Maura Healey

Maura Tracy Healey (born February 8, 1971) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the Massachusetts Attorney General since January 2015. She is the governor-elect of Massachusetts, having won the 2022 Massachusetts gubernatorial election on November 8, 2022. She is a member of the Democratic Party.

Hired by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley in 2007, Healey served as chief of the Civil Rights Division, where she spearheaded the state's challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act. She was then appointed chief of the Public Protection and Advocacy Bureau and then chief of the Business and Labor Bureau before resigning in 2013 to run for attorney general in 2014. She defeated former State Senator Warren Tolman in the Democratic primary and then defeated Republican attorney John Miller in the general election. Healey was reelected in 2018. Upon taking office, she became the first openly lesbian woman and first openly LGBT person elected attorney general of a state in the United States.

Healey was elected governor of Massachusetts in 2022. She is the state's first elected female governor, as well as one of the first two lesbian women, along with Tina Kotek, to take office as governor of any state.

Early life and education

Born at the Bethesda Naval Hospital, Maura Tracy Healey grew up as the oldest of five brothers and sisters. When she was nine months old, her family moved to Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, where she was raised. Her mother was a nurse at Lincoln Akerman School in Hampton Falls; her father was a captain in the United States Public Health Service and an engineer. Her stepfather, Edward Beattie, taught history and coached girls' sports at Winnacunnet High School. Her family roots are in Newburyport and the North Shore area, while several of her grandparents and great-grandparents were born in Ireland.

Healey attended Winnacunnet High School, and majored in government at Harvard College, graduating ''cum laude'' in 1992. She was co-captain of the Harvard Crimson women's basketball team. After graduation, Healey spent two years playing as a starting point guard for a professional basketball team in Austria, UBBC Wustenrot Salzburg. Upon returning to the United States, she earned a Juris Doctor from Northeastern University School of Law in 1998.

Career

Healey began her legal career by clerking for Judge A. David Mazzone of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, where she prepared monthly compliance reports on the cleanup of the Boston Harbor and assisted the judge with trials, hearings, and case conferences. Healey subsequently spent more than seven years at the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, where she worked as an associate and then junior partner and focused on commercial and securities litigation.

She also served as a special assistant district attorney in Middlesex County, where she tried drug, assault, domestic violence, and motor vehicle cases in bench and jury sessions and argued bail hearings, motions to suppress, and probation violations and surrenders.

Hired by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley in 2007, Healey served as chief of the Civil Rights Division, where she spearheaded the state's challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act. She led the winning arguments for Massachusetts in the country's first lawsuit striking down the law.

In 2012, Healey was promoted to chief of the Public Protection and Advocacy Bureau. She was then appointed chief of the Business and Labor Bureau.

As a division chief and bureau head in the Attorney General's Office, Healey oversaw 250 lawyers and staff members and supervised the areas of consumer protection, fair labor, ratepayer advocacy, environmental protection, health care, insurance and financial services, civil rights, antitrust, Medicaid fraud, nonprofit organizations and charities, and business, technology, and economic development.

During a Zoom conference call on June 3, 2020, before 300 members of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, Healey asked for a call to action from business leaders to work to end racial inequalities and systemic racism. She ended her speech by saying, "Yes, America is burning, but that's how forests grow.”

Massachusetts attorney general

Elections

2014

In October 2013, Healey announced her candidacy for attorney general. Coakley was retiring from the office to run for governor. On September 9, 2014, Healey won the Democratic primary by 126,420 votes, defeating former State Senator Warren Tolman, 62.4% to 37.6%.

Healey's campaign was endorsed by State Senators Stan Rosenberg, Dan Wolf, Jamie Eldridge and America's largest resource for pro-choice women in politics, EMILY's List. It was also endorsed by Northeast District Attorney David Sullivan, Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse, Fitchburg Mayor Lisa Wong, and Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz. Organizations that endorsed the campaign include the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts, MassEquality, and the Victory Fund. Healey wrote an op-ed in the ''Worcester Telegram and Gazette'' on upholding the Massachusetts buffer zone law, which she worked on at the Attorney General's Office. She also authored an op-ed in ''The Boston Globe'' outlining her plan to combat student loan predators.

