Healey Wins 62% and Vows ‘Urgency’: Her Second-Term To-Do List Starts With Your Bills

Gov. Maura Healey opened her Healey second term pitch Tuesday night at the Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston’s Back Bay by promising to “drive change with urgency and action,” after the Associated Press called the Nov. 3 governor’s race for her at 8:01 p.m., one minute after polls closed, The Boston Globe reported. Her stated first priority: lowering residents’ costs.

The win sends the state’s first elected female governor back to Beacon Hill for four more years alongside Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll. Our overnight roundup of Massachusetts results and ballot questions covers the race calls; this story looks at what Healey said she will do with the next term, and what the near-final count shows.

What Healey promised in her victory speech

Healey took the stage around 9:45 p.m., GBH News reported, and thanked Driscoll, her partner Joanna Lydgate, her family and campaign volunteers. “I may not get it right every time. You may disagree with some of the decisions I make, and you should,” she said, according to WBUR. “But I promise you this: I’m gonna work my hardest every single day for the things that matter in your lives.”

She then laid out a list of second-term priorities, according to State House News Service reporting published by NBC Boston:

• Costs and housing: “That starts with lowering your costs, and it’s why we got to keep building housing, more homes,” Healey said, as quoted by Axios Boston.
• Energy bills: bringing more energy into the state to bring down gas and electric bills.
• Health care: lower costs and wider access to primary, mental and maternal health care.
• Kids and jobs: protecting children “in a world of social media” and jobs “in the face of AI.”
• Young people: making Massachusetts a place young residents “can afford to stay and live and thrive.”

“I’ll show up for you. I’ll fight for you. I’ll be a governor for everyone,” she told the crowd, including those who voted for her opponents, SHNS reported. She also praised Driscoll as “the best lieutenant governor in the country,” pushing back on campaign talk that the state could do without the office: “Massachusetts doesn’t just need a lieutenant governor. We need Kim Driscoll.” She closed with, “So let’s celebrate tonight, and in the morning we’re going to get back to work.”

The first test: bills stuck in conference

Many of the priorities Healey named are covered by bills now sitting in legislative conference committees, which are expected to produce compromises over the next two months, State House News Service reported. The same report noted Healey has at times struggled to move her agenda through a Legislature controlled by fellow Democrats, and called her ability to turn reelection into more influence on Beacon Hill an early test of the new term. Spending fights will also run through the next Massachusetts state budget, which the governor files early in the year.

By the numbers: a slightly narrower win than 2022

With about 95.5% of the expected vote counted, the NBC News Decision Desk had Healey at 1,563,247 votes (62.0%), Republican Mike Minogue at 875,013 (34.7%) and independent Andrea James at 85,041 (3.4%). These are unofficial results; the state certifies later in the month.

Compared with her first run, the margin is a bit tighter so far. In 2022 Healey took 1,584,403 votes (63.74%) to Republican Geoff Diehl’s 859,343 (34.57%), according to certified state results. TBR calculations from those figures:

• Her lead is 27.3 points now, versus 29.2 points in 2022, about 1.9 points narrower.
• Her raw-vote lead is 688,234, versus 725,060 in 2022, or 36,826 smaller, with roughly 4.5% of the expected vote still out.
• Minogue’s 875,013 votes already top Diehl’s 2022 total by 15,670.
• Third-party and independent votes roughly doubled as a share, from 1.7% in 2022 to 3.4%, mostly for James.

Healey also trailed her ticket: early Wednesday she had the fewest votes counted of any Democratic constitutional officer, about 1.36 million at the time, while Auditor Diana DiZoglio led all winners with more than 1.6 million, SHNS reported. For full race-by-race calls, see our Massachusetts election tracker, and for how the race looked going in, our Election Day look at Healey’s 19-point poll lead.

Minogue concedes, keeps door open

At the Boston Marriott Burlington, Minogue conceded at 9:36 p.m. “The voters have spoken. The results are not what we had hoped for, and certainly not what we worked for,” he said, as reported by SHNS. “Nobody has beaten an incumbent of either party in 52 years.” When some supporters shouted “2030!”, Minogue declined to commit to another run, saying, “Right now I’m just focusing on getting a good night’s sleep.”

In a written statement, Minogue said he called Healey to congratulate her and pledged to keep pushing “for an audit of the state legislature, lower energy costs, and a government that works for the people.” Healey said she spoke with Minogue and “wished him well,” the Globe reported.

What’s next

Healey and Driscoll’s new four-year terms begin at noon on Jan. 7, 2027, while the other constitutional officers start Jan. 20, according to State House News Service. Mail ballots postmarked by Election Day can still be counted if they arrive within three days, so the final totals above will move slightly before certification.

Sources

• NBC Boston / State House News Service: With decisive win, Healey calls it a ‘moment of hope and action’
• WBUR: Healey wins second term, defeating GOP challenger Mike Minogue
• GBH News: ‘I’m going to work my hardest’: Healey wins second term
• The Boston Globe: Healey wins reelection, sets sights on second term
• Axios Boston: Healey and Markey win reelection
• State House News Service via Mass. Lawyers Weekly: Democrats sweep statewide races
• Minogue campaign: Statement on the election
• 2022 Massachusetts gubernatorial election results (certified totals from the Secretary of the Commonwealth)