Healey Talks Healthcare, Housing, ICE at South County Farm
GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Maura Healey visited Main Street and then Indian Line Farm during campaign stops in South County on Tuesday.
The current governor is running for re-election with no Democratic challengers. On the Republican primary ballot, Michael Minogue of Hamilton and Brian Shortsleeve of Barnstable are vying for the gubernatorial nomination in the primary Election on Sept. 1.
"Some people, I may not be everything they want. OK, I'm never going to be everything that everybody wants, but it's like, for God's sakes, people have got to know, you're either going to get this, or you're going to get a rubber stamp for Trump-Vance. Period," Healey said.
"… I'm proud of Massachusetts. We've got our challenges, but we're number one in education and healthcare. We've got the safest drinking water in the country. We've got clean air. We've got great recreation. We've got a lot. We protect people's rights and freedoms, not for nothing. These are really good things."
During a meet and greet at Indian Line Farm, she spoke to a couple dozen supporters about issues impacting them: healthcare, affordability, quality education, and civil protections around U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She began the day with stops at local businesses on Main Street.
The farm's owners, Elizabeth Keen and Al Thorp, had an array of farm-fresh offerings for Healey, and she even tried a ground cherry. The farm is in its 29th season, and its Community Supported Agriculture group has 285 members.
"As a farmer in Massachusetts, I continuously tell people who come to visit, and when I give farm tours: Massachusetts is such an amazing state to be a farmer because there are so many resources," Keen said.
"There have been many, many projects that we have received technical assistance from the Commonwealth, and in addition to grant funds. I wouldn't say we wouldn't be where we were without it, but we would be a very different farm without it."
Healey said her administration is always looking for ways to support Massachusetts farms. She explained that she grew up on farmland in New Hampshire's seacoast region, and highlighted how farmers support their community's nutrition and economy.
"Everybody should be getting up to our farms around the state to support our farmers and the beautiful food that they provide," Healey said.
"So you have got my commitment to doing everything that we can."
One resident explained that she is unable to find a cardiologist in the area, and her primary-care physician just announced they will be leaving. Another resident reported that the immigrant community has almost gone underground because of ICE, "which hurts our farms, hurts our restaurants, our livelihood, quite frankly."
State Rep. Leigh Davis, running unopposed for re-election, reported that she talks to people who want to retire in the area but can't get access to cardiologists or healthcare providers, which deters them from moving here.
Healey said that as governor, she has capped copays and deductibles and gotten rid of prior authorizations. The administration is also working to invest in primary and mental health care, she said.
Explaining that the state needs to "do new and innovative things to make sure that people get the care they need," she floated the ideas of free tuition for medical students and residents who want to practice primary care here, or tax breaks to incentivize healthcare providers to all regions of the state.
"That is something I'm actively thinking about and working on now," Healey said.
"It sucks that Trump took a trillion dollars out of health care. OB3 [One Big Beautiful Bill Act] cut a trillion dollars from health care, so that just compounds things in just massive ways."
Housing is big in this situation, she added, pointing to her administration's efforts to build the approximately 220,000 homes that Massachusetts is short of to meet demand.
"We are trying to build housing as quickly as possible, workforce housing, affordable housing, housing for seniors, and the three years since we passed the legislation, we got 100,000 homes online," Healey reported.
"And we've just got to continue at that pace, because I want our young people to stay. I want our workforce to be able to live here, and we've got to build, build housing."
Healey also pointed to her administration's PROTECT Act, which restricts local and state law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration authorities and bans warrantless civil arrests by ICE in sensitive public spaces.
"It broke my heart when people were afraid to send their kids to school, afraid to go to work, afraid to go to church. Yes, people have gone underground, and it's terrible for those families. It's terrible for our economy too, the workforce, the destruction of the workforce. I talk to governors. Each state is a little different in terms of industries affected, but it's all bad," she said.
"It's all bad, and so we've just got to be strong here in protecting people and trying to give them support and fighting the ugliness and the cruelty of the Trump administration around this stuff."
She emphasized her previous role as attorney general where she worked with federal agencies to arrest violent criminals and traffickers, "and that's not what is going on."
"It's an administration of cruelty. It's why they're imposing all these work requirements, trying to find every which way to kick people off of healthcare, take food away from people, which is something we're struggling with right now," she said.
"But now, I think to me, that's why it does matter who your governor is right now."
Community activist Shirley Edgerton, who attended the event, is concerned about the "toxic and depressed" state that people are in, which she attributed to the national political landscape.
She asked if there have been conversations about increasing funds for youth programming, or to reassess what is needed to support young people during this time.
"One of the things that I'm still very concerned about, given the climate we're living in, social-political climate, is programming for young people," Edgerton said.
Healey recognized that it is a hard time for children's mental health, especially for children of color, those in the LGBTQ-plus community, and differently abled children. She vowed to explore ways to fund further programming with private investment.
Tags: election 2026, healey,
