Update, November 2, 2026.
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Mike Minogue has spent more of his own money than any candidate for Massachusetts governor in memory. He says his internal polling has him within single digits of Gov. Maura Healey. Every public poll this fall has had him behind by 20 points or more. His running mate suspended his campaign two weeks before Election Day, but his name is still on the ballot. And a third candidate, independent Andrea James, is on the ballot too, although she was kept out of both debates.
Here is the whole race in one place before Tuesday, November 3: who is running, every public poll, where the candidates stand on the issues and the ballot questions, who is paying for the ads, and what the law says about the Republican running-mate problem. This page takes no position on the election.
The race at a glance
| Maura Healey | Mike Minogue | Andrea James | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Democrat (incumbent) | Republican | Independent |
| Running mate | Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll | Shawn Oliver (campaign suspended October 18; name remains on the ballot) | Not confirmed in the sources we reviewed |
| Background | Governor since January 2023; attorney general before that | Former chairman and CEO of Abiomed; West Point graduate and Army veteran | Former defense attorney; founder of Families for Justice as Healing |
| Latest public polls (October) | 57 to 59 percent | 29 to 36 percent | 2 to 6 percent |
Every public poll on the governor’s race
These are the public polls we could check against the pollsters’ published results or reporting on them. Figures are percentages.
| Poll | Field dates | Healey | Minogue | James |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of New Hampshire | Late August | 54 | 30 | n/a |
| UMass Amherst/WCVB | August 5 to 12 | 53 | 33 | n/a |
| MassINC/CommonWealth Beacon (likely voters, with leaners) | September 14 to 22 | 54 | 32 | 4 |
| UMass Amherst/WCVB (with leaners) | October 5 to 12 | 57 | 32 | 6 |
| UMass Lowell/YouGov (likely voters) | October 7 to 18 | 57 | 29 | 4 |
| Suffolk University/Boston Globe (likely voters) | October 14 to 18 | 59 | 36 | 2 |
Before leaners were pushed, MassINC had it 51 to 30, with 12 percent undecided. Healey’s lead in the October polls runs from 23 to 28 points.
- Healey’s job approval. UMass Lowell found 60 percent of likely voters approve of how Healey is handling her job: 24 percent strongly and 36 percent somewhat.
- Who backs whom. Among UMass Lowell respondents who voted for Kamala Harris in 2024, 87 percent backed Healey, 5 percent Minogue and 3 percent James, WBUR reported. Healey led among women 60 to 27 and among men 54 to 33. Minogue’s best group in the crosstabs was voters without a four-year degree, where it was 46 to 38.
- Name recognition. The Suffolk/Globe poll found 21 percent of likely voters had not heard of Minogue, the Globe reported.
- The mood. Suffolk found 58 percent rated the state economy fair or poor and 55 percent said taxes are too high. Only 15 percent said Massachusetts had become a better place to live over the past four years.
- Minogue’s own numbers. After the final debate, Minogue said his campaign’s polling showed him within “single digits.” The campaign did not release that polling when the Globe asked. “There’s lies, damn lies, and polling,” he told reporters after voting early in Hamilton.
Every one of these polls closed before the last ten days of the campaign. No public poll released since October 28 was found as of Monday, November 2.
Who is Maura Healey?
Healey was elected governor in 2022 after two terms as attorney general. She ran unopposed in the September 1 Democratic primary and is running with Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll.
Her campaign is mostly about Washington. “People are still struggling out there. President Trump and the tariffs and the [Iran] war continue to drive up costs across the board,” she said at an October event in Roxbury, the Globe reported. Outside Somerville City Hall, she described Minogue as “a big-time supporter of Trump and [Vice President JD] Vance,” “anti-choice” and “pro-ICE,” and said he believes “the best thing we can do for public education is to give vouchers away.”
Her pitch on her record:
- Housing. At the final debate she cited a permitting plan she said cut approvals from a year to 30 days.
- Immigration enforcement. She points to the PROTECT Act, which limits state and local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, and says she has stood up to ICE.
- Energy. She says she opposed a natural gas pipeline as attorney general because ratepayers would have paid for it. She proposed a two-month suspension of the 24-cent state gas tax, which Democratic lawmakers rejected in October, the Globe reported.
- Police support. On September 10 she announced endorsements from the State Police Association of Massachusetts, the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, the Massachusetts Coalition of Police and the State Police Commissioned Officers Association. None of them endorsed her in 2022.
