The top of the Massachusetts Democratic Celebration appeared to recommend Tuesday that Gov. Maura Healey plans to hunt a second time period as governor, feedback he later walked again in a telephone name with the Herald.
Healey made historical past in 2022 as the primary overtly lesbian governor within the nation and the primary girl elected to the manager workplace in Massachusetts. Healey has not but supplied a agency reply on whether or not she plans to run for one more 4 years because the state’s chief government.
Throughout a name with supporters that was billed as an occasion to listen to the governor’s reflections on the 2024 election cycle, MassDems Chair Steve Kerrigan appeared to tip Healey’s hand on her reelection plans.
“We know we’ve got great friends in all of you, and we have a fantastic leader at the top of the ticket in 2026 in Gov. Healey, who has been crisscrossing the commonwealth, working on behalf of all of us since long before she took the corner office and in her eight years as attorney general. She’s been a leader throughout her entire career,” Kerrigan stated on the outset of the decision.
However in a telephone name with the Herald after the occasion ended, Kerrigan stated he has not had any conversations with the governor or her marketing campaign staff a couple of potential reelection bid.
“I want her to run for reelection because I think she’s doing an incredible job,” he stated.
A marketing campaign spokesperson for Healey didn’t instantly reply to a Herald inquiry and the governor didn’t deal with her reelection plans throughout the occasion.
Healey has repeatedly shrugged off questions on the subject, together with throughout a Nov. 6 press convention on the State Home.
“I think it’s a little early to make any announcements. We’re dealing with this election. I love my job, and, you know, my message today to everybody in Massachusetts is that we see you,” Healey stated the day after President-elect Donald Trump beat Vice President Kamala Harris to safe a second stint within the White Home.
A possible run for a second time period from Healey drew instant backlash from the Massachusetts Republican Celebration, the place Chair Amy Carnevale stated “residents have had enough of politics taking priority over their needs.”
“The focus on a leftist agenda over the well-being of the commonwealth has proven to have disastrous consequences. Voters have been paying attention. We are ready to take on whoever steps forward as the Democratic candidate for governor,” Carnevale stated in an announcement.
Republicans are nonetheless debating who to place ahead for the 2026 gubernatorial election.
Healey has greater than $2.4 million stashed away in her marketing campaign account that she will be able to use if she decides to run once more. The governor raised greater than $266,000 and spent over $62,000 in October, in accordance with state marketing campaign finance information.
The governor — who campaigned closely for Vice President Kamala Harris and New Hampshire Democratic gubernatorial nominee Joyce Craig — used her temporary remarks Tuesday night to induce Democrats to not “point fingers or circle the wagons.”
She stated the Democratic Celebration must study “why we are where we are, how we got here, and what we need to do.”
“A lot of what we heard in some of the aftermath of the discussion, interviews with voters, is people really feeling it economically, and people feeling like their government just hadn’t delivered for them,” she stated. “And to me, I think that’s an opportunity for us to show your government works for you, your government delivers for you, and we do that every day in different ways.”
Healey is just not the one Democratic chief in Massachusetts who has referred to as for the celebration to interact in introspection as a second Trump presidency looms.
Home Speaker Ron Mariano urged his fellow celebration members to view the 2024 election as a wake-up name and a chance to “renew our focus on the issues that drove voters across the country towards the Republican Party this year.”
He stated native lawmakers’ work will “be of heightened importance due to (the) incredibly disappointing election results and the potential for decreased federal support.”
Kerrigan stated the Massachusetts Democratic Celebration plans to carry a collection of “listening sessions” throughout the state over the following few months to offer residents a chance to “weigh in with their thoughts, what they saw through the election cycle.”
“We’re going to give folks the data based on the district and the area we’re in on the election results, 2024, and then comparatively for the last couple of elections, and then really dig in on what we think this election means, and then what it means for us on a pathway going forward,” he stated.
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