective strategy to address the current housing crisis is to spur the production and preservation of housing at all levels, from low-income affordable housing to market rate homes. The state has a variety of tools at its disposal that work, but they need to be harnessed more intentionally. The Healey-Driscoll Administration will launch a multi-pronged approach to dramatically increase production to make housing affordable for all.

The Healey-Driscoll Plan

The Housing Choice Initiative was a meaningful effort to ease the path to housing production, particularly outside of Boston. The most significant provision, which aims to spur development of new homes around MBTA stations and requires as-of-right multi-family zoning districts, has the potential to significantly increase the number of homes in many suburban communities. Maura and Kim commit to implementing this law to the fullest extent by creating incentives for communities to actually build multi-family projects, including investing in communities that encourage growth, and for their Administration to provide ongoing technical assistance to municipalities to help them comply with the law. Maura and Kim see the potential for further zoning reform and, in tandem with this effort, will explore other avenues to address local zoning barriers to housing production.

Housing Choice also sets a goal for new units to be built by 2025 to meet our housing demand. While meeting that goal will require hastening the pace of current construction and outperforming our most recent production efforts, Maura and Kim believe that the state needs to be much more aggressive in its efforts to increase housing production. Maura will task her new Secretary of Housing with identifying bolder and more forward-thinking goals. However, just setting goals is not enough. The Healey-Driscoll Administration will commit to assisting local housing agencies and municipalities to set ambitious housing plans for their regions, that align with statewide objectives, and support the work from planning through implementation.

The state owns a wealth of land parcels that may be used for housing development that are routinely put up for purchase by private and nonprofit developers. However, often merely due to the shape or size of the parcels, developers cannot make the math work to produce a project that allows them to maximize density and affordability, while also meeting the goals of the local community. Maura and Kim will create an advisory council, including representation from residents, municipal officials, housing agencies, non-profit and private developers, and other stakeholders, which will be tasked with crafting and executing a statewide strategy to more effectively harness state land to advance the Commonwealth’s housing goals. The advisory council will be directly responsible for coordinating with the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) and other city or state agencies with real property to utilize public land and buildings to create more housing, either independently or by working with housing non-profits and the developer community to be more strategic in the sale and disposition of publicly state-owned land to better incentivize preferred housing sites. This may include reconfiguring the shape and size of a parcel or providing discounts on sale price in exchange for higher rates of affordable homes or other design specifications. Further, they will direct DCAMM and other government agencies to explore selling parcels in groupings, not just as individual property, to maximize housing development, while also ensuring developers build and protect community assets, such as parks and open space. The Healey-Driscoll Administration would also work with municipalities and local housing authorities, as well as private landowners with adjacent property, to expand production.

This is one example of how Maura and Kim will work to remove barriers to public-private partnership in the housing sector and as Governor, they will explore other avenues for creativity in the housing market. The Healey-Driscoll Administration would also work with developers and municipalities to ensure that new housing more accurately meets the needs of current and future residents. This includes expanding housing production for individual and family renters, older adults, persons with disabilities, as well as first-time homebuyers.

Despite the challenges in the current housing market, Massachusetts has a number of tools to encourage housing production that are considered some of the strongest and most effective in the country. A Healey-Driscoll Administration will build on that legacy by protecting tools like Chapters 40B & 40R, Massachusetts’ subsidized housing and smart growth zoning laws, expanding promising new programs such as CommonWealth Builder for single family development, and successful long-standing programs for multifamily development. They will also work to make investments in the Affordable Housing Trust, one of the state’s most effective and flexible resources to produce affordable and mixed-income housing.

Expanding the housing supply is not just about creating new homes, but also about preserving existing ones. The housing stock in Massachusetts is, on average, the second oldest in the country. Building on Maura’s work as Attorney General to address blighted and vacant properties, the Healey-Driscoll Administration will expand programs that help owners maintain and update homes, including lead abatement, water and sewage upgrades, weatherization, accessibility, energy efficiency, and climate resilience updates. The Healey-Driscoll Administration would be committed to exploring how funds from the federal Inflation Reduction Act can be harnessed to make homes more climate resilient. They will support clean energy improvement projects in public and subsidized housing. The Administration will also implement an Extreme Heat Action Plan, which includes large-scale tree planting, and identification and reduction of heat islands to lessen the impact of heat waves on people living in public and subsidized housing.

Maura and Kim believe residents of Massachusetts should be able to afford to live in the communities where they grew up or raised their families. Preserving existing housing, including naturally-occurring affordable housing and public housing, and continuing to keep it affordable in all regions of the state is an imperative to making that value a reality. Maura and Kim also recognize that preservation efforts need to work with changing communities. Further, while there are many subsidized housing developments across the state, they can lose their affordable homes when contracts or subsidies expire. They will work with the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC), cities and towns, and tenant councils as they seek to preserve existing affordable homes well into the future.

Massachusetts seniors and their families also know the struggle for finding affordable housing that suits their lifestyle. Additionally, the pandemic illuminated the critical need for Massachusetts seniors to live in homes where they can safely get access to the care and services they need. The Healey-Driscoll Administration would develop housing strategies for seniors to both find appropriate opportunities to support their health needs as well as allow them to age in place.

