Healey Wins a Second Term With About 63%, Called One Minute After Polls Closed. Her Harder Fight May Be With the Legislature

Gov. Maura Healey won a second term Tuesday, defeating Republican Mike Minogue in a race the Associated Press called at 8:01 p.m., one minute after polls closed, State House News Service reported.

With 81 percent of the vote counted, Healey had 1,362,786 votes, or 62.7 percent, to Minogue's 735,451, or 33.9 percent, according to CBS Boston's AP results. Independent Andrea James had about 3 percent earlier in the count, Boston.com reported. In Boston, Healey won 78.19 percent, according to the city's unofficial results.

Healey is the second Massachusetts governor this century to win reelection, after Charlie Baker, Boston.com reported. Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll of Salem returns on the ticket.

What she said

"To those who supported my opponents in this race, here's my promise. I'll show up for you. I'll fight for you. I'll be a governor for everyone," Healey said Tuesday night, according to CBS Boston.

"I know there is a lot of uncertainty right now, but the one thing I am certain of is that the people of Massachusetts, we will meet this moment. That's because in Massachusetts, we lead, we don't follow," she said.

"Tonight the voters have spoken," Minogue told supporters. "The results are not what we had hoped for and certainly not what we worked for, but the people made their choice, and it is our responsibility now to respect the will of the people." Boos rang out at his election-night party when Fox News called the race around 8:05 p.m., the News Service reported.

The campaign

Healey led by double digits in polling throughout the race, Boston.com reported, and early AP returns showed her above 64 percent with about a third of the vote counted at 10:52 p.m. She voted Tuesday morning at Hardy Elementary School in Arlington; Minogue voted early, CBS Boston reported. The two met in televised debates, including one at WBZ and a final debate at WCVB in Needham on Oct. 15.

Minogue, a U.S. Army veteran and former CEO of the medical device company Abiomed, broke records for personal spending on a Massachusetts campaign, with the latest figures showing $19.5 million of his own money, State House News Service reported.

He attacked Healey over the state's affordability crisis and what he alleged was corruption in her administration, the News Service reported. Healey's campaign tied Minogue to President Donald Trump, citing his 2024 fundraising for Trump, CBS Boston reported.

The race grew more volatile in its final weeks. Minogue's running mate, New Bedford City Councilor Shawn Oliver, suspended his campaign after he was charged in a drunken-driving crash on Oct. 17, CBS Boston reported. Minogue also accused Healey of an illegal quid pro quo with the State Police Association of Massachusetts over its endorsement, which she called "lies and nonsense" and which the union strongly denied. The union demanded an apology from Minogue, who later said his concerns were with Healey, not the troopers, according to CBS Boston. The candidates also sparred over proposals to suspend the state gas tax.

The second term

Voters can likely expect Healey to focus on housing production, stabilizing the MBTA and the cost of living, the News Service reported. Her harder test may be at home: when she proposed suspending the gas tax shortly after Minogue floated the idea, she suffered "a high-profile legislative defeat" at the hands of her own party's leadership, and she has called for months for lawmakers to advance priority bills without success.

That tension is about to be tested on public records. Healey has said she would veto an attempt to rewrite voter-approved Question 1, but Democratic supermajorities in both chambers could override her, WBUR reported.

A changed Washington

Healey returns as Democrats take control of both chambers of Congress for Trump's final two years. The News Service said she is likely to campaign for Democratic presidential candidates in 2028, as she did in 2024, and could see Massachusetts' federal lawmakers rise into positions of national power.

Kyle Evans Gay, Delaware's lieutenant governor and chair of the Democratic Lt. Governors Association, called Healey and Driscoll "the first all-women executive team in Massachusetts history," according to the News Service.

What Boston's numbers show

Boston's unofficial results, posted by the city's Election Department at 3:46 a.m. Wednesday with all 275 precincts reporting, give the city's share of Healey's win. Healey and Driscoll received 143,019 votes in Boston, or 78.19 percent, to 32,772 for Minogue and Oliver, or 17.92 percent, and 6,725 for James and Kittredge, or 3.68 percent.

Set against the statewide AP count CBS Boston published with about 81 percent of the vote in, Boston's 143,019 votes for Healey equal about 10.5 percent of her 1,362,786 statewide total at that point, while Boston's 32,772 votes for Minogue equal about 4.5 percent of his 735,451. Because the statewide count was incomplete when those figures were published, those shares will shift as the remaining votes are added; they are a snapshot, not a final measure.

Healey's Boston margin, about 110,000 votes, was by itself roughly a sixth of her statewide lead of about 627,000 votes in that same count.

What is not known

Healey has not announced second-term Cabinet changes or a legislative agenda for January. The vote totals are unofficial until certified.