Maura Healey Has Earned a Second Term, and She Should Win It Easily

Massachusetts voters will choose a governor on Nov. 3, and in my view the choice is not close. Gov. Maura Healey has a record of signed laws, not slogans, and every independent poll this year says voters have noticed.

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A record you can check

Start with the household budget. In October 2023, Healey signed the first broad tax cut Massachusetts had seen in two decades. The child and dependent tax credit rose from $180 to $330 per child, then to $440. The senior circuit breaker credit doubled, from a maximum of $1,200 to $2,400. The renter deduction cap went from $3,000 to $4,000, and estates under $2 million no longer pay the estate tax. Fully phased in, the package returns more than $1 billion a year.

Then housing, the problem every family in this state talks about. On Aug. 6, 2024, Healey signed the Affordable Homes Act: $5.16 billion over five years, aimed at building, preserving or rehabilitating more than 65,000 homes. It put $2 billion into repairing public housing, $800 million into the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, and made small accessory dwelling units legal by right on single-family lots, a change the state expects to add 8,000 to 10,000 homes on its own.

She also signed the Mass Leads Act, with nearly $4 billion in economic development authorizations to keep Massachusetts ahead in life sciences and to build on climate technology and artificial intelligence. And community college became tuition- and fee-free for students of every age, so a worker retraining at 45 gets the same open door as a graduate at 18.

None of this is a promise for a second term. It is already law.

Why I expect an easy win

Polls are not votes, but this year's are remarkably consistent. The University of New Hampshire's August survey of likely voters had Healey at 54% and Republican Mike Minogue at 30%. UMass Amherst and YouGov had her ahead 53% to 33%. Suffolk, in June, had 56% to 31%. Every major forecaster, including the Cook Political Report and Sabato's Crystal Ball, rates the race solid or safe for Healey.

A lead of more than 20 points, held for months, is not a fluke. It reflects a governor whom voters, across the polls, say has earned re-election.

The other side of the argument

Mike Minogue deserves a fair hearing. He is an Army veteran and the former chief executive of Abiomed, the Danvers medical-device company, and he won the Republican primary on Sept. 1 with 72% of the vote. His case is affordability: he calls Healey a "tax-and-spend Democrat," argues the state budget has grown too fast, and says energy and living costs are still squeezing families.

Those costs are real, and voters are right to press on them. But the answer to high housing costs is more housing, which the Affordable Homes Act funds; the answer to family budgets is tax relief, which families are already receiving. A businessman's promise to manage better is not a substitute for a record of results.

Vote

My prediction is that Maura Healey wins comfortably. But predictions don't count; ballots do. Early voting runs through Oct. 30, the registration deadline is Oct. 24, and Election Day is Nov. 3. Whatever you decide, make a plan and vote. Keep this some one's personnel opinion