HKS Professor Expresses Optimism as Healey Announces Re-Election Bid

As Massachusetts Governor Maura T. Healey ’92 is preparing to seek re-election in 2026, Harvard Kennedy School professor Linda J. Bilmes ’80 is optimistic about her chances to return to Beacon Hill.

Healey, who was first elected in 2022, confirmed that she will seek re-election in 2026 in a Feb. 7 interview with Boston Public Radio.

“We’re running,” she said in the interview. “There’s a lot we gotta get done.”

Throughout her first term, Healey — the first openly LGBTQ person to be elected Massachusetts governor — has enjoyed broad swaths of support. An October 2024 poll from the University of Massachusetts Amherst found that the governor has a 58 percent approval rating among Massachusetts residents.

“I think that she has been a good governor, and certainly people I know from all walks of life really respect her and like her,” Bilmes said.

Several Republican candidates are reportedly considering a bid against Healey — including former MBTA official Brian Shortsleeve, State Sen. Peter J. Durant of Spence, Mike Kennealy, who served as secretary of housing and economic development in the Baker administration.

As the election approaches, Bilmes said that Healey’s campaign needs to be proactive to avoid getting “bogged down in just responding to all of the incoming chaos from the Trump administration.”

“She has to make sure that she spends part of her time on a defining accomplishment of the next term, and articulating that,” Bilmes said. “That is a challenge, because there is obviously quite a lot of chaos incoming.”

Most recently, Healey has been under pressure from Washington over Massachusetts’ immigration policies.

While she told reporters at a Jan. 22 news conference that Massachusetts is “not a sanctuary state,” Department of Justice Secretary Pamela Bondi used her first hours in office to freeze DOJ funding to sanctuary states and cities — including Massachusetts.

The next day, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea J. Campbell released a statement alongside twelve fellow attorneys general on Trump’s “threats to weaponize the U.S. Department of Justice’s prosecutorial authority and resources.”

“Right now, these vague threats are just that: empty words on paper,” the statement read. “But rest assured, our states will not hesitate to respond if these words become illegal actions.”

The state’s “right to shelter” law — which guarantees emergency shelter to homeless families and pregnant women — has been under fire since January, when reports that an undocumented person was found with a weapon and illicit drugs at a shelter in Revere. Healey ordered for background checks last spring, but found out in January that those checks had not taken place.

Since then, the governor has made proposals to change the “right-to-shelter” law through tighter regulations on background checks, requiring Criminal Offender Record Information checks before placement, and removing presumptive eligibility.

“I think she’s walked into a situation where she’s had to deal with a lot of problems that she didn’t create,” Bilmes said. “She walked into a situation where she has to deal with issues around the immigrant housing issues, around the MBTA’s problems, fiscal problems and other problems that she’s having to deal with.”

During her 2022 campaign, Healey built her platform on several policy initiatives around housing, climate, and infrastructure.

Healey signed a Chapter 90 bill in May to fix the poor road and conditions all throughout the state. Cambridge received $2,949,411 for improvements and investments in local transportation.

Healey also signed the Affordable Housing Act in August 2024, setting forth the largest housing bond to build 65,000 homes throughout the state in the next five years. A few months later, Healey announced the third round of funding under the Climate Ready Housing Program, awarding $16 million aimed at decarbonizing affordable housing.

The Cambridge Housing Authority will receive funding from the CRH for energy retrofit plans in 77-unit property. The project is projected to see a 90 percent reduction in energy use for the property.

Bilmes highlighted Healey’s record as a public servant in Massachusetts as a strength to highlight in her upcoming campaign.

“She was an extraordinarily good attorney general,” Bilmes said. “Every single day she was coming out swinging, and I think that in a second term, she could probably do that.”

—Staff writer Megan L. Blonigen can be reached at megan.blonigen@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @MeganBlonigen.

—Staff writer Frances Y. Yong can be reached at frances.yong@thecrimson.com.