TACKLE HOMELESNESS AND EXPAND ACCESS TO SAFETY NET PROGRAMS

Maura and Kim are deeply committed to the unhoused residents of Massachusetts. They know that housing affordability is the key challenge to addressing homelessness. With the growing cost of housing, families are struggling to find places they can afford to live, in the communities where they were raised, work, and send their children to school. Inflation, the pandemic, and gentrification are all contributing to more Massachusetts residents being unable to move, stay in their current home, and at risk for homelessness. Poverty, trauma, substance use disorder and mental health challenges all impact chronic homelessness in the Commonwealth. In order to fully address our housing needs, Massachusetts must expand the safety net to help more of those in need access housing.

The Healey-Driscoll Plan

It is critically important that the Commonwealth maintain and support a strong emergency shelter system for both individuals and families. The Healey-Driscoll Administration will work closely with municipalities, shelters, and social service providers to expand access to shelter beds and better coordinate safety net services. This effort will include an emphasis on better regional data collection around shelter use to connect individuals to beds. However, emergency shelters are a temporary solution for tackling homelessness, which is why Maura and Kim will work to ensure that these environments are safe and well connected to the services people need to get them out of the theylter system and into permanent housing.

The Healey-Driscoll Administration will seek to launch a major initiative to expand the production of permanent supportive housing and fortify wraparound services for families and individuals, including the use of $150 million recently appropriated by the Legislature from federal ARPA funds specifically for the development of permanent supportive housing. The Administration would also explore avenues to better integrate supportive housing social services through collaboration between the Housing and Health and Human Services Secretariats so individuals and families can get the care they need effectively and efficiently.

Additionally, Maura and Kim understand that residents experiencing chronic homelessness often face other challenges including mental health needs, substance use disorders, and chronic illnesses. They support case management and services for addressing these and other challenges to maximize housing stability and prevent returns to homelessness. Providing these services reduces strain on other crisis services such as emergency shelters, hospitals, courts, and public safety personnel.

Maura and Kim believe in the Housing First approach, which prioritizes stabilizing an individual’s housing before addressing other social issues. Housing First models treat individuals and families with the respect and dignity they deserve by getting them into housing quickly, and only then providing support services for other issues such as behavioral health needs and unemployment. Massachusetts has made progress on addressing homelessness among families and individuals, but much more needs to be done. In particular, the number of families struggling with homelessness has increased in the last year.

In addition to assisting our homeless residents in returning to stable living environments, Maura and Kim also will use all available tools and resources to prevent families from becoming homeless. They will task their Administration with determining areas for program flexibility to further encourage and support housing providers to work with at-risk families as early as possible when they encounter difficulties paying their rent or maintaining their tenancies. The Healey-Driscoll Administration will also explore other opportunities for helping residents stay in their homes before reaching a crisis point or receiving an eviction or foreclosure notice, including strengthening the Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT) Program. Tenants should be educated on their options, and connected with the public and community resources they need to maintain their housing.

Massachusetts has, over the last few years, prioritized major investments in the state’s rental assistance programs, most notably the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program (MRVP). The Healey-Driscoll Administration will continue the expansion of MRVP and the Alternative Housing Voucher Program (AHVP) through additional investments and increased accessibility for participants. Currently eligibility far exceeds availability of vouchers. The Administration would work to reduce that gap. Further, they would explore additional rental assistance programs that may help renters cover the significant upfront costs of a rental unit, such as first and last month rent, in addition to a security deposit.

Maura and Kim know that too many Massachusetts residents are unable to connect to the resources they need to secure suitable housing. We need to make all of our housing programs more transparent and available to all who need them, including residents that do not speak English and those with limited access to the internet. The Healey-Driscoll Administration will do this by working closely with MassHousing to expand the online Housing Navigator Massachusetts database to simplify and streamline the application process for matching privately-owned assisted housing with tenants, thereby aiding renters, owners, and managers in filling vacant homes and units more quickly.

HARNESS HOUSING AS A TOOL FOR ECONOMIC MOBILITY

Housing is an essential tool for economic mobility. It is key to the social determinants of health and also significantly contributes to an individual’s concept of self-worth and ability to care for oneself. Maura and Kim understand the value that stable housing contributes in the life trajectory of a person, both for renters and homeowners. Their Administration will strive to use this as a frame for expanding opportunities for holistic upward mobility.

The Healey-Driscoll Plan

Homeownership is the single largest factor in building intergenerational wealth. Maura and Kim are committed to expanding opportunities for homeownership, particularly for those for whom it was previously out of reach. They recognizes that this specifically includes people of color who have suffered years of discrimination in the housing market. Their Administration will increase first-time homeownership by expanding down payment and closing cost assistance programs, as well as housing counseling services to support new homebuyers throughout the process and beyond. They will also work with tenants, housing organizations, and the business community to establish a “matched savings” program for first-time homebuyers.

A Healey-Driscoll Administration will work to increase the economic mobility of low income residents in public and assisted housing through workforce development and other services. Specifically, they will establish a task force that would coordinate workforce development programs with public housing and affordable housing programs so that more families can obtain and retain good paying jobs. This task force will include residents, local housing authorities, developers, businesses, workforce development agencies, as well as state leadership to find creative ways to lift up residents.

