MassDems Chair Steve Kerrigan suggests Gov. Maura Healey running for a second term

The head of the Massachusetts Democratic Party appeared to suggest Tuesday that Gov. Maura Healey plans to seek a second term as governor, comments he later walked back in a phone call with the Herald.

Healey made history in 2022 as the first openly lesbian governor in the country and the first woman elected to the executive office in Massachusetts. Healey has not yet offered a firm answer on whether she plans to run for another four years as the state’s chief executive.

During a call with supporters that was billed as an event to hear the governor’s reflections on the 2024 election cycle, MassDems Chair Steve Kerrigan appeared to tip Healey’s hand on her reelection plans.

“We know we’ve got great friends in all of you, and we have a fantastic leader at the top of the ticket in 2026 in Gov. Healey, who has been crisscrossing the commonwealth, working on behalf of all of us since long before she took the corner office and in her eight years as attorney general. She’s been a leader throughout her entire career,” Kerrigan said at the outset of the call.

But in a phone call with the Herald after the event ended, Kerrigan said he has not had any conversations with the governor or her campaign team about a potential reelection bid.

“I want her to run for reelection because I think she’s doing an incredible job,” he said.

A campaign spokesperson for Healey did not immediately respond to a Herald inquiry and the governor did not address her reelection plans during the event.

Healey has repeatedly shrugged off questions on the topic, including during a Nov. 6 press conference at the State House.

“I think it’s a little early to make any announcements. We’re dealing with this election. I love my job, and, you know, my message today to everybody in Massachusetts is that we see you,” Healey said the day after President-elect Donald Trump beat Vice President Kamala Harris to secure a second stint in the White House.

A potential run for a second term from Healey drew immediate backlash from the Massachusetts Republican Party, where Chair Amy Carnevale said “residents have had enough of politics taking priority over their needs.”

“The focus on a leftist agenda over the well-being of the commonwealth has proven to have disastrous consequences. Voters have been paying attention. We are ready to take on whoever steps forward as the Democratic candidate for governor,” Carnevale said in a statement.

Republicans are still debating who to put forward for the 2026 gubernatorial election.

Healey has more than $2.4 million stashed away in her campaign account that she can use if she decides to run again. The governor raised more than $266,000 and spent over $62,000 in October, according to state campaign finance records.

The governor — who campaigned heavily for Vice President Kamala Harris and New Hampshire Democratic gubernatorial nominee Joyce Craig — used her brief remarks Tuesday evening to urge Democrats not to “point fingers or circle the wagons.”

She said the Democratic Party needs to learn “why we are where we are, how we got here, and what we need to do.”

“A lot of what we heard in some of the aftermath of the discussion, interviews with voters, is people really feeling it economically, and people feeling like their government just hadn’t delivered for them,” she said. “And to me, I think that’s an opportunity for us to show your government works for you, your government delivers for you, and we do that every day in different ways.”

Healey is not the only Democratic leader in Massachusetts who has called for the party to engage in introspection as a second Trump presidency looms.

House Speaker Ron Mariano urged his fellow party members to view the 2024 election as a wake-up call and an opportunity to “renew our focus on the issues that drove voters across the country towards the Republican Party this year.”

He said local lawmakers’ work will “be of heightened importance due to (the) incredibly disappointing election results and the potential for decreased federal support.”

Kerrigan said the Massachusetts Democratic Party plans to hold a series of “listening sessions” across the state over the next few months to give residents an opportunity to “weigh in with their thoughts, what they saw through the election cycle.”

“We’re going to give folks the data based on the district and the area we’re in on the election results, 2024, and then comparatively for the last couple of elections, and then really dig in on what we think this election means, and then what it means for us on a pathway going forward,” he said.