Gov. Maura Healey took her fight against Donald Trump and the onslaught of policies released by his administration to the national stage over the weekend, telling the New York Times in a featured interview that it’s time for Democrats to rebrand and reclaim their working class base co-opted by the president.
“Let’s take this moment and redefine the brand. To me, the Democratic brand should be about delivering for everyday Americans. We have the chance to do that, with the foil of Donald Trump cutting all these programs — cutting our military for God’s sake — to free up funding that will pay for the tax cuts he wants to give to billionaires,” she told the Times.
Healey said there is a “perception” among some of the electorate that the Democratic Party has lost touch with its working class roots, and that they fail to address the sort of “bread-and-butter core economic issues that resonate” with voters. Instead of answering that perception, going into November of last year liberals let themselves become trapped and “caricatured as only caring about X, Y and Z issue.”
Healey cited for example administration’s is focus on cuts to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. The first-term governor said it’s time for the party to reframe the conversation toward the outcomes and not the abbreviated names of the policies. DEI makes our institutions stronger, not weaker, she said, and that’s the brand Democrats should sell.
“It’s important to fight back. When there was all this talk and denigration of DEI, I don’t know why the response wasn’t, ‘you know what? It’s actually good to have women and people of color in the military. It’s good to have women and people of color in the work force. It’s good to have women and people of color going to colleges and universities.’ Like, ‘what’s wrong with that?’ And put it back on them instead of it being allowed to be this attenuated, caricatured conversation about quote ‘DEI,’” Healey said.
Last week Healey joined Attorney General Andrea Campbell in pushing back against Trump’s efforts to undo DEI policy at Bay State schools by issuing joint guidance clarifying that such policies are legal under both state and federal law. Campbell’s office issued similar guidance to Bay State businesses the week prior.
“Despite the Trump Administration’s continued attempts to create confusion and anxiety, the law has not changed,” Campbell said along with the joint guidance.
The MassGOP responded to Healey’s interview on Sunday, suggesting that the funding cuts proposed for or already implemented at the federal level represent the spoils of Trump’s war against “wasteful spending.”
“We understand why that terrifies you, considering the amount of waste, fraud, and abuse you oversee here in Massachusetts,” they wrote.
Healey also said she was upset by a recent exchange Trump had with Gov. Janet Mills of Maine during a meeting of the National Governor’s Association, at which the president took aim at her Democratic colleague over the assertion she would respond to the president’s executive order regarding transgender rights by following the laws of her state and the federal government.
That’s what an elected official should say in that circumstance, Healey said. Trump’s response that “we are the federal law,” Healey said, suggests a disturbing take on presidential authority.
“I heard somebody who thinks he’s king,” she said. That’s not how things work in America, where its Congress that makes the laws, she said.
“I may not agree with everything Congress does, but that’s a democracy. That’s how our system works. Congress makes the laws. The judiciary enforces the laws and determines the application of the law. And the executive — and I’m an executive — my job is to faithfully apply and execute the law. And so, that’s a problem. He doesn’t believe that Congress makes the law. He believes that he makes the law. That’s what he said,” the governor said.