Maura and Kim will expand access to the federal Family Self-Sufficiency Program (FSS) in Massachusetts, which provides an incentive for families to increase their incomes and savings, and helps to facilitate first-time homeownership, by integrating the eligibility determination process with other federal and state benefit applications. The Healey-Driscoll Administration will encourage affordable housing property owners and housing authority officials to offer the program to their residents and will ensure that every eligible family has access to the program and the financial coaching necessary to achieve success. Similarly, they will modify housing program rules to allow tenants to increase their incomes for a period of time without jeopardizing their eligibility for affordable housing and other critical benefits, so that they can accrue savings and build their credit to be able to move on to other stable housing opportunities.

Maura and Kim know that the housing sector can also offer immense job opportunities for residents. They will support apprenticeship and other workforce programs that increase the talent pipeline in real estate development, construction, and other skilled trades roles. In order to execute on increased housing production, we need qualified people to complete the work. These programs will both help to increase the housing supply and enrich our economy by placing skilled workers in high-demand jobs.

Immigration

Maura has been a leading advocate for immigrant rights. As Governor, she will ensure that all Massachusetts families can thrive.

One of the first steps Maura took as AG was to create an Advisory Council on New Americans to help address the needs of the state’s immigrant and refugee communities. She also instituted a language access plan and a first-of-its-kind Division of Community Engagement to lead trainings on immigrant rights, tenant rights, and more in different languages in communities across the state.

Her team has stood up for the rights of the DREAMers, temporary protected status holders, and asylum seekers, successfully challenged President Trump’s xenophobic policies that targeted immigrants and refugees, and advocated for a fair and accurate Census that counted every person, regardless of legal status. She also launched an investigation that found that the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office violated the civil rights of federal immigration detainees. After her office published a report about these violations, the Department of Homeland Security terminated its contracts with the Sheriff. Maura also put out multiple advisories on immigrant rights in the context of scams, higher education, COVID-19, and food pantries. Just recently, she secured a settlement with an immigration attorney running an asylum scam in the Brazilian community.

As Governor, Maura will continue to defend our immigrant communities and work to find meaningful ways to make sure everyone in our state feels safe, welcome and has the tools needed to thrive. That includes:

Ensuring that eligible undocumented residents can receive a driver’s license, regardless of immigration status.
Ending state and local law enforcement’s involvement in federal immigration matters.
Expanding the state’s capacity to meet the language access needs of our communities.
Providing health care coverage for children regardless of their or their parents’ immigration status.
At the federal level, providing a meaningful pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

LGBTQ+ Rights

Maura is a longtime advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. She will be a Governor who stands up for LGBTQ+ youth.

Maura has proudly served as the first openly gay Attorney General in the country. She’s seen her role as a way to open doors for future LGBTQ+ leaders and show young people what’s possible for them. Now, she’s running to be the first lesbian Governor in the country at a time when politicians across the country are launching heartless attacks on LGBTQ+ youth.

Maura’s message to the LGBTQ+ community, particularly young people, is that they are loved and that she will fight for them. That’s what she has done throughout her career. She brought the first successful challenge to DOMA when she was Civil Rights Chief in the Attorney General’s Office, helping to lay the groundwork for marriage equality nationwide. As AG, she championed non-discrimination protections for trans people in Massachusetts, pushed for gender neutral markers on a state and federal level, and stood up to the Trump administration’s numerous attacks on the LGBTQ+ community – from undermining anti-discrimination protections in health care, to rolling back protections for transgender students in schools, to banning transgender individuals in the military, and much more.

As Governor, Maura will continue to stand up to efforts to infringe on LGBTQ+ rights and work to ensure that everyone in Massachusetts can live a happy, healthy, authentic life. That includes:

Adopting gender neutral markers on more official documents.
Banning the LGBTQ+ panic defense, which is a legal strategy that allows a defendant to claim a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity/expression is to blame for their crime.
Streamlining the process of co-parent adoption.
Supporting comprehensive, LGBTQ-inclusive, consent-focused, and medically accurate sex education.
Ending the ban on LGBTQ+ blood donations.
Advocating for passage of the Equality Act at the federal level.

Reproductive Freedom

With our reproductive rights under attack like never before, Maura will ensure patients and providers are protected here in Massachusetts.

Maura knows that reproductive freedom is under threat like never before. It’s a direct attack on women, people of color, and the LGBTQ+ community. With Roe v. Wade overturned, our next governor needs to continue to protect access to safe and legal abortion in Massachusetts, break down systemic barriers to these services, and expand access to comprehensive reproductive care for all. Maura will work closely with legislative leaders, public health experts, and advocates like the Beyond ROE Coalition to ensure Massachusetts remains a beacon of hope for all who are seeking care.

Maura has long been a strong advocate for access to reproductive care. Before she was AG, she defended Massachusetts’ Buffer Zone Law to protect patients from harassment at health centers, investigated crisis pregnancy centers for deceptive practices, led efforts to protect the public safety of abortion providers, and worked on litigations in various federal courts to defend access to abortion.

As AG, Maura has challenged unconstitutional abortion restrictions across the country and took on the Trump administration for its attacks on birth control access, Title X, and abortion via telehealth. She secured a settlement with an advertising company to stop them from targeting advertisements around health centers that provide abortion care. She was also an early and strong supporter of the ACCESS Law, which expanded access to contraception, and the ROE Act, which removed several anti-abortion restrictions from Massachusetts law in 2020. And while she was Co-Chair of the Democratic Attorneys General Association, it became the first and only Democratic campaign committee to require candidates to publicly state their support for abortion rights in order to receive endorsements.

