BOSTON — Maura Healey was sworn in as the state’s 73rd governor at the State House Thursday, the first woman and first openly gay person to be elected to the state’s highest office, promising to make the state a national leader on issues like climate change, housing and transportation.
Healey, a Democrat who served as attorney general for eight years, took the oath of office around 12:30 p.m., with a joint session of the state legislature looking on. Senate President Karen Spilka administered the oaths to Healey and Lt. Gov. Kimberley Driscoll, the longtime mayor of Salem. As each woman concluded her oath, the legislature roared with applause and leapt to its feet.
The ceremony was attended by political figures from the state’s past and present, including U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, former Sen. and Lt. Gov. John Kerry, and former Governors William Weld, Deval Patrick and Michael Dukakis, as well as Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
Driscoll was the first to deliver her inaugural address, leaning into the celebratory atmosphere of the swearing-in ceremony as well as the historic nature of Healey assuming the governorship, and praising Healey for being a great “partner and teammate.”
As mayor, Driscoll said, she served in the “‘get stuff done’ branch of government.” She said that was the mentality she’ll bring to the lieutenant governor’s office.
“Good cities and good towns, they don’t happen by accident. It takes intentional and thoughtful leadership and a whole lot of hard work and collaboration — among state and federal governments, private and public sector partners, and institutions of all sizes and magnitude,” she said. “Those of us in this room elected to represent people throughout Massachusetts know that it’s possible to meet our collective needs in housing, in education, in transportation and climate.”
“That is the promise of Governor Healey, and that is what we are committed to delivering with you every day – these next four years,” Driscoll continued.
Driscoll earned a loud ovation when she alluded to her father, an 89-year-old Navy veteran who grew up in Lynn, who was seated in the gallery to watch the swearing-in. After the applause subsided, she quipped, “I’m sure there’s going to be some Johnnie Walker Black in our future today.”
By the time Healey, who wore white in an apparent nod to the suffragettes, approached the podium to deliver her speech, the legislature had erupted into such fervent applause that she had difficulty getting members to take their seats so she could begin her remarks.
Healey, a resident of Cambridge, spent much of her speech focused on some of the biggest issues facing the state: the lack of affordable housing, the crumbling infrastructure of both the MBTA and the state’s bridges and roads, and the climate crisis. She also put forward a number of ways she intends to tackle those issues: a “climate corridor” from the Berkshires to Barnstable to create jobs in clean teach, the creation of a cabinet-level position focused on housing, and funding for 1,000 jobs at the chronically understaffed transit agency.
She spoke of her deep family ties to the state — her ancestors landed on a beach in Newbury, her great-grandfather grew up in Newburyport, her grandparents met in Gloucester — and when she was due to be born at a naval hospital in Maryland, her grandmother dug up dirt in Massachusetts and set it in a bag underneath the delivery table. A “strange, but true” story, she said.
“Massachusetts has been my home ever since,” she said to thunderous applause. “Its natural gifts take my breath away, and its people fill me with inspiration in return.”
Those people, Healey said, are “resourceful. And resolute. And hopeful.”
“They’re ready for what comes next. They’re ready to walk forward. We just have to set the path. We just have to light the way,” she said. “If we do this right — if we act and choose in a way worthy of this state’s proud history and its great people — we will make a difference right now. And we will lay a foundation of success for generations to come.”
Healey consistently had to pause her remarks to allow for loud ovations from the legislature. Among the loudest came when she announced a plan to create a program that would offer free community college to students over 25 who don’t have a college degree.
That program, she said, represents an investment in the people of Massachusetts, the “most precious kind” of investment.
Citing the state’s success in becoming a hub for the life sciences, Healey said she plans to make the climate crisis a central focus of her administration, making solutions a top budgetary priority with the aim of making Massachusetts a national leader — like it has been throughout history.
“The plans I’ve just described to you are bold. And I’m mindful of the moment. This is a time in our nation of poisoned discourse and ugly politics … But not in Massachusetts. That’s not who we are,” she said. “In Massachusetts, we come together. We lift people up. And we lead.”
“Massachusetts can, and will, lead the world,” she said.
