Massachusetts Governor Healey steps up promotion of Biden during White House event

Colin A. Young

APRIL 17, 2024…..Gov. Maura Healey was one of three governors tapped to speak Wednesday on the Biden administration’s workforce agenda, the latest instance of Healey lending a voice of support as the president gears up for a tough reelection fight.

Healey spoke during a White House “Making Care Work” event that recognized workers and touted the administration’s strategy for expanding access to services (child care, long-term care, etc.) and other supports that could help more workers train for and stay in good-paying jobs. Speaking virtually from her ceremonial office in the State House, the governor highlighted some of her own work around child care access and workforce training, but also showered the White House with praise.

“I just want to say at the outset how grateful I am as governor to President [Joe] Biden and Vice President [Kamala] Harris for prioritizing the needs through just transformational investments in job creation, in infrastructure, in manufacturing, in clean energy, and so much more,” Healey said as she began her remarks.

The event was held to mark the one-year anniversary of Biden signing an executive order that directed every federal cabinet-level agency to determine how they can “require, preference, or encourage” funding applicants to provide supportive services for workers. The White House said that order built on a U.S. Department of Commerce’s requirement that companies receiving major CHIPS and Science Act grants provide child care for their workers.

Healey spoke following Govs. Tina Kotek of Oregon and Kathy Hochul of New York.

“You see, the worker has to be the focal point here, making sure that they have the support that they need to be able to do these jobs and move into great careers. The focus on supportive services is really critical at this moment, not only for achieving equity, but for achieving sustained economic growth and recovery,” Healey said. “That’s what we’re seeing in Massachusetts. I mean, our economy is strong, our unemployment rate has been near historic lows, but employers are still having a hard time filling the jobs that they have open because certain of our residents are held back by barriers that are systemic.”

The governor highlighted an application for $20 million through the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Recompete Pilot Program, authorized by the CHIPS and Science Act, to align child care, education, job training, and employment opportunities in Springfield and Holyoke. The plan, led by the MassHire Hampden County Workforce Board, is a finalist for the pilot program funding. Healey said the program is an “example of the programming that’s transformational that the Biden-Harris administration is making possible.”

“We have an area out in Western Massachusetts that suffers from among the highest rates of poverty and unemployment in our state. It’s also an area we know there’s a great opportunity for growth; one of our clean energy companies is about to build out there. But we need to support a workforce,” the governor said. “And so we’ve got a plan that we just built out, working with our regional workforce board, that takes a new approach to addressing some of these deep inequalities of race and geography.”

She added that the plan “will create a workforce training system that provides not only access to skills and jobs there, but also importantly, child care, transportation and social support.”

Healey has become more involved in presidential politics with the cementing of the general election rematch between Biden and former President Donald Trump. At the same time that she pushes the federal government for action to ease the migrant influx that’s stressed Massachusetts, the governor has also shown herself to be a willing ally and surrogate for Biden in the campaign against Trump.

Last spring, Biden named Healey to a 50-member national advisory board for his reelection campaign and the New Hampshire native headlined an event for the campaign to get voters to write in Biden’s name on the New Hampshire primary ballot this January. In the fall, she said she is “absolutely” comfortable with Biden, who is already the oldest person to occupy the Oval Office, running for reelection in 2024 and that the 2024 election is about “the fate of our democracy.”

Healey seems to have ramped up her surrogacy in recent days, particularly after Trump said last week that he was proud to have contributed to the overturning of Roe v. Wade and declared that abortion rights should be decided by each individual state.

Healey released a statement through her official governor’s office about two hours after Trump’s comments, saying the Republican’s position shows that “he is supporting horrific abortion bans across the country that deny women access to basic health care and freedom.” She also made an appearance on CNN to rebuke Trump on abortion.

And her social media feed has recently shown a laser-like focus on the national debate over reproductive rights. Since the start of April, all but one tweet sent from Healey’s personal X account has been about Trump’s abortion stance or reproductive rights rulings in other states. Three of those seven tweets have been Healey sharing the clip of her appearance on CNN last week, including one sent as recently as Wednesday morning just after the White House event concluded.