While there is not currently a federal abortion ban and abortion remains legal in Massachusetts, in her role as Attorney General, Maura has pledged that she will never enforce such a ban.

As Governor, Maura will stand for reproductive freedom by:

Shielding providers and patients from civil and criminal liability for performing and receiving reproductive or gender-affirming care.
Protecting providers from licensing-related consequences for performing reproductive and gender-affirming care services that are legal in Massachusetts.
Prohibiting Executive Department agencies from cooperating with extradition requests or investigations by other states into providers, clinics or patients who deliver or receive reproductive and gender-affirming care services that are legal in Massachusetts.
Barring Massachusetts police from providing information or assistance to federal agencies, other state law enforcement or private citizens who are seeking to take legal action against someone for providing or receiving services that are legal in Massachusetts.
Increasing access to emergency contraception by calling on the Department of Public Health to issue a statewide standing order for individuals to access it at no cost at a pharmacy.
Mandating health insurers cover reproductive and gender affirming care, including abortion, with no deductibles, co-pays or cost-sharing requirements
Ensuring reproductive and gender-affirming health care providers’ home addresses remain confidential
Permitting abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy in cases of a severe fetal anomaly.
Working to enact other recommendations of the Beyond ROE Coalition.
Ensuring every Massachusetts resident can access quality affordable health care, including abortion care, contraception, STI testing and treatment, and gender-affirming care.
Supporting comprehensive, LGBTQ-inclusive, consent-focused, and medically accurate sex education.
Fulfilling the recommendations of the Massachusetts Racial Inequities in Maternal Health Commission and advancing legislation to address racial disparities in maternal health outcomes.
Expanding access to and insurance coverage of doula care.
Providing free menstrual products in places of incarceration, shelters, schools, and beyond.
Advancing efforts to protect patients, doctors, and staff at reproductive health clinics from violence, harassment, threats and intimidation.
Providing medication abortion access on all college campuses, with appropriate support for community colleges and other higher education institutions that do not have health centers or only offer limited health services.
Opposing the Hyde amendment and any other efforts to restrict access to abortion care.

Transportation

Public transportation is a key building block for economic mobility in Massachusetts. Maura will work to ensure our public transportation system is safe, reliable, and accessible throughout the state.

Maura knows that if we are going to create jobs and support businesses in every region of our state, reduce costs that are crushing our families, do something about our climate crisis – then we have to fix our transportation system. That means investing in our public transportation – our subway, trains, ferries, and buses – and fixing our crumbling local roads, bridges, and tunnels. Massachusetts has received an influx of federal funding, and the next Governor will oversee how it is spent. Maura will make sure that no region, no community is ignored.

There is no functioning state economy without functioning public transportation. Transportation remains the second highest household expense. Our residents and businesses need a public transportation system they can rely on to get them home, school, work, and the doctor’s office safely and on time. For many in our underserved communities, public transit is not an alternative mode of transportation but the only mode of transportation. Drivers need roadways that are free from congestion so they can get to work, rather than sitting in economy-choking congestion. Done well, transportation infrastructure generates jobs, thriving neighborhoods, and environmental progress, supports a healthier community, and can turn more affordable housing regions into practical commuting options. Done wrong, transportation failures strangle economic growth, harm families, worsen inequity, and contribute to climate change. Maura is committed to working with elected officials, community leaders, and the business community to ensure that we do indeed get it right.

Massachusetts has seen both sides of this dichotomy. We had the first rapid transit system in the country – which now means we have the oldest system, most in need of the unglamorous demands of repair and maintenance. We also have, on the country’s oldest public transit line, new cars, extensions and stations, including in Somerville and soon in Medford. In Massachusetts, we have seen economic transformation from smart infrastructure investments: Route 128 and the tech revolution, Logan Airport in the 1950s, the Turnpike Extension and the revival of Boston, the reconfiguring of the Orange Line in lieu of the Southwest Expressway, the extensions of the Red Line south to Quincy and north to Somerville and Alewife, and the Big Dig’s impact on Boston and beyond. These projects taught us some valuable lessons for the future, and also showed us that the economy grows as a result of connectivity. Investments made in transportation have a huge return for the economy–for every dollar spent, the return on investment is four fold. Further, transportation allows us to connect with family, friends, and local businesses. Maura recognizes that now is the time to prioritize transportation to make Massachusetts a destination for those to live and work, where residents can efficiently get to where they want to go through a variety of safe and reliable transportation modes.

MAURA’S RECORD

Maura understands the important role that transportation plays in the economic mobility of Massachusetts families. The cost of maintaining a car, gas, or a monthly pass to ride public transportation eats away at our residents’ budgets, and prices are only going up. That’s why, as our Attorney General, Maura has been a staunch advocate for drivers and riders. Maura has also been aggressive in getting consumers refunds and compensation related to car issues – she’s returned $3.5 million back to our residents through these cases and filed legislation to strengthen protections for car buyers. Her groundbreaking settlement with Volkswagen ensured thousands of Massachusetts residents received up to $10,000, in addition to compensation for their faulty cars, and the state was able to use the settlement funds to invest in electric vehicle infrastructure. She’s not afraid of powerful interests – she’s stood up for Massachusetts’ clean car standards which save drivers hundreds of billions at the pump. During the pandemic, she called out car insurers for overcharging drivers hundreds of millions of dollars, and demanded a change in rates. Maura also believes that accessible and affordable public transportation is essential to our economy and public health. That’s why she defended the expansion of South Coast Rail from legal challenges, called attention to the devastating impacts of air pollution on environmental justice communities, and advocated for expanding rail and bus lines.