What Minogue attacks her on: the collapse of Steward Health Care, which he blames on her tenure as attorney general (she blames former Steward CEO Ralph de la Torre); the arrest of her former aide LaMar Cook, whom she says she fired before he was arraigned and who is presumed innocent; the Springfield courthouse deal; and the cost of living.
Who is Mike Minogue?
Minogue, of Hamilton, is a 1989 West Point graduate who served as an infantry officer in Operation Desert Storm. From 2004 to 2023 he ran Abiomed, the Danvers maker of the Impella heart pump, which Johnson & Johnson bought for about $16.6 billion in 2022. He was enrolled as an independent for nearly 20 years before running as a Republican, the Globe reported. He has five children. Our full profile of Minogue.
He won the Republican convention endorsement with 70 percent of delegates in April, then beat Brian Shortsleeve in the September 1 primary, 75.8 to 24.2 percent. Before this race his political activity was mostly as a donor, including to committees backing President Trump. Trump has not endorsed in the race, the Globe reported.
His agenda, from his September “AAOK” blueprint (accountability, affordability, opportunity, keeping communities safe) and the debates:
- Taxes and spending. A spending dashboard and an audit of the Legislature, cutting the gas tax and a third of state-mandated utility fees, and a gas tax holiday whenever pump prices top $4.
- Energy. Repeal the net-zero emissions mandate, which he calls “unfunded, unachievable.”
- Housing. End enforcement of the MBTA Communities Act and reward towns that speed up single-family permitting. Repealing the act itself would take the Legislature.
- Schools. Expand charter, vocational and technical schools, and opt Massachusetts into the federal scholarship tax credit, which only a governor can do.
- Public safety and immigration. Protect qualified immunity, end what he calls cashless bail, and have ICE coordinate with state and local police to target violent criminals and drug dealers.
- Abortion. At the final debate he did not say directly whether he supports repealing the state’s abortion law, saying he would follow the law and uphold his oath.
He has also claimed that Healey traded a State Police contract for the union’s endorsement. The union called that “categorically false,” and no evidence of a deal has been made public. What the record shows about that claim.
Who is Andrea James?
Andrea James, 61 when she launched in January, is a former Roxbury criminal defense attorney who served two years in federal prison for wire fraud after misappropriating client funds. She was disbarred. She founded Families for Justice as Healing and the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, and helped change state law to end the shackling of women prisoners during childbirth, GBH News reported. “I f***ed up,” she told GBH about the fraud. “I used money that was in my control that I should not have taken.”
She first filed as a Democrat, then switched her party affiliation with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance to unenrolled in November 2025, WBUR reported. She qualified for the ballot by petition and is running to Healey’s left. Her platform includes housing, health care and child care for all, reparations, and closing MCI-Framingham by granting clemency to many of the women held there, which she says she would do in her first week. She raised about $55,000 over two years, GBH reported.
She was not invited to either general election debate. WCVB said she did not meet the debate consortium’s “objective criteria.” “Shame on Maura Healey,” she said outside WBZ-TV before the first debate.
Where they stand on the nine ballot questions
Healey and Minogue told NBC10 Boston how they plan to vote. They agree on three questions and split on most of the rest.
| Question | Healey | Minogue |
|---|---|---|
| 1, public records for the Legislature and governor | Supports | Supports |
| 2, public defender union | Undecided | Undecided |
| 3, all-party primary | Raised concerns, no stated vote | Against |
| 4, Election Day registration | Yes | Yes only with identity verification |
| 5, revenue cap | No stated vote | For |
| 6, Nature for All Fund | Yes | Against |
| 7, smaller house lots | “Hard yes” | Open to it |
| 8, repeal retail marijuana | Against repeal | Against repeal |
| 9, the 2024 gun law | Yes (keep the law) | No |
Their answers in their own words.
The money
- Minogue’s self-funding. Minogue had put $17 million of his own money into the race by mid-October, GBH reported. He spent $6.1 million in September alone, a record for a governor candidate in one month, the Globe reported.
- Healey. Healey has raised more than $11 million while in office, GBH reported. She spent $4.1 million in September, her biggest month ever, and ended it with $3.2 million on hand, according to the Globe.
- The super PACs. By our count of filings with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance, the pro-Minogue Massachusetts First PAC has raised about $2.41 million. $1 million of that came from its chairman, Robert Neuner, who is Minogue’s childhood friend. The PAC has been mailing registered Democrats about Andrea James. A PAC funded almost entirely by the Democratic Governors Association has raised $860,000 and spent about $833,500 against Minogue. How a single donor can give $1 million when the limit to a candidate is $1,000.
