Massachusetts Gov. Healey Could Face a Primary Opponent in 2026

A recent UMass Amherst/WCVB-TV Channel 5 poll indicates Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey still enjoys majority support as she plans to seek re-election to a second four-year term next year.

However, the poll shows her support has slipped from 58 percent in October 2024 to 52 percent in February 2025.

While Healey's favorability rating is good, it is moving in the wrong direction. That is not surprising considering the migrant crisis, a softening state economy, talk of new taxes and soaring home energy bills.

Healey announced her re-election bid as Massachusetts inches closer to the two-year mark of a state of emergency declared by Healey on August 8, 2023. As we recently reported, Healey has not clearly articulated the need for the designation or stated when it might be lifted.

I suspect that Healey is looking to springboard from Beacon Hill to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 2028, but to do so, she must win re-election next year.

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There are reports that several Republicans are lurking in the shadows exploring a possible challenge to Democrat Healey.

They include Sen. Peter Durant of Spencer; Mike Keneally, former Housing and Economic Development Secretary under Gov. Charlie Baker; and John Deaton, who ran an unsuccessful race against U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren.

However, Healey may have to worry about a primary challenge before she encounters a Republican foe in the fall of 2026.

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The Boston Globe reported Democrat Andrea James, an advocate for incarcerated women, has filed the initial paperwork required to explore a possible run for governor.

James is the Founder and Executive Director of the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, Founder of Families for Justice as Healing, the author of Upper Bunkies Unite: And Other Thoughts on the Politics of Mass Incarceration.

A loss for Healey next year could ice her political career forever.

LOOK: Milestones in women's history from the year you were born

Women have left marks on everything from entertainment and music to space exploration, athletics, and technology. Each passing year and new milestone makes it clear both how recent this history-making is in relation to the rest of the country, as well as how far we still need to go. The resulting timeline shows that women are constantly making history worthy of best-selling biographies and classroom textbooks; someone just needs to write about them.

Scroll through to find out when women in the U.S. and around the world won rights, the names of women who shattered the glass ceiling, and which country's women banded together to end a civil war.

Gallery Credit: Isabel Sepulveda