Attorney General-elect Andrea Campbell and Governor-elect Maura Healey deliver victory speeches at the Fairmont Copley Hotel.
U.S. Rep. Ayanna
Pressley addresses Democratic activists at the victory party for Maura
Healey and Andrea Campbell at the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel.
Mass. voters lean left in gov. race, ballot questions
While partisans across the country anxiously awaited the results of Tuesday’s elections, Massachusetts Democrats were celebrating a decisive, historic win for their party on Election Night.
The victory Nov. 8 of Massachusetts Attorney General and now Governor-elect Maura Healey doesn’t just represent the first time a woman and openly gay person has been elected governor of the Commonwealth. Healey’s win also marks the flipping of the state’s top executive seat to a Democrat for the first time since Deval Patrick was reelected in 2010, and only the second time since Michael Dukakis’ reelection in 1986.
Speaking to a packed audience, Healey acknowledged the historic nature of her victory.
“Tonight, with the help of so many, we made history. I stand before you tonight proud to be the first woman and the first gay person ever elected governor of Massachusetts or any other state,” Healey
said. “Tonight I want to say something to every little girl and to
every LGBT person out there. I hope tonight shows you that you can be
whatever, whatever, you want to be.”
Flanked
by Lieutenant Governor-elect Kim Driscoll, Healey noted yet another
historic milestone: With their election, she said, Massachusetts has
become the first state in the union to elect women to both positions at
the top of the ticket.
Meanwhile,
with uncertain electoral outcomes looming across the country, Healey
also framed her own victory as a sign that Massachusetts may play a role
as a vanguard of progressive American politics.
“We
are lucky to live in Massachusetts,” Healey said. “The people of
Massachusetts tonight have given us a historic opportunity and a mandate
to act. So we’re going to ignore the noise, we’re going to focus every
day on making a difference in people’s lives.”
Those
goals, Healey said, include working to protect the environment and
combat climate change, and to protect progressive values, including
women’s rights.
“As long as I’m governor, women will always have the right to control their own bodies,” Healey said.
Attorney
General-elect Andrea Campbell, too, spoke to the historic nature of her
own victory, both as the first Black person to be elected to be elected
to serve statewide.
“It
is not lost on me that tonight is a historic night for many reasons,”
Campbell said. “In Massachusetts we don’t just say representation
matters … For those who have felt knocked down and left behind and
undervalued, this victory is for you.”
Drawing
on her own personal history, which includes the death of her brother
while incarcerated, Campbell promised to push for “meaningful criminal
reform, prison reform and juvenile justice” and, as had Healey, promised
to defend women’s reproductive rights.
Massachusetts
Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, who handily won reelection to a third
term, said the night’s wins showed Massachusetts to be a leader in
progressive advancements.
“Massachusetts
is leading the change that affirms that representation matters, that
leadership matters, that vision matters,” said Pressley, who in 2018 was
the first Black woman elected to Congress in the Commonwealth.
“Tonight’s historic electoral victories are just the beginning.
Massachusetts, we take our rightful place as we show the nation what is
possible. We will not listen to those who tell us that the advancement
of the marginalized is a loss for those who are doing OK; we reject that
false narrative. The reality is when one of us thrives, we all do.”
On
a night of close elections across the country, Healey’s decisive
victory was unsurprising after she won the overwhelmingly blue
Commonwealth’s primary election — but election night still registered as
a potent moment for many.
“Healey
is standing on the shoulders of every gay person since Stonewall,” said
Wayne Kurtz, referring to the 1969 riots protesting police raids on the
Stonewall Inn in New York City.
“As a gay man who couldn’t walk down the street holding hands” with a same-sex partner, Kurtz said, “this is the moment.”
Malik Williams, of Boston, praised Healey’s accessibility and openness to communities of color.
“There’s always a disconnect between people in political positions and leadership positions and then the community,” Williams said.
Destiny Ihenacho, of Brockton, said he volunteered for Campbell’s campaign because he believes in her values.
“These
are real life issues that Andrea feels, that we feel,” he said. “I’m
excited to see what she does about returning citizens, I’m excited to
see what she does about recidivism programs, I’m excited to see what she
does with prison phone calls.”
Sheila
Graham, of Boston, whose mother, Cheryl Harding, introduced Campbell to
the crowd, said she was elated to see Campbell, as well as Healey and
Driscoll, take the stage in victory.
“I
followed her since she was president of the City Council … This is what
we need to get the work done in Massachusetts, from her to Maura Healey
to Kim Driscoll, all of them, women, all up and down.”
She
added, “I’ve never seen this. I’m almost 60 years old and I’ve never
seen this, so this means a lot to me. She’s had some of the same
struggles. I know she’ll make a difference.”