PRIORITIZE SAFETY & RELIABILITY ABOVE ALL ELSE

A transportation system that is safe and reliable is non-negotiable. Maura believes that the safety issues that have plagued our transportation system in recent years are unacceptable and will be the first challenge she will take on as Governor.

The Healey Plan

No transportation initiatives can be addressed without first addressing the safety and reliability of all modes of transportation. Upon taking office, Maura will immediately appoint a Transportation Safety Chief to work across the relevant transportation agencies to conduct a full safety review of our rail and bus operations, and roads and bridges, including for cyclists and pedestrians. This will include an analysis of the root causes of safety failures. Paired with the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) report, the results of this audit will provide a framework and inform her transportation work in her first year in office. Maura will also task the Transportation Safety Chief with increasing accountability and strengthening the mandate of the safety departments in the relevant agencies, including the Department of Public Utilities. This will include establishing key safety standards across departments and corrective action plans should those standards not be met.

Following the safety audit, Maura will direct the MBTA to establish new clear, quantifiable performance metrics for each mode of transport and will commit to regular public reporting, so that the public has a clear understanding of where our transportation is excelling and where more work needs to be done. This will be especially important during these early months of getting the MBTA back on track. Further, the Healey Administration will prioritize hiring and training safety and essential Operations Control Center personnel in the first six months in office, as well as pursuing steps outlined in the FTA report to protect the safety of MBTA riders. Maura will also prioritize critical maintenance projects that have been unnecessarily delayed in order to ensure the safe operations of our transit system.

Many of the safety and reliability challenges the Commonwealth is experiencing are due to delayed project delivery, including many of the state’s most transformative projects, such as the Charlie Card system update and new Red and Orange Line cars. Maura will order a review of project delivery for all existing projects in the pipeline to spend state and federal dollars more wisely and to determine how the state can deliver projects faster, cheaper, and safer across the Commonwealth.

More broadly, Maura will direct her Secretary of Transportation to implement standard safety and communication procedures across all transportation departments and agencies so that in the event of a safety or reliability failure, the public is kept safe and informed.

INVEST IN INFRASTRUCTURE

Historical underinvestment in transportation has led to a system that is rife with challenges. It has yielded a system that requires a substantial infusion of dollars to bring existing operations to a stable place and to help propel new transportation projects forward that are sorely needed. We are at the precipice of a special opportunity with an influx of federal dollars, a state surplus, and the public will to give our transportation system the investments it requires and deserves.

The Healey Plan

The Biden Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides an unprecedented amount of new capital investment for transit, rail, and roadway infrastructure, and a significant impetus for producing electric automobiles to reduce transportation environmental impacts. However, there will be competition for these federal dollars and Massachusetts will need to be thoughtful and aggressive in how it pursues this opportunity.

In order to maximize the potential benefit from the Biden Administration’s program, Maura will create a multi-disciplinary task force whose sole focus will be to pursue the greatest amount of federal funding to help bridge Massachusetts’ current funding needs, as well as jumpstart new capital projects. The task force will include representation from several secretariats, including Administration and Finance, Energy and Environmental Affairs, and Public Safety and Security, as well as the MBTA, MassPort, local municipalities, and the business community, to better coordinate proposals and prioritize projects. The task force will focus on putting together a list of smaller, local projects that are ripe for federal assistance, as well as identifying the larger, transformative projects that require a major infusion of dollars.

Federal dollars, however, will not be enough to make long-term sustainable investments. Massachusetts’ current funding levels are insufficient and many new proposals, while perhaps part of the solution, are inadequate. The Fair Share Amendment will direct much needed dollars into our public transportation system. Chapter 90, which funds our local roads and bridges, also plays a critical role. The Commonwealth needs sufficient funds to maintain a state of good repair, that has long been absent, while also having the resources to launch new projects. Maura is committed to working with federal partners, legislative leadership, businesses, and local communities to think creatively on how we increase revenue, without relying on passenger fares. In particular, Maura will collaborate with the business community to explore the potential of creative public-private partnerships to improve our transportation system. Maura believes that there is not one specific funding source that will solve the long-term underinvestment in our transportation system.

Investing in infrastructure is not only about the dollars spent, but also about human capital. Dedicating resources, including time and energy, to the people that make our transportation system possible is absolutely critical. Maura recognizes that severe staffing shortages have contributed to the challenges in the transportation system and will prioritize hiring, training and retaining staff across all levels and disciplines to ensure that our transportation system is well supported. As part of this effort, Maura will make state transportation jobs across agencies more desirable and provide training and professional development opportunities. This is especially critical for allowing entry level workers to upskill for future promotion opportunities and to retain talent. Maura will ensure that there is a clear career pathway, from onboarding through promotion, beginning with a more streamlined hiring process. She will also ensure that state agencies are actively recruiting from across the Commonwealth and across sectors to hire the best and brightest professional transportation employees.

