Andrea James, an advocate for incarcerated and formerly imprisoned women and girls, filed paperwork Monday to run for governor in 2026 as a Democrat, creating a potential matchup with Gov. Maura Healey, according to campaign finance records.
James is the founder and executive director of The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls. A formerly incarcerated woman and criminal defense attorney, James has long worked to decrease prison populations, according to her biography.
She did not immediately return multiple phone calls from the Herald Monday afternoon.
James is also the founder of Families for Justice as Healing, which raises public awareness of women as the “fastest-growing incarcerated population and to use its voice to shift society from a criminal legal system focused on punishment, to a system based on human justice,” her website said.
“Her work is focused on ending incarceration of women and girls and contributing to the shift from a criminal legal system focused on police and prisons, to a system led by directly affected people from within their communities and based on individual and community accountability,” James’ website said.
James earned a law degree at Northeastern University but was temporarily suspended in 2008 from practicing law after she was accused of misappropriating client funds, according to a letter on file with the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers.
“For all of the foregoing reasons, an information shall be filed with the Supreme Judicial Court recommending that the respondent, Andrea C. Goode-James, be disbarred, retroactive to Feb. 26, 2008, the effective date of her temporary suspension,” the letter said.
James said she was sentenced in 2010 to two years in federal prison for wire fraud after working as a criminal defense and real estate conveyance attorney. In an article she wrote for Time, James said she found herself in a “Connecticut prison because of one mistake in judgement.”
“I left behind my husband, adult children, parents, 12-year-old daughter and 5-month-old son, who I was still breastfeeding at the time. My new home was the prison facility, where I was warehoused with over 200 other women, crammed side-by-side in bunks piled on top of each other,” she wrote in the article.
James is the first Democrat to publicly float a challenge to Healey, who said last month she plans to run for reelection in 2026. A poll conducted by the University of Massachusetts Amherst found Healey had a 52% approval rating, a slight downtick from the 58% she maintained in October.
Multiple Republicans have said they are considering jumping into the race, including Mike Kennealy, a former housing and economic development secretary under Gov. Charlie Baker, and Peter Durant, a state senator from Spencer.
Brian Shortsleeve, a venture capitalist and former MBTA official, is also considering running for governor. He drew one of the first endorsements of the 2026 election cycle from state Rep. Marc Lombardo, a Billerica Republican who unsuccessfully ran for a top leadership post in the House.