Maura Healey
Maura Tracy Healey is an American attorney serving as the Massachusetts Attorney General. She is a member of the Democratic Party.
Born in New Hampshire, Healey graduated from Harvard University in 1992. She then spent two years playing professional basketball in Austria before returning to the United States and receiving a Juris Doctor degree from the Northeastern University School of Law in 1998. After clerking for federal judge A. David Mazzone, she worked in private practice for seven years and served as a special assistant district attorney in Middlesex County.
Hired by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley in 2007, Healey served as Chief of the Civil Rights Division, where she spearheaded the state's challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act. She was then appointed Chief of the Public Protection & Advocacy Bureau and then Chief of the Business and Labor Bureau before resigning in 2013 to run for attorney general in 2014. She defeated former State Senator Warren Tolman in the Democratic primary and then defeated Republican attorney John Miller in the general election. Healey was reelected in 2018. Upon taking office, she became the first openly gay state attorney general in the United States.
Early life, education, and athletic career
Maura Tracy Healey grew up as the oldest of five brothers and sisters. Her mother was a nurse at Lincoln Akerman School in Hampton Falls, while her father was a captain in the United States Navy and an engineer. Her stepfather, Edward Beattie, taught history and coached girls' sports at Winnacunnet High School. Her family roots are in Newburyport and the North Shore area.Healey attended Winnacunnet High School and majored in government at Harvard College, graduating cum laude in 1992. She was co-captain of the Harvard basketball team. After graduation, Healey spent two years playing as a starting point guard for a professional basketball team in Austria, UBBC Wustenrot Salzburg. Upon returning to the United States, Healey obtained her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law in 1998.
Legal career
Healey began her legal career by clerking for Judge A. David Mazzone of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, where she prepared monthly compliance reports on the cleanup of the Boston Harbor and assisted the judge with trials, hearings, and case conferences. Healey subsequently spent more than seven years at the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, where she worked as an associate and then junior partner and focused commercial and securities litigation.She also served as a special assistant district attorney in Middlesex County, where she tried drug, assault, domestic violence, and motor vehicle cases in bench and jury sessions and argued bail hearings, motions to suppress, and probation violations and surrenders.
Hired by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley in 2007, Healey served as Chief of the Civil Rights Division, where she spearheaded the state's challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act. She led the winning arguments for Massachusetts in America's first lawsuit striking down the law.
In 2012, she was promoted to Chief of the Public Protection & Advocacy Bureau. She was then appointed Chief of the Business and Labor Bureau.
As a division chief and bureau head in the Attorney General's Office, Healey oversaw 250 lawyers and staff members and supervised the areas of consumer protection, fair labor, ratepayer advocacy, environmental protection, health care, insurance and financial services, civil rights, antitrust, Medicaid fraud, not-for-profit organizations and charities, and business, technology and economic development.
During a Zoom conference call on June 3, 2020, before 300 members of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, Healey asked for a call to action from business leaders to do their part to end to racial inequalities and systemic racism. She ended her speech saying, "Yes, America is burning, but that’s how forests grow.”
Massachusetts Attorney General
2014 election
In October 2013, Healey announced her intention to run for attorney general. Coakley was retiring from the office to run for Governor. On September 9, 2014, Healey won the Democratic primary by 126,420 votes, defeating former State Senator Warren Tolman by 62.4% to 37.6%Healey's campaign was endorsed by State Senators Stan Rosenberg, Dan Wolf, Jamie Eldridge and America's largest resource for pro-choice women in politics, EMILY's List. Her campaign was also endorsed by Northeast District Attorney David Sullivan, Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse, Fitchburg Mayor Lisa Wong, and Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz. Organizations that have endorsed the campaign include the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts, MassEquality, and the Victory Fund. Healey penned an op-ed in the Worcester Telegram and Gazette on upholding the Massachusetts buffer zone law, which she worked on at the Attorney General's Office. She also authored an op-ed in The Boston Globe outlining her plan to combat student loan predators.
She faced Republican nominee John Miller, an attorney, in the general election, and defeated him by 62.5% to 37.5%. Upon taking office, she became the first openly gay state attorney general in the United States.
Positions
Healey's plan to reduce gun violence seeks to address what she perceives as the root causes of violence. The plan includes enhancing the background check system to include information regarding recent restraining orders, pending indictments, any relations to domestic violence, parole and probation information. The plan also seeks to better track stolen and missing guns. Healey advocates for the incorporation of fingerprint trigger locks and firearm micro-stamping on all guns sold in Massachusetts.Healey's plan for criminal justice reform includes ending mandatory sentences for non-violent drug offenders and focusing on treatment rather than incarceration.
Healey also plans to combat prescription drug abuse and the heroin epidemic in Massachusetts by implementing a "lock-in" program. The program will be carried out in pharmacies as a way to identify and track prescription drug abusers and/or distributors. Her plan also includes deployment of new resources to drug trafficking hotspots, improvement of treatment accessibility and expanding access to Narcan.
Abortion
Healey's women's rights platform focuses on sex education, expanding access to abortion services in Massachusetts and ensuring that every woman in Massachusetts has access to abortion regardless of where she lives, her occupation or her income.Gun control
On July 20, 2016, Healey announced her intention to ban the sale or transfer of most semi-automatic rifles inside the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Healey actively considered firearms stores non essential.President Trump
On January 31, 2017, Healey announced that her office was joining a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump's Executive Order 13769, commonly known as a "Muslim ban." Healey condemned the order as being "motivated by anti-Muslim sentiment and Islamophobia, not by a desire to further national security." The order was eventually struck down in federal court on similar grounds.On March 9, 2017, Healey announced that her office was joining a lawsuit challenging President Trump's Executive Order 13780. Healey stated that the new order, a revised version of the one that had previously been struck down, "remains a discriminatory and unconstitutional attempt to make good on campaign promise to implement a Muslim ban." The order has since been blocked in various federal courts on similar grounds.
On May 11, 2017, following President Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey, Healey led efforts calling for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Russia's meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Her office sent a letter to that effect, signed by twenty Attorneys General from across the nation, to Deputy U.S. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. On March 17, Rosenstein appointed a special counsel, choosing former FBI director Robert Mueller for the post.
2018 election
On November 6, 2018, Healy was re-elected as Massachusetts Attorney General. Healey defeated Republican challenger James McMahon with 69.9% of the vote.Comments on 2020 violent protests
In response to violent protests associated with the death of George Floyd, Healey noted "America is Burning. That's how forests grow.''Personal life
Healey is openly gay, and lives in Charlestown, Massachusetts with her partner, Gabrielle Wolohojian.She continues to play basketball recreationally.