Addressing staffing does not just start with a job application, but much earlier. The Healey Administration will work with high schools, vocational technical schools, and community colleges to create a pipeline for the next generation of transportation workers. This includes building vital skillsets needed to serve as bus and train drivers, as well as engineers and planners.

TRANSFORM GOVERNANCE & CULTURE

Massachusetts’ transportation system is made up of a patchwork of different agencies with a perplexing organizational structure that has led to poor communication, ambiguous ownership of projects, and the absence of a clear and cohesive vision for transportation in the Commonwealth. This lack of clarity has also impacted the broader employee culture – insufficient staffing, long hours, thankless work, and public outrage over safety and service failures have created a demoralized employee base. A “righting of the ship” needs to include both a governance structure overhaul with inspired leadership and a concerted effort to make transportation workers feel valued again. Maura will bring into focus a clear and compelling vision for transportation in the Commonwealth, where there is a clear governance structure and, accordingly, clear ownership of projects and clear accountability for the success of every aspect of the program.

The Healey Plan

The relationship between the Department of Transportation (MassDOT) and the MBTA and the other regional transit authorities (RTAs) has been fluid over the years with varying degrees of success. Maura believes that previous efforts to consolidate transportation under one secretariat was a step in the right direction. There is value in having rail authorities function as quasi-independent agencies; however, that only works if the responsibilities and governance structure are clear. The recent slate of failures at the MBTA have shown that they are not. We can neither bring our transportation system into a state of good repair, nor can we envision a bolder future for our transportation system, if it is mired in confusion. We need clarity and accountability.

The MBTA’s General Manager (GM) must possess both inspirational leadership and the ability to manage a large, technical transit organization. Maura will appoint an experienced and respected leadership team and create a governance structure at the MBTA to meet the challenges of safety, reliability, accessibility, and affordability. Maura will appoint a GM who can deliver that, while supporting them with two Deputy GMs who can add technical expertise and execution skills, specifically the Deputy GM of Operations and an elevated Deputy GM of Capital Planning. These three leaders will work closely together and collaborate to ensure that the professional know-how is there and influences every decision, while also ensuring that the GM is actively involved and informed in key decision making. Maura will also ensure that there is a formal, clear organizational chart at the MBTA to facilitate better communication and clarify accountability across the agency.

Maura will also strengthen and clarify the oversight roles of both the MBTA Board and MassDOT to better support the MBTA leadership team. This includes giving the Board more active authority to oversee the GM, better coordinating capital planning between MassDOT and the MBTA, and ensuring that the division of responsibilities between the agencies is crystal clear. While the Fiscal Management and Control Board (FMCB) had an oversized presence in the day to day decision making of the T during a challenging time, the current iteration of the Board requires more authority to be able to intervene and make tough decisions, when necessary. As Governor, Maura has five appointees to the Board and she will prioritize appointing members who have demonstrated experience in transit, safety, organizational management, customer service, and crisis communication. She will empower the Board to partner and collaborate with the GM and the leadership team, and challenge, when appropriate, and intervene if necessary.

Creating a culture that encourages and celebrates communication, creativity, and diversity at all levels is paramount–from the top of the organization with the leadership team all the way down to the customer service employees, bus drivers, and maintenance workers. This applies to fostering communications regarding daily operations, building opportunities to suggest and implement new and creative ideas to make sure the agency and its systems are running efficiently and effectively, and addressing challenges within the work environment so that all employees feel safe and supported. As Governor, Maura will task the Secretary and GM to engage in an internal “listening tour” of the Commonwealth’s transportation workers to determine where there is opportunity to improve internal operations, agency morale, and employee quality of life. Following the listening tour, leadership will release a plan for how to address employee concerns, including quarterly employee engagement sessions, that allow for continued dialogue between leadership and employees on how to improve the culture within our transportation agencies.

CREATE ACCESS & EQUITY FOR ALL

The vision of our Commonwealth as a thriving ecosystem for all can only be realized by achieving equity in access to transit across the state. This includes an honest reflection on whether we are serving historically marginalized communities adequately and a fully expansive view that requires us to look well beyond the borders of Boston. A fully functioning, equitable, statewide transportation system that maximizes the use of all modes of transport is critical to being a first class destination to live and work.

The Healey Plan

In recognition of the historical injustices in our transportation system, as Governor, Maura will task the transportation agencies to review existing service to historically marginalized and underserved neighborhoods –both in Boston and beyond– and craft a plan to improve and expand service to those neighborhoods. These plans would have an eye to prioritizing future capital projects, including transition of the Fairmount line to a rapid transit system, which serves some of Boston’s densest neighborhoods. Further, Maura commits to implementing low-income fares and unlimited bus transfers, as well as outlining a pathway to fare free buses throughout the Commonwealth.

Roadways and highways throughout the Commonwealth serve all residents of the Commonwealth in some way. Responsibility for the maintenance of these roads is a patchwork, including MassDOT, the Department of Conservation and Recreation, and local municipalities. This has yielded varying levels of quality and inconsistent achievement of state of good repair. The Healey Administration will work with state agencies and local communities to set uniform standards across all roadways, including expectations regarding sidewalks, crosswalks, speed management, accessibility, and more.

