The statewide primary and election are only a few months away.
Gov. Maura Healey, Sen. Ed Markey, and Congresswoman Katherine Clark (all Democrats), are all running for reelection, but not without opposition.
Here’s what to know about their campaigns and challengers:
Healey vs. Brian Shortsleeve, Mike Kennealy, and Michael Minogue
Gov. Healey, who took office in January of 2023, is running for reelection on her successes with housing, health care, and revitalizing the MBTA. She leads the general election polls by a significant margin.
During her first term, she’s prioritized making Massachusetts an affordable place to live. She has continued seeing former Gov. Charlie Baker’s MBTA Communities Act through with the hope that adding more housing to Greater Boston could lower the cost of housing across the state. Continuing that work will be a priority if reelected, she told NBC Boston. Healey capped copays and deductibles with the plan of making health care more affordable. And the MBTA has improved, with new train cars, no more slow zones, and re-opened Commuter Rail lines under General Manager Phillip Eng, who Healey hired.
Healey has spoken out against the Trump administration’s recent moves to limit access to vaccines, scale back SNAP benefits, and launch unlawful ICE operations. She also plans to lower energy and health care costs if reelected. Healey has said she’ll continue to stand up to President Donald Trump if reelected.
Healey’s Republican challengers criticize her tenure for opening up more shelters for homeless individuals (though most are now closed), imposing new taxes, and driving up energy costs.
One of those challengers is Lexington resident Mike Kennealy, who was the state’s housing and economic development secretary under Baker. He’s running on promises of making the state more affordable by lowering energy bills, tightening immigration laws, closing education gaps, and giving municipalities more say in building MBTA Communities Act housing — a state mandate he does not support.
While Baker, who Kennealy worked under, was the one who signed the MBTA Communities Act into law in 2021, Kennealy argues the administration was not asked for any input on the law and never advocated for its passage. He blames the law on Democratic legislators writing the bill without the governor’s input, though it passed with widespread Republican support. He plans to meet with towns impacted by the law, listen to their concerns, and end state penalization of communities that don’t comply. Reforming Massachusetts’ energy plans is another one of Kennealy’s priorities. He plans to wipe out many of Healey’s climate-forward decisions and invest in natural gas to lower rate-payers’ bills. He also wants to reinvest in education with the hopes of closing achievement gaps and raising graduation rates as he did with the Lawrence Public Schools before joining the Baker administration.
In an interview with the Observer, Kennealy said he will work with Washington, but does not align himself with Trump or any politician.
Brian Shortsleeve, a venture capitalist, Marine veteran, and the former MBTA general manager and chief administrator, is also running for the Republican ticket. Baker hired him to overhaul the public transportation system’s budget. Shortsleeve touts his work on that project in his race for governor. But many call him “Slowzone Shortsleeve” because he handed a public transit system fraught with slow zones and broken cars to Eng, who has been fixing it.
Shortsleeve is running on reversing Healey’s immigration policies, lowering energy bills, and reversing the MBTA Communities Act. He vows to cut unnecessary taxes and never implement another new tax if elected, his website states. He also plans to seek legislation to roll back the Lunn decision, which prevents state law enforcement from holding illegal immigrants for federal authorities such as ICE. He plans to reinvest in natural gas with the hopes of lowering energy bills. And, he’ll scrap the MBTA Communities Act and create an incentive program for towns that want to build housing. He’ll also open up state-owned land for those communities to build on.
Michael Minogue, former Abiomed CEO, is the third Republican to join the gubernatorial race. He’s a devout Christian, Army veteran, and has worked with nonprofits to give back to those who have served the US. He’s donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican campaigns, including Trump’s.
Minogue is running on affordability, cutting the MBTA Communities Act, expanding education opportunities, and prioritizing safety by increasing immigration laws and “ensur[ing] high school girls have fair and safe competition in sports,” his website reads.
