Healey Ran Against Trump, Minogue Ran Against Her Record: The Closing Pitches, the $18.3 Million, and Where the Candidates Spent the Last Weekend

Gov. Maura Healey and Republican challenger Mike Minogue made their final pitches to Massachusetts voters over the weekend, with Healey framing the race around President Donald Trump and Minogue around the state's cost of living, WBUR reported in its Mass. Politics newsletter on Monday.

At a get-out-the-vote rally inside a Lynn middle school on Saturday, before a crowd of about 100 people, many of them union workers and local elected officials, Healey returned to the approach she has used since she was attorney general during Trump's first term, according to WBUR.

'When Donald Trump does all the things, takes away healthcare, we find a way to cover it. When he takes away vaccines, we find a way to provide them,' she told the crowd. 'When he takes away food, we find a way to feed people. When he defunds education, we make community college free.'

Healey never mentioned Minogue at that event, WBUR reported. When she has brought him up during the campaign, it has often been to tie him to Trump, who remains deeply unpopular in a state that has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan.

<h3>Minogue's case</h3>

Minogue rallied with supporters at a Braintree restaurant on Sunday night. He sought to distance himself from national Republicans while calling Healey a 'lifelong bureaucrat lawyer,' according to WBUR. Since winning the Republican primary, he has primarily made an economic argument, leaning on his business background.

'The problem is a lot of people can't afford it, and it's because of Maura Healey's failed leadership on electricity, on housing, on healthcare, and on childcare,' Minogue said. 'And those issues have nothing to do with national politics.'

He also addressed the money he has put into his own campaign, $18.3 million at last count, WBUR reported. 'Which means when I get elected, nobody owns me,' he said. 'I'm beholden to you, my God, and of course, my wife.'

For comparison, Healey's campaign started 2026 with $2.6 million, has raised $4 million from donors and has spent $5.3 million this year, according to WBUR.

<h3>Where they went</h3>

Both candidates recently campaigned in Fall River on the South Coast, an indication it is seen as a battleground, WBUR reported. Minogue also campaigned in Boston, including the North End and the more conservative parts of Dorchester, where he poured Guinness at the pub Reagan famously visited in 1983.

WBUR noted that Minogue does not need to win Boston but must avoid being badly beaten there. Republican Gov. Charlie Baker fell just a few thousand votes short of winning the city on his way to a second term in 2018, while other Republicans on that year's ballot lost Boston by much larger margins and lost their races.

In the U.S. Senate race, Sen. Ed Markey spent Sunday campaigning in Maine for fellow Democrat Troy Jackson, while his Republican challenger, John Deaton, campaigned in Boston, WBUR reported, describing Markey's trip as a likely indication of how he feels about his own race.

<h3>The question insiders are asking</h3>

Among Democrats, WBUR reported, the question is less whether Healey wins than whether she would serve a full second term if a Democrat wins the White House in 2028 or a U.S. Senate seat opens. 'The Governor will absolutely fulfill her next term,' a campaign spokesperson told WBUR by text message after Healey passed a reporter on her way out of the Lynn event.

CBS Boston and WHDH also covered the candidates' final day of campaigning on Monday. CBS reported that Healey emphasized affordability, jobs and resistance to Trump-era policies, while Minogue focused on housing, electricity, health care and child care costs.

<h3>Context</h3>

Neither campaign's closing argument changes the rules of the day: polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and voters in line at 8 p.m. may still cast ballots, according to the Secretary of the Commonwealth's office.

More than 1.1 million Massachusetts residents had already voted by Monday morning, according to Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin, who said there are no especially intense statewide races this year. WBUR described Election Day as having turned into 'Election Month,' reflecting widespread use of mail ballots and early in-person voting.

Polls close at 8 p.m. Unofficial results will begin arriving after that. Polling cited in coverage during the campaign has consistently shown Healey ahead, but polls are not results, and Minogue has said he hopes they are wrong.