The name “commuter rail” has hindered our ability to maximize the potential for a regional rail system in Massachusetts. By thinking so literally about what these rail lines are used for, presumably rush hour traffic to move people from home to 9-5 hour work and back again, we are squandering an opportunity to build a stronger and more inclusive state economy. Maura will transition the rail system to meet the needs of our workers and our modern economy. She will commit to a fully realized regional rail system by 2040. This will begin with expanding rail service patterns to serve throughout the day instead of just focusing on rush-hour. Technology and the pandemic have changed commuting patterns, and at a minimum we should adjust accordingly. Longterm, however, this also will include fully accessible platforms at all rail stations and high frequency every day, all day, in both directions. The current contract for the commuter rail expires in two years, which provides a new opportunity to think through how the procurement process and the next contract can move the Commonwealth forward on regional rail.

Regional transit, more broadly, also needs to be expanded to better reflect rider needs. The RTAs provide a major role in economic development across their respective regions by providing mobility across the state. Maura will work with the RTAs to increase bus service frequency, including on weekends. She will also work to ensure that schedules are better coordinated between authorities and with rail, so that riders can have a seamless experience transitioning from one mode to another for first mile/last mile rides.

There are a number of major capital projects that are worthy of investment and are essential to building a transportation system for the future. Some of those projects are critical for safety, such as the rehabilitation of the Cape Cod bridges; others open new possibilities for growth, such as the Allston Multi-Modal project, the Red-Blue Connector, Northern Tier, Inland Route, the “Environmental Justice Corridor”; and some have the potential to truly transform, none more so that the West-East Rail, which Maura believes should be a priority. To that end, Maura will appoint a West-East Rail Director in MassDOT to be laser-focused on achieving this complex project. Maura is committed to taking the necessary steps to ensure these projects go from ideas to reality.

PUSH TOWARD A GREEN FUTURE

Transportation is responsible for 42 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in Massachusetts, concentrated largely in communities of color and low-income communities, contributing to respiratory illness and other harms. If we are going to meaningfully address the climate crisis and protect our communities from pollution and a rapidly changing climate, then we need to act swiftly to electrify all modes of transportation.

The Healey Plan

A Healey Administration will electrify public transportation so that all modes of transportation operate on 100 percent clean power by 2040, starting with school and MBTA buses by 2030.

Maura commits to 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2030 by providing larger rebates for used and low-cost electric vehicles. While the Commonwealth is not currently on this trajectory, the Healey Administration will create a transparent program and tracking mechanisms to achieve this goal. She will end the sale of new passenger cars and light duty trucks powered by gasoline or diesel by 2035. All public fleet purchases will be electric by 2028. Her Administration will prioritize building electric vehicle charging infrastructure projects to benefit low- and moderate-income households and overburdened communities. She will require utilities to offer discounts for charging at night when electricity demand is low. The Healey Administration will also include bold investment in electric vehicle infrastructure and strong incentives for their adoption, including for heavy duty vehicles. At the same time, Maura will increase pedestrian walkways, and safe, expanded bike lanes throughout our cities and towns.

The last two years have demonstrated that telework is a viable alternative to the daily commute for many jobs and industries. The Healey Administration will work with employers to reduce car usage through smart telework policies and expand on measures to reduce single occupancy vehicles. These policies are not only good for the environment, but they also reduce commuting times.

With sound policies, effective implementation and full transparency we can improve mobility and safety throughout the Commonwealth while mitigating against climate threats, improving affordable housing access and creating a stronger economy for all.

Voting Rights

Maura is committed to protecting and expanding access to the ballot in Massachusetts and across the country.

The 2020 presidential election made clear that there are two forces in our country: those fighting to protect our democracy and those trying to undermine it. Across the country, people of color are being disenfranchised, and disinformation and violent rhetoric continue to spread across digital spaces. Protecting the integrity of our democracy and expanding access to it have been top priorities for Maura. In 2020, she convened a task force to protect voters from intimidation, led a voter education campaign that included materials for people who are incarcerated, and took multistate legal action to assist officials in other states to make sure every vote counted.

But she knows we still have a lot of work left to do to make sure that everyone not only has the right to vote, but is able to use it. As Governor, she will focus on:

Passing the VOTES Act in Massachusetts, including same day voter registration and election day voting, and making voting more accessible to people who are incarcerated.
At the federal level, passing the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.^[11]

”

—Maura Healey's campaign website (2022)^[12]

Notable endorsements

See also: Ballotpedia: Our approach to covering endorsements

This section displays endorsements this individual made in elections within Ballotpedia's coverage scope.

Notable candidate endorsements by Maura Healey
Endorsee	Election	Stage	Outcome
Joyce Craig ^source (D)	Governor of New Hampshire (2024)	Primary	Lost General
Kamala D. Harris ^source (D, Working Families Party)	President of the United States (2024)	Primary	Lost General
Joe Biden ^source	President of the United States (2024)	Primary	Withdrew in Convention
Tammy Murphy ^source	U.S. Senate New Jersey (2024)	Primary	Withdrew in Primary
Elizabeth Warren ^source	President of the United States (2020)		Withdrew in Convention
Hillary Clinton ^source (D)	President of the United States (2016)	Primary	Lost General

Notable ballot measure endorsements by Maura Healey
Measure	Position	Outcome
Massachusetts Firearm Regulations Referendum (2026) ^source	Support	On the ballot
Massachusetts Question 1, Tax on Income Above $1 Million for Education and Transportation Amendment (2022) ^source	Support	Approved
Massachusetts Question 2, Ranked-Choice Voting Initiative (2020) ^source	Support	Defeated
Massachusetts Question 2, Repeal Competency Assessment Requirement for High School Graduation Initiative (2024) ^source	Oppose	Approved
Massachusetts Question 4, Remove Proof of Citizenship or Immigration Status for Driver's License Applications Referendum (2022) ^source	Support	Approved

Campaign finance summary

Ballotpedia Logo Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.