Minogue plans to make the state more affordable by investing in natural gas pipelines, ending the MBTA Communities Act, and cutting the Net Zero Mandate. He vows to make Massachusetts safer by ending illegal immigrants’ Right to Shelter and access to benefits such as Medicaid.
Minogue plans to fix education gaps by opting into Trump’s Federal Tax Credit Scholarship Program, which grants families $1,700 to take their children out of public schools and send them to private schools.
A recent poll funded by Minogue shows he is leading the race for the Republican ticket. Other polls conducted last year show otherwise — a November Suffolk University poll shows Shortsleeve leads, and an October YouGov poll shows Kennealy leads.
Markey vs. Seth Moulton
Sen. Markey was first elected to the United States Senate in 2013. He has worked closely with New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the Green New Deal and plans to pass that legislation if reelected. He’s also worked to uncover what happened to Steward Health Care, the formerly largest private for-profit hospital system in the US, which filed for bankruptcy in May 2024 with over $9 billion in liabilities. Markey has held federal hearings, subpoenaed Steward’s CEO, introduced the Health Over Wealth Act to regulate private equity in health, and called for debt restructuring to prevent closures. He will also continue to work toward passing legislation that protects children online and modernizes opioid treatment.
Markey is most criticized for his age — he would be 80 upon reelection. A 2024 UMass Amherst/WCVB poll found that 72 percent of Massachusetts residents support age limits for US senators.
“As Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said of me in 2020, it’s not your age, it’s the age of your ideas. By that test, I’m still the youngest person in the room,” Markey told the Globe.
Markey’s age is one of the main reasons why 46-year-old Iraq War veteran, six-term Democratic congressman, and Salem resident, Seth Moulton, is mounting a primary challenge. Age aside, Moulton agrees with Markey on most issues — he supports universal health care, fighting climate change, and banning assault weapons.
The most defining characteristic of Moulton’s campaign and political career is his desire to change party leadership.
“If we can’t learn the lessons of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Dianne Feinstein and Joe Biden, then people aren’t going to trust us to lead for the future,” Moulton told the Globe. For the same reason, he vowed to vote no on reelecting Senator Schumer for majority leader if elected.
Clark vs. Jonathan Paz
Rep. Katherine Clark has represented Massachusetts’ Fifth District, which includes Lexington, since 2013. In 2022, Clark’s colleagues elected her to serve as Democratic Whip, the second most senior position in the House Democratic Caucus. She has prioritized women’s rights throughout her tenure — supporting bringing an end to wage discrimination; safeguarding access to abortion; ending gun violence; improving access to affordable, quality child care; and guaranteeing paid leave.
This year, Clark is facing grassroots challenger, Jonathan Paz, a former Waltham city councilor and son of Bolivian immigrants.
“I’m challenging one of the most powerful Democrats in the House because we need new leadership,” Paz said in the video announcing his campaign in December. “Let’s just call it what it is: our Democratic leaders are failing us. They’re not stopping Trump. They’re not making life more affordable. They’re not building a party for the working class.”
Paz recently founded Fuerza, a volunteer group that responds to ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests in the region.
If elected, Paz will support raising wages and unions, universal health care, affordable childcare, keeping the US out of what he refers to as “endless wars” on his website, holding ICE accountable for unlawfully detaining people, and equal rights for minority groups.
Key information and dates
The state primary election is scheduled for Sept. 1. The statewide election is scheduled for Nov. 3. For both the primary and statewide elections, polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Here are the open positions on the ballot:
- U.S. Senator
- U.S. Representative
- Governor
- Lieutenant Governor
- Attorney General
- Secretary of State
- Treasurer
- Auditor
- Governor’s Councillor
- State Senator
- State Representative
- District Attorney
- Register of Probate
- County Commissioner (certain counties only)
- County Treasurer (certain counties only)
- Sheriff (Franklin County – to fill vacancy)
Citizens must be registered to vote by Aug. 22 to vote in both the primary and statewide elections.
The deadline to vote by mail is 5 p.m. on Aug. 25.
And the early voting period is Aug. 22 to the 28.