GOV. MAURA HEALEY intends to run for reelection in 2026, she said Friday.
“When Kim and I started, we laid out in our inaugural address things that we wanted to do. We wanted to get after housing, and we wanted to get after transportation, we wanted to cut taxes, we wanted to make investments in education,” Healey said on GBH Radio on Friday. “And I feel like we’ve done all those things, and there’s a heck of a lot more to do. And so I plan to run for reelection, because there’s a lot more to do.”
The Democrat was the first woman and first openly gay candidate elected governor of Massachusetts, and is halfway through her term in office. In her first two years, she has signed major laws related to incentivizing housing development, expanding clean energy, further regulating hospitals and the pharmaceutical industry, and making tax cuts.
Her administration has also been burdened with the handling of a number of crises, among them: the growing number of homeless families putting logistical and financial strains on the state’s emergency shelters, and a for-profit hospital system that collapsed last year, shuttering two hospitals.
“I’m really proud of the record so far,” Healey said Friday.
She later added, “I love my job, I feel incredibly privileged to be in this position, and I’d love to have the opportunity to continue to work for the great people of this state.”
Healey has shown a keen interest in national politics, but there are no seats opening on the federal level in the near future. Democrat US Sen. Ed Markey said he plans to run for reelection in 2026. President Donald Trump’s election also closed a door for any Democrat in state office in Massachusetts who may have looked to join a Kamala Harris administration.
Several Republicans are reportedly eyeing runs for the corner office as well.
Former housing and economic development secretary Mike Kennealy is “seriously considering” a gubernatorial campaign, the Boston Herald reported last month, and Sen. Peter Durant told WBUR that he’ll decide this spring whether he’ll also make a bid.
Kennealy was a cabinet secretary under former Gov. Charlie Baker, and now serves as senior advisor and chief strategy officer at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston. Durant won a recent special election to the Senate after spending years in the House, and has become one of the most vocal opponents among electeds of the administrations’ family shelter policy.
The post Healey plans to seek reelection in 2026 appeared first on CommonWealth Beacon.