Maura Healey
Maura Tracy Healey (born February 8, 1971) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the Massachusetts Attorney General. She is a member of the Democratic Party. 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 and 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. Healey is running for governor in the 2022 Massachusetts gubernatorial election. Early life and education. Born at the Bethesda Naval Hospital, Maura Tracy Healey grew up as the oldest of five brothers and sisters. When she was nine months old, her family moved to Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, where she was raised. Her mother was a nurse at Lincoln Akerman School in Hampton Falls ; her father was a captain in the United States Public Health Service 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 Crimson women's 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, she earned a  Juris Doctor from Northeastern University School of Law in 1998. 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 the country's first lawsuit striking down the law. In 2012, Healey was promoted to chief of the Public Protection and 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, nonprofit 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 work to end 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 candidacy 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, 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. It was also endorsed by Northeast District Attorney David Sullivan, Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse , Fitchburg Mayor Lisa Wong, and Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz. Organizations that endorsed the campaign include the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts, MassEquality, and the Victory Fund. Healey wrote 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. Healey defeated Republican nominee John Miller, an attorney, in the general election, 62.5% to 37.5%. Upon taking office, she became the United States' first openly gay state  attorney general. Positions. Healey's plan to reduce gun violence seeks to address what she perceives as its root causes. 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 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 nonviolent drug offenders and focusing on treatment rather than incarceration. Healey plans to combat prescription drug  abuse and Massachusetts's heroin epidemic 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 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 in Massachusetts. She actively considered firearms stores non-essential. Donald 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 "motivated by anti-Muslim sentiment and Islamophobia, not by a desire to further national security." A federal court eventually struck the order down on similar grounds. On March 9, 2017, Healey announced that her office was joining a lawsuit challenging Trump's Executive Order 13780 . She said the new order, a revised version of the one that had been struck down, "remains a discriminatory and unconstitutional attempt to make good on [Trump's] campaign promise to implement a Muslim ban." The order has since been blocked in various federal courts on similar grounds. On May 11, 2017, after Trump fired 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 20 Attorneys General across the nation, to Deputy U.S.  Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. On March 17, Rosenstein appointed a special counsel, former FBI director Robert Mueller. 2018 election. On November 6, 2018, Healey was reelected Massachusetts Attorney General, defeating Republican nominee James McMahon with 69.9% of the vote. 2022 Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign. On January 20, 2022, Healey announced her candidacy in the 2022 Massachusetts gubernatorial election. Her announcement came after Governor Charlie Baker, a Republican, announced he would not seek reelection. Personal life. Healey lives in Charlestown, Massachusetts. She continues to play basketball recreationally.