Do we like them?

Do we like Maura Healey?

Our score: 8 out of 10. Strong, documented backing for trans and reproductive care, marked down for a bad hire in her office.

Maura Healey is the Democratic governor of Massachusetts, and this month's election was about whether she gets a second term against Republican Mike Minogue. Her campaign launch in January was built on lowering costs and taking on Donald Trump, and she said “I'll stand up to anyone who gets in our way.” I couldn't open a full profile of her early life this round, so this is a read on her record, not her origin story.

The messy bit is a staffing scandal. In October 2025 a deputy director in her western Massachusetts office was arrested and later pleaded not guilty to cocaine trafficking and firearm charges, according to Hampden County prosecutors. Her office fired him and called the conduct “a major breach of the public trust”. Republican rivals Brian Shortsleeve and Mike Kennealy used it to attack her hiring and oversight. Nothing alleged touches Healey herself, but it is a vetting stain.

The good stuff is in what she says she'll defend. Her campaign video listed health care, abortion rights, access to vaccines, keeping kids and seniors from going hungry and lowering costs. At the shield law signing she said “What we do to protect people's rights here in Massachusetts impacts the country”. That's a stated priority backed by a signed law, not just a slogan. I didn't find harmful company or harmful words of her own.

The gaps are worth admitting. Her critics also raised other disputes this year, including a contested state building contract, but I couldn't verify those from pages I opened, so I've left them out of the verdict. Taking the record as sourced, she's an effective ally who had one bad hire on her watch. That adds up to a pass on harm, a pass with an asterisk on the good-person test, and a clear yes.