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Healey targets Trump as she kicks off her reelection campaign
Gov. Maura Healey is betting that Massachusetts voters will see her as a fighter ready to stand up to the president.
Gov. Maura Healey officially launched her reelection campaign Tuesday with promises to lower costs and a heavy emphasis on President Donald Trump.
The governor has said for months that she plans to seek reelection, and her campaign kicked off this week with a revamped website and a splashy announcement video.
“These are tough times, and Donald Trump is making everything worse,” Healey said in the video.
Healey highlighted actions she took in her first term: filing legislation meant to reduce energy costs, facilitating the construction of close to 100,000 new homes, capping health care deductibles and co-pays, investing in housing and services for veterans, protecting SNAP benefits, strengthening the MBTA system, and making community colleges free for some students.
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Healey is running for reelection, she said, not just to lower costs but to stand up to the president. She blamed him for policies that raise prices, take away healthcare coverage, and separate families.
“We see the damage he’s doing to our state and our country, but we’ll never back down,” Healey said.
Healey’s campaign included footage of Trump berating reporters and of ICE agents smashing the windows of cars in order to detain immigrants. The video also included footage recently taken of ICE agents aggressively detaining a woman in Minneapolis.
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The governor appears to have taken note of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s dominant reelection campaign last year. Wu cast herself as a fighter for her constituents, ready to defy the Trump administration as it escalated pressure on the city. Wu took multiple opportunities to make high-profile appearances where she antagonized federal officials and defended city policies that limit cooperation with immigration authorities.
Healey positioned herself as an ally of anti-Trump protesters, ready to defend abortion rights, vaccines access, and scientific research.
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Last fall, a UMass/WCVB poll found that 43% of Massachusetts residents thought that the state was on the “wrong track,” up from the 33% who said the same thing a few months after Healey took office in 2023. But the same poll also found that Healey had a 57% approval rating, signaling that voters may not be ready to blame her for the state’s perceived problems.
About a month later, a Boston Globe/Suffolk University poll found that 46% of voters thought Healey deserved a chance to be reelected, compared to 38% that thought she did not.
Healey has not drawn a primary challenge as of yet. On the Republican side, three major candidates are campaigning in the primary: Mike Kennealy, Brian Shortsleeve, and Mike Minogue. Kennealy and Shortsleeve are former Baker administration officials, while Minogue is a former biotechnology executive.
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The Globe/Suffolk poll found Shortsleeve with the support of 22% of likely voters, compared to Kennealy’s 13% and Minogue’s 6%. However, 59% of Republican voters were still undecided at the time.
Andrea James, a criminal justice advocate, is running as an independent, WBUR recently reported.
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