As potential opponents lined up against her reelection bid and President Trump began upending Washington, Governor Maura Healey significantly scaled back the number of official events she did last year, putting her in the Massachusetts public eye far less often than early in her first term, according to a Globe analysis and data provided by her office.
Healey did 20 percent fewer official events last year — and nearly 100 fewer in total — than she did in 2023 when she first took office. Her public-facing schedule similarly receded: Healey’s 289 public appearances in 2025, as tracked by the advisories her office regularly releases, marked a 17 percent decrease from two years earlier and trailed the number she made in 2024, when she regularly traveled out of state in support of other Democrats in the run-up to that year’s election, the Globe found.
The Democrat’s ebbing schedule shows a retreat from the public eye during a time when Massachusetts voters say they were increasingly alarmed by the Trump administration’s actions, the state of the economy, and Massachusetts’s own direction.
There are a variety of reasons that could impact when, and where, Healey schedules her time, experts said, including demands on her as a rising national leader — and fund-raiser — in Democratic circles, and her attention on protracted challenges facing residents, such as the state’s housing crisis and rising costs.
She visited 64 Massachusetts cities and towns, covering about 18 percent of the state’s 351 municipalities, in 2025. She appeared in and around the State House 96 times, and about 61 percent of her public appearances for the year took place in Boston.
The Globe reviewed the public schedules released by Healey’s office from January 2023 through the end of 2025. While it covers a wide swath of her travels as governor, it’s also not exhaustive. The schedules did not include her personal travel during that time, stops organized by her political operation, or other events she may attend in her capacity as governor but that her office did not publicize ahead of time.
Among them were various charity galas and banquets, food pantry visits, and a WNBA game at TD Garden in July, all of which her office considered official events.
The public-facing schedules her office releases to the media didn’t count closed-door Cabinet meetings or individual events out of state, including at National Governors Association meetings.
Healey’s office said because of that, its count of her events also far exceeds the Globe’s accounting of her public appearances. A spokesperson for Healey said in her first three years in office, Healey attended more than 1,100 events in all 14 counties across the state and held “countless meetings, calls, and interviews” that were not noticed as public events.
That included 338 official events in 2025, a substantial drop from the 424 her office said she held in her first year.
“Governor Healey is constantly engaging with her constituents,” Karissa Hand, a Healey spokesperson, said in a statement. “This direct engagement is what drives her work [to] lower costs, create jobs and protect Massachusetts residents.”
According to a Globe analysis of public schedules noticed by the governor’s office, Healey had 954 public events across her three years, trailing those noticed by her predecessor, Governor Charlie Baker, in the same time frame. Baker’s office included 1,034 events on his public schedule during his first three years in office, 977 of which were in Massachusetts.
David Hopkins, a political science professor at Boston College, said that as long as voters are “generally satisfied” with what Healey’s done, she’s in “pretty strong shape” in her reelection bid this fall against one from a field of three well-funded Republicans: Mike Kennealy, Mike Minogue, and Brian Shortsleeve.
“It may be that there isn’t a feeling of urgency to have a lot of visible events because there isn’t a feeling of grave concern about her campaign,” Hopkins said of her schedule.
There’s no shortage of demands on Healey, allies said. She’s expected to help raise money or serve as a surrogate for like-minded Democrats ahead of the 2026 election, and, for many voters in Massachusetts, provide a defense against Trump, be it through her bully pulpit — Healey regularly makes national cable appearances — or policy. She’s also still expected to cut ribbons, shake hands, and, in an election cycle, barnstorm the state, efforts her campaign has begun to ramp up with visits to the Berkshires, the South Coast, and Worcester in recent weeks.
Doug Rubin, who served as former governor Deval Patrick’s chief of staff, said every governor is challenged with balancing a public schedule with the demands of various issues the administration faces. An election year throws that balance off even more, he said.
Patrick, for example, ran for reelection in 2010 on the heels of one of the worst economic crises in the country’s history, and had to balance meeting voters with managing an unstable budget.
“It’s always a tug and pull,” Rubin said.
In 2025, Healey rubbed shoulders with fellow Democrats in Florida and Arizona, and raised money in California, Louisville, Miami, and Washington, D.C., according to copies of her calendar her office released. She vacationed in France, traveled to the Florida Keys, and flew to New York City to appear on “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”
Hand, Healey’s spokesperson, said Healey holds leadership positions in both the National Governors Association and the Democratic Governors Association, a partisan group, and that much of the governor’s out-of-state travel last year was to collaborate with other governors on how to “respond to the damage President Trump is doing to our states.”
“The governor is in touch with her team at all times when she travels and is working for the people of Massachusetts 24/7,” Hand said.
To be sure, the 45 days she spent out of Massachusetts in 2025 pale in comparison to the 76 spent in 2024, according to a Globe analysis. In 2023, she spent at least 50 days out of state.
“People ask me all the time, where’s the governor? And I’ll explain to them — I understand why people are asking, because it’s an election year — but when we have a secondary major problem, with what’s happening in Washington, we’re in a weird time,” said Melvin Poindexter, a National Democratic Committeeman. “This isn’t like the normal reelection cycle, this is a crisis election cycle.”
But Poindexter said he often jokes with Healey when he sees her: “You have to split yourself.” In other words, there will always be demand to see more of her around the state.
“It matters a great deal,” Poindexter said of holding public events. “People vote for the person that they know who is standing there next to them.”
Lizzy Guyton, who spent six years shaping former governor Charlie Baker’s press strategy, said voters have expectations that the governor spend time in places far flung from the State House.
Baker, who made nearly 2,200 public appearances over his eight years as governor, also emphasized early in his tenure visiting the places he lost during the 2014 election, Guyton said.
Baker, for example, made nine visits in 2015 to Lawrence and Lynn alone, glad-handing and meeting officials in two majority-minority cities where he had lost by wide margins to then-Attorney General Martha Coakley.
Yes, public events give reporters opportunities to lob questions at the governor or highlight their agenda, Guyton said. “But it’s also for voters to see how you’re spending your time,” she said.
“It’s showing an example of a commitment,” she said. “Public events provide transparency, visibility, and accountability.”
Healey is a different candidate than Baker, in that her role as a rising leader for the national party is a point of pride among Democratic voters, said Costas Panagopoulos, a professor of political science at Northeastern University.
The Trump administration’s aggressive immigration efforts and moves to pull back federal funding have created opportunities for Healey “to take on greater visibility in fighting for progressive policies and pushing back against the Trump agenda,” Panagopoulos said, which plays to her favor, not the opposite.
Vincent Cannato, a history professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston, said while “almost all politicians are looking for the next thing,” Healey’s reduced public schedule may just reflect her comfort in the role and confidence that she’ll cruise to reelection.
“She hasn’t struck me as being the most hands-on, energetic governor that there is,” he said.
Matt Stout of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Samantha J. Gross can be reached at samantha.gross@globe.com. Follow her @samanthajgross.