Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey won a second term on Tuesday night, November 3, 2026, defeating Republican challenger Mike Minogue, the Associated Press declared at 8:01 p.m. Eastern — one minute after polls closed across the Commonwealth. Healey, a Democrat, ran with Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, who was also re-elected on the joint ticket. Independent Andrea James was also on the ballot. The call came before any substantial vote count had been reported, on the strength of the AP's survey and state data; results remain unofficial until Massachusetts cities and towns complete their counts and the result is certified.

Source: Associated Press election results, Massachusetts Governor (race called for Healey)

The AP's first reported count showed why the race was called so quickly: with 62 of the state's 2,384 precincts reporting — about 2.6% — Healey already led Minogue by 66,816 votes to 11,504. Pre-election polling had pointed the same way for months. A Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll of 500 likely voters taken October 14-18 put Healey at 59% and Minogue at 36%, and a University of Massachusetts Amherst/WCVB poll of 800 registered voters taken October 5-12 had Healey ahead 57% to 32%, with James at 6%. Healey had won the Democratic nomination unopposed in the September 1 primary; Minogue won the Republican nomination the same day against Brian Shortsleeve.

Source: Associated Press election results, Massachusetts Governor (early count)

The self-funded challenger

Minogue ran as a wealthy outsider against an incumbent. An Army veteran and former healthcare executive, he led the medical device maker Abiomed as its chairman, president and chief executive for nearly 19 years before its $16.6 billion acquisition by Johnson & Johnson, and he put nearly $20 million of his own money into the campaign, the Boston Globe reported — $18.3 million at the last count reported by WCVB. After winning the September 1 Republican primary he pitched himself as 'a new kind of governor,' pledging to cut taxes and spending, and through the fall he tried to cast Healey's first term as a failure and blamed her for the high cost of living in Massachusetts, the Globe reported.

Source: The New England Signal, Maura Healey wins second term as Massachusetts governor

The Republican ticket carried a complication into Election Day. Minogue's running mate, New Bedford city councillor Shawn Oliver, was in a crash in New Bedford late on Saturday, October 17, suspended his campaign the next day, and — although he had withdrawn — his name remained on the November 3 ballot alongside Minogue's. Neither campaign's closing message changed: on Election Day Minogue urged voters to the polls in a series of posts on X, repeating his affordability pitch, while Healey's campaign relied on the Democratic organisation that has won every statewide race in Massachusetts for a generation.

Source: Mass Daily News, Healey wins second term, defeating Republican Mike Minogue

Healey's road back to the State House

Healey became the first woman and the first openly gay person elected governor of Massachusetts in 2022, CNN reported, defeating Republican Geoff Diehl by 64% to 35%. Before the governorship she served two terms as the state's attorney general, and she took office in January 2023. This year she won endorsements from several police unions that had declined to back her in her first race, according to CNN — a small but telling sign of how completely the state's political establishment had consolidated behind her re-election. Independent Andrea James, a criminal-justice advocate whose running mate was Kayla Kittredge, offered voters a third option on the ballot.

Source: The New England Signal, Maura Healey wins second term (Healey background)

The governor's race was one half of a Democratic double at the top of the Massachusetts ballot. Moments after calling the governorship, the Associated Press also called the state's U.S. Senate race for Democratic Senator Ed Markey, 80, who won another term over Republican John Deaton; the AP called Markey's race at the same 8:01 p.m. minute. Massachusetts voters were deciding a full slate of Democratic incumbents for statewide office on Tuesday, and by just after 8 p.m. the two biggest of those races were already settled.

Source: Mass Daily News, Ed Markey, 80, wins another Senate term, AP projects

What happens next

Counting continues overnight across Massachusetts' 351 cities and towns, and the official canvass and certification follow in the coming weeks; nothing about the outcome is in doubt after a call made at one minute past poll closing. Politically, Healey begins a second term in January with the issue that defined her challenger's campaign — the cost of living — still at the centre of state politics: Minogue, despite losing heavily, built his entire outsider pitch on affordability, taxes and spending, and those arguments will now be taken up by the Republican minority in the state legislature rather than by a governor's office. Healey and Driscoll return to the State House with their full administration intact and no term limit in Massachusetts law barring a future run.

Source: Associated Press election results, Massachusetts Governor

For Awaaz Punjab's readers in Massachusetts — Punjabi families in the Boston area and the truck drivers who work the I-90, I-95 and I-93 corridors through the state — the result means continuity at the top of the state government they deal with every day: the same administration continues to run the state's transport, licensing and clean-truck programmes, and the affordability and tax arguments that dominated this campaign will be fought out in a second Healey term rather than under a new governor.

Source: The New England Signal, Maura Healey wins second term as Massachusetts governor