Maura Healey campaign contribution history
Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2022	Governor of Massachusetts	Won general	$15,999,298	$0
2014	Massachusetts Attorney General	Won	$1,917,059	N/A**
Grand total			$17,916,357	N/A**
Sources: OpenSecrets, Federal Elections Commission *This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
** Data on expenditures is not available for this election cycle
Note: Totals above reflect only available data.

Noteworthy cases

New York leads 11 states and Washington, D.C. in ACA lawsuit

Eleven states and Washington, D.C., led by New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood (D) and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration alleging that the U.S. Department of Labor violated the Administrative Procedures Act when it released a proposed rule regarding Association Health Plans (AHPs) on January 4, 2018. The attorneys general asked the court to declare the rule invalid.^[13]

The rule proposed exempting small employers who offer group health plans to employees from certain requirements that apply to the individual and small-group insurance markets, but not the large-group market, under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

In the complaint, the attorneys general argued that the rule was unlawful because it violated "the text, structure, and purpose of the ACA" and would allow individuals to "skirt the ACA's market protections." They said the rule failed to justify a departure from previous legal precedent and to account for a history of fraud related to AHPs. They also concluded that it would harm the states, which would have to ensure AHPs comply with state insurance laws.^[14]

Ballot measure activity

The following table details Healey's ballot measure stances available on Ballotpedia:

Ballot measure support and opposition for Maura Healey
Ballot measure	Year	Position	Status
Massachusetts Question 4, Remove Proof of Citizenship or Immigration Status for Driver's License Applications Referendum (2022)	2022	Supported^[15]	a Approved

Personal

Note: Please contact us if the personal information below requires an update.
At Harvard, Healey played on the women's basketball team and served as its captain. Following her graduation in 1998, Healey went on to play professionally for two years in Austria.^[4] She was the first openly gay person in the U.S. elected as an attorney general.^[16]

External links

Search Google News for this topic

Officeholder

Governor of Massachusetts

Personal

Footnotes

Political offices
Preceded by Charles D. Baker (R)	Governor of Massachusetts 2023-Present	Succeeded by -
Preceded by Martha Coakley (D)	Attorney General of Massachusetts 2015-2023	Succeeded by Andrea Campbell (D)
Preceded by -	Deputy State Attorney General of Massachusetts	Succeeded by -

[elist-1] 1.0 ^1.1 EMILYs List, "Maura Healey," accessed June 17, 2024

[2] WGBH, "5 takeaways from Gov. Maura Healey's first State of the Commonwealth speech," January 18, 2024

[3] WGBH, "Five key things to know about Maura Healey as she starts her campaign for governor," January 20, 2022

[bio-4] 4.0 ^4.1 Maura Healey for Attorney General, "About," accessed December 1, 2014

[bio2-5] Maura Healey for Governor, "About Maura," accessed June 27, 2022

[NewBio-6] 6.0 ^6.1 Commonwealth of Massachusetts, "Maura Healey, Attorney General," accessed November 18, 2022

[moag-7] 7.0 ^7.1 The Republican/MassLive.com, "Massachusetts Attorney General candidate Maura Healey says experience in AG's office prepared her for the top job," October 21, 2013

[healey14-8] 8.0 ^8.1 90.9wbur - Boston's NPR news station, "Coakley Aide Announces Run For Mass. Attorney General," October 21, 2013

[9] The Telegraph, "Healey to take oath as Massachusetts's 55th attorney general," January 21, 2015

[10] The Boston Globe, "Maura Healey for attorney general," September 1, 2014

[quotedisclaimer-11] Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.

[12] Maura Healey for Governor, “Maura's Priorities,” accessed October 13, 2022

[eleven-13] The Hill, "States sue Trump administration over expansion of skimpy group insurance plans," July 26, 2018

[14] United States District Court for the District of Columbia, State of New York, et al. v. U.S. Department of Labor, July 26, 2018

[15] WCVB, "Healey voices support for Question 1 and Question 4 at Roxbury rally," October 29, 2022

[16] Boston Globe, "Maura Healey setting her course as attorney general," November 12, 2014

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Maura Healey

Biography

Political career

Massachusetts Attorney General (2015-2023)

Elections

2026

General election

General election for Governor of Massachusetts

Endorsements

2022

General election

General election for Governor of Massachusetts

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Governor of Massachusetts

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Governor of Massachusetts

2018

General election

General election for Attorney General of Massachusetts

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Attorney General of Massachusetts

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Attorney General of Massachusetts

2014

Results

Primary

General election

Endorsements

Campaign themes

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

2022

Campaign website

Notable endorsements

Campaign finance summary

Noteworthy cases

New York leads 11 states and Washington, D.C. in ACA lawsuit

Ballot measure activity

Personal

See also

External links

Footnotes

Information about voting

2024 Elections

2024 Election analysis

2025 Elections

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