Boston, Massachusetts: Maura Healey Wins Second Term as Governor, Defeats Mike Minogue, AP Projects

BOSTON, Massachusetts: Gov. Maura Healey has won a second term as governor of Massachusetts. The Associated Press declared Healey the winner at 8:01 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, minutes after polls closed at 8 p.m. She defeated Republican Mike Minogue, a former health care executive. WCVB also reported the result.

The call came at poll close for a reason. The AP has explained that it calls a race at poll close only when its VoteCast survey of voters and other data show a clear winner. In the first AP count on election night, Healey had 65,151 votes, with 59 of 2,384 precincts reporting. Massachusetts runs its elections through 351 cities and towns, and counting continued across the state after the call.

The polls had pointed to this result for weeks. A Suffolk University and Boston Globe poll of likely voters, taken from Oct. 14 to Oct. 18, put Healey at 59 percent and Minogue at 36 percent. A UMass Amherst and WCVB poll, taken from Oct. 5 to Oct. 12, had Healey ahead 57 percent to 32 percent. Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin told reporters on Tuesday afternoon that clerks reported high turnout, long ballots and some longer wait times to deposit ballots, though he said the longer waits were not widespread.

Healey made her closing case on costs. At a lunchtime stop in East Boston on Election Day, she said, "We're focused on driving down costs, building more homes, making sure people have access to healthcare, lowering people's energy bills," WBUR reported. She ran much of her race as if President Donald Trump were on the ballot. At her Saturday rally in Lynn, she never mentioned Minogue. Trump stayed out of the Massachusetts races this cycle and endorsed no candidates in the state.

Minogue ran on the cost of living. He is an Army veteran and a former chief executive of the medical device maker Abiomed, and he had put $18.3 million of his own money into the race at the last count, WCVB reported. In Braintree on Sunday night, he told a crowd, "The problem is a lot of people can't afford it, and it's because of Maura Healey's failed leadership on electricity, on housing, on healthcare, and on childcare," WBUR reported. His closing line to voters was, "People are fed up, and they have every right to be." Independent Andrea James was also on the ballot.

Healey first won the office in 2022, when she became the first woman and the first openly gay person elected governor of Massachusetts. She defeated Republican Geoff Diehl by 64 percent to 35 percent that year. Before she became governor, she served two terms as the state attorney general. This year she won endorsements from several police unions that had declined to back her in her first race, CNN reported.

The governor race was not the only early call in the state. The AP called the U.S. Senate race moments later for Sen. Ed Markey, who is 80 and won another term over Republican John Deaton. The win gives Markey a third full term in the Senate. He has served in federal office since 1976 and had beaten an age focused primary challenge from Rep. Seth Moulton. Three House Democrats who ran unopposed, Ayanna Pressley, Jim McGovern and Katherine Clark, also secured reelection on Tuesday night.