The running-mate problem: why Shawn Oliver is still on the ballot
The Republican lieutenant governor nominee, New Bedford City Councilor Shawn Oliver, was arrested on October 17 and charged with operating under the influence after a crash into parked cars. He has pleaded not guilty and is presumed innocent. His next court date is November 16. At Minogue’s request, he suspended his campaign the next day.
He is still on the ballot, and the state constitution means a vote for Minogue is a vote for Oliver:
- One vote for both. Under Article 86 of the Amendments to the Massachusetts Constitution, a party’s candidates for governor and lieutenant governor “shall be grouped on the official ballot.” The voter casts “a single vote for any such group, which shall count as a vote for each candidate,” and “may not cast a vote for only one of the candidates in such group.”
- Too late to withdraw. Under G.L. c. 53, § 13 and c. 55B, § 5, a primary nominee could withdraw only during the objection period, which ended six days after the September 1 primary.
- Don’t cross him out. Minogue has asked supporters not to cross out Oliver’s name or write in someone else, warning it “will disqualify the people’s vote.”
- If the ticket wins. Minogue has said Oliver “will not be my lieutenant governor,” that he would ask Oliver to resign, and that he would govern without one. Resigning would be Oliver’s decision. We found no provision in the constitution for filling a vacancy in the lieutenant governor’s office alone.
The full explainer on Oliver, the ballot and the OUI charges.
The other statewide races
The Suffolk/Globe poll also covered the races below the governor:
- U.S. Senate: Sen. Ed Markey (D) 60, John Deaton (R) 32. Shiva Ayyadurai is also on the ballot as an independent.
- Attorney General: Andrea Campbell (D) 54, Michael Walsh 28.
- Secretary of the Commonwealth: Bill Galvin (D) 67, Anne Brensley (R) 21.
- Treasurer: Deborah Goldberg (D) 58, Elizabeth Dionne 24.
- Auditor: Diana DiZoglio (D) 62, Al Ozonoff (Libertarian) 15.
When we will know
Polls are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday. In a race where the polls show a lead of 20 points or more, news organizations may call the result on election night, but those results are unofficial. Mail ballots postmarked by Election Day count if they arrive by 5 p.m. Friday, November 6. The governor and Governor’s Council certify the official result later in November. The full results and recount timeline. If Minogue wins, Healey stays in office until the new governor is sworn in in January.
Frequently asked questions
Who is running for governor of Massachusetts in 2026?
Three candidates are on the November 3 ballot: Democratic Gov. Maura Healey, running with Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll; Republican Mike Minogue, grouped on the ballot with Shawn Oliver, who has suspended his campaign; and independent Andrea James.
Who is winning the Massachusetts governor race?
Every public poll has shown Healey ahead. The October polls from UMass Amherst, UMass Lowell and Suffolk University had her at 57 to 59 percent and Minogue at 29 to 36 percent. Minogue says his internal polling shows a closer race, but he has not released it.
Can I vote for Mike Minogue without voting for Shawn Oliver?
No. The state constitution groups each party’s candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, and a single vote counts for both. Minogue has told supporters not to cross out Oliver’s name.
Is Andrea James on the ballot?
Yes. She qualified as an independent by petition. She was not invited to either televised general election debate.
How much has Mike Minogue spent on his campaign?
GBH reported in mid-October that Minogue had put $17 million of his own money into the race. He spent a record $6.1 million in September alone, according to the Boston Globe.
When does the next governor take office?
The governor elected on November 3 is sworn in in January 2027.
Sources: Poll toplines from UMass Lowell/YouGov (October 28, 2026), MassINC Polling Group/CommonWealth Beacon (September 2026) and UMass Amherst (August 2026); Suffolk University/Boston Globe and UMass Amherst/WCVB October results as reported by WBUR and the Boston Globe; the UNH August result as previously reported. WBUR, January 5 and October 30, 2026; GBH News, October 15, 2026; Boston Globe, October 22 and October 26, 2026; NBC10 Boston, October 26, 2026; WCVB debate coverage, October 15, 2026. OCPF reports of the Massachusetts First and Commonwealth for Tomorrow independent expenditure PACs. Mass. Const. amend. art. 86; G.L. c. 53, § 13; c. 55B, § 5, read at malegislature.gov. General information, not legal advice.