Massachusetts
Maura Healey claims historic victory to become first woman governor in Massachusetts
Joseph Prezioso/AFP through Getty Photographs
BOSTON — Democrat Maura Healey scored a decisive and historic victory Tuesday evening, changing into the primary feminine governor in Massachusetts and the nation’s first overtly lesbian governor, in line with a race name by The Related Press.
Healey, the state’s Legal professional Common since 2014, overwhelmed her Republican opponent, former state Rep. Geoff Diehl, and put the governorship firmly again in Democratic fingers after Republican Gov. Charlie Baker declined to hunt a 3rd time period.
Diehl was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, who stays deeply unpopular in Massachusetts.
Healey by no means trailed within the polls and held large benefits in fundraising and identify recognition. She campaigned on an extended checklist of Democratic priorities, together with increasing reasonably priced housing, selling inexperienced jobs, and bettering public transportation.
“Let’s put a refund in individuals’s pockets by chopping the prices of housing, vitality and well being care,” Healey mentioned final June, when she accepted her social gathering’s nomination.
Because the state’s legal professional basic, Healey initiated or joined dozens of lawsuits in opposition to the Trump administration – from difficult his Muslim journey ban to defending immigrant rights to suing the EPA for delaying or rolling again environmental rules.
Healey’s historic victory burnishes her profile as a pacesetter within the LGBTQ group.
“I am pleased with who I’m,” Healey informed WBUR. She mentioned she is particularly moved when younger individuals from that group inform her they really feel comforted by her success.
“Youngsters want to know and imagine that they’re liked, they’re seen and that they are often whoever they’re,” she mentioned.
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