Healey defeated Republican nominee John Miller, an attorney, in the general election, 62.5% to 37.5%. Upon taking office, she became the United States' first openly lesbian state attorney general.

2018

On November 6, 2018, Healey was reelected Massachusetts Attorney General, defeating Republican nominee James McMahon with 69.9% of the vote.

Tenure

Healey's plan to reduce gun violence addresses what she perceives as its root causes. The plan includes enhancing the background check system to include information regarding recent restraining orders, pending indictments, any relations to domestic violence, parole, and probation information. The plan also seeks to better track stolen and missing guns. Healey advocates fingerprint trigger locks and firearm micro-stamping on all guns sold in Massachusetts.

Healey's plan for criminal justice reform includes ending mandatory sentences for nonviolent drug offenders and focusing on treatment rather than incarceration.

Healey plans to combat prescription drug abuse and Massachusetts's heroin epidemic by implementing a "lock-in" program. The program will be carried out in pharmacies as a way to identify and track prescription drug abusers and distributors. Her plan includes deployment of new resources to drug trafficking hotspots, improvement of treatment accessibility and expanding access to Narcan.

Abortion

Healey's women's rights platform focuses on sex education, expanding access to abortion services in Massachusetts, and ensuring that every woman in Massachusetts has access to abortion regardless of where she lives, her occupation, or her income.

Gun control

On July 20, 2016, Healey announced her intention to ban the manufacturing of most assault rifles in Massachusetts.

Trump administration

On January 31, 2017, Healey announced that her office was joining a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump's Executive Order 13769, commonly known as a "Muslim ban." Healey condemned the order as "motivated by anti-Muslim sentiment and Islamophobia, not by a desire to further national security." A federal court eventually struck the order down on similar grounds.

On March 9, 2017, Healey announced that her office was joining a lawsuit challenging Trump's Executive Order 13780.''International Refugee Assistance Project v. Trump'' (4th Cir. 2017) http://coop.ca4.uscourts.gov/171351.P.pdf She said the new order, a revised version of the one that had been struck down, "remains a discriminatory and unconstitutional attempt to make good on rump'scampaign promise to implement a Muslim ban." The order has since been blocked in various federal courts on similar grounds.

On May 11, 2017, after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, Healey led efforts calling for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Russia's meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Her office sent a letter to that effect, signed by 20 Attorneys General across the nation, to Deputy U.S. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. On May 17, Rosenstein appointed a special counsel, former FBI director Robert Mueller.

Purdue Pharma

In 2021, Healey announced a resolution against the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma. The resolution requires a payment of more than $4.3 billion for prevention, treatment and recovery efforts in communities across the country. It will also require Purdue Pharma to be wound down or sold by 2024 and ensure that the Sacklers are banned from the opioid business and required to turn over control of family foundations to an independent trustee to be used to address the opioid epidemic.

2022 Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign

On January 20, 2022, Healey announced her candidacy in the 2022 Massachusetts gubernatorial election. Her announcement came after Governor Charlie Baker, a Republican, announced he would not seek reelection. On September 6, 2022, Healey won the Democratic primary election. On November 8, 2022, she won the general election, which will make her the nation's first openly lesbian governor.

Personal life

In July 2022, Healey moved from Boston to Cambridge, Massachusetts. She plays basketball recreationally.

Electoral history

Attorney General of Massachusetts

Governor of Massachusetts

See also

* List of female state attorneys general in the United States
* List of first openly LGBT politicians in the United States

Notes

References

External links

Office of Attorney General Maura Healey
official government website

Maura Healey for Governor
campaign website
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