Gov. Maura Healey spoke on the issues central to her reelection bid in an interview Sunday, including gas tax proposals, ICE and abortion protections, making the case to once again to tie her opponent Mike Minogue to President Trump. “That’s a big difference in this race: remember, my opponent is a guy