Andrea Campbell, a former Boston city councilor, has won the race to be Massachusetts’ next attorney general.
The Democratic nominee to succeed now governor-elect Maura Healey as the state’s top prosecutor, Campbell is the first Black woman elected statewide in Massachusetts. Her victory furthered a historic night in Massachusetts that also saw Healey become the state’s first elected female governor and the nation’s first openly lesbian governor.
As of 11 p.m., Campbell led Republican opponent Jay McMahon, a Cape Cod attorney, by a considerable margin — 700,902 to 402,387. With 38% of votes counted, the Associated Press declared her the victor.
Campbell, of Boston, sat on the city council there from 2016 to 2022, serving two years as council president. She unsuccessfully sought Boston’s mayoral office in 2020, finishing third in a primary election.
The race for attorney general opened wide after Healey began her bid for governor. Campbell entered the contest in February, weeks after Healey kicked off her campaign.
In the Democratic primary, Campbell faced and ultimately defeated Shannon Liss-Riordan, a high-powered labor attorney, and Quentin Palfrey, a former assistant attorney general and the 2018 Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor.
During the campaign, Campbell focused on defending abortion access in Massachusetts and spreading economic opportunities throughout the state. She committed to creating a reproductive justice unit in the attorney general’s office and pledged to be the champion of “all of Massachusetts,” visiting each of the state’s 26 “Gateway Cities” — economically challenged urban centers with the potential for renewal.
Campbell’s platform was based on her life experiences, she said.
At eight months old, her mother was killed in a car crash on her way to visit Campbell’s father in prison.
Growing up in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood, Campbell bounced between foster care and relatives’ homes. She was eight when her father left prison. It was the first time they met, she said. The family saw the full scope of government support programs — public housing and food assistance included.
Campbell said she “turned pain into purpose,” drawing on the support of relatives, community and educators to graduate from the Boston Latin School, Princeton University and UCLA Law School.
She worked as an employment lawyer before entering public service as general counsel to the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission, and later serving as counsel to Gov. Deval Patrick. In 2015, she won a seat on the Boston City Council.