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Maura Healey
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Governor of Massachusetts
b. February 8, 1971
"I hope as governor I can make sure that I'm leading the fight against bigotry and discrimination."
Maura Healey is a trailblazing American politician. Previously the first out LGBTQ state attorney general in the United States, she became the first female and first openly lesbian governor of Massachusetts in 2023.
Healey grew up in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, the eldest of five siblings. She attended Harvard University, where she majored in government and captained the women’s basketball team. After graduating cum laude, she played professional basketball in Australia for two years.
Healy returned to the U.S. and earned her Juris Doctor in 1998 from Northeastern University School of Law. She clerked for a U.S. district court judge in Massachusetts and worked for various law firms before serving as a special assistant district attorney. In 2007 she was named chief of the Civil Rights Division under Massachusetts Atty. Gen. Martha Coakley. During her tenure, Healey led and won the state’s lawsuit challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which banned same-sex marriage.
Healy announced her candidacy for Massachusetts attorney general in 2013. She won the Democratic primary handily, securing key endorsements, and defeated her Republican rival by a landslide in 2014. The victory made Healey the nation’s first openly lesbian state attorney general.
Healey was re-elected in 2018. Her agenda included suing Purdue Pharma over OxyContin and Exxon Mobil over climate-change issues.
In 2022 Healey entered the Massachusetts gubernatorial race. She swept the primaries, winning the endorsement of prominent politicians, most notably Vice President Kamala Harris. She went on to trounce the Trump-endorsed Republican nominee, returning the office to the Democrats. The historic election made Healey Massachusetts’ first female and first out lesbian governor. Her victory also broke the state’s “curse of the attorney general.” During the previous 65 years, six AGs before her had run for governor and lost. Healy and Oregon’s Tina Kotek, who assumed office at the same time, became the first two openly gay elected female governors in America.
Healey feels a particular responsibility to support LGBTQ youth, with whom she periodically played basketball along the campaign trail for governor. She has fought for the rights of women and the LGBTQ community throughout her career. Among other initiatives, she is committed to protecting the right to safe and legal abortion and to gender-affirming care for trans kids.
Healey is in a relationship with Joanna Lydgate, her former deputy AG. The couple lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
