At last, Maura Healey has the chance to make Massachusetts history as its first female governor. If she is chosen alongside lieutenant governor candidate Kim Driscoll in November, the state would see a female ticket take office. 

In the meantime, supporters are rising to the occasion, knocking on community members’ doors, and doing everything in their power to get out the vote. 

Healey and Driscoll advocates gathered in the early hours of Saturday, October 1, for the Team Healey-Driscoll Newton Canvass with Emily Cain, executive director of EMILY’s List, a national organization that aids pro-choice Democratic women in getting elected. Thus far, the organization has helped 159 Democratic pro-choice women to the House, 26 to the senate, 16 to governors’ seats, and more than 1,300 to local and state office. 

The organization’s name, an acronym for Early Money Is Like Yeast, endorses Healey for governor, Driscoll for lieutenant governor, Andrea Campbell for attorney general, and Diana DiZoglio for state auditor.

“The difference that EMILY’s List makes is changing the face of power, and when you can see yourself in government, you can believe you can be a part of it,” Cain says. “When Maura Healey and Kim Driscoll get elected this November, young girls and boys all across Massachusetts will always know that an all-female leadership team can be at the helm, at the statehouse.”

Cain says individuals across the country are mobilizing in support of their local candidates as the gubernatorial elections quickly approach. She notes the importance of representation in government, including women of color and women in the LGBTQ+ community. EMILY’s List has also become one of the most extensive resources for minority women seeking federal office. 

“My dream is that every little girl wakes up knowing she could be vice president, knowing she could be president, knowing she could be governor or state representative, state senator, state treasurer, attorney general, that all of those positions are open to her if she works hard and gets out there and does it,” Cain says, “And I want to help every one of them.”