“I am proud to be the first woman and the first gay person to be elected governor,” Ms. Healey said smiling at a rally in Boston, whom President Joe Biden congratulated by telephone.
“Tonight I want to say something to every little girl and every young LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bi, transgender or queer) person: I hope tonight shows you that you can be anything you want. Tonight we have done something historic“, she launched in front of her supporters who took her in their arms.
Mrs. Healey, 51, easily beat Republican Geoff Diehl, dubbed by former Republican President Donald Trump, according to Fox News and NBC television channels in this small New England state (northeast) which was ruled for eight years by a Republican, Charlie Baker, who did not represent himself.
Human Rights Campaign, an American association for the defense of the rights of LGBTQ people, immediately hailed in a press release a “historic” electoral victory in the United States, Maura Healey “becoming the country’s first lesbian governor”, pending results in the United States. State of Oregon (northwest) where Tina Kotek, a woman also openly lesbian could also become governor.
For the first time in US history, LGBTQ people were candidates Tuesday in the midterm elections in each of the 50 American states, a record that could have a major influence on the political landscape of the country.
Some 678 LGBTQ people were running in the polls in which Americans voted to renew all seats in the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate of Congress in Washington.
A whole series of governorships and local elected officials are also at stake.
That’s a nearly 20% increase from the last election, according to an analysis conducted by the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which helps fund such campaigns.
Some 90% of these candidates are Democrats.
Ms Healey’s victory was highly predictable, she has always led in the polls and is popular as a human rights defender and, since 2014, state attorney general, the equivalent of local justice minister.
In addition, his deputy lieutenant governor will also be a woman, Kim Driscoll.
This will be the first time that two women will lead an American state.
In the conservative state of Arkansas (south), a woman will also lead the executive for the first time: Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Republican, who was spokesperson for the White House from 2017 to 2019, under the presidency of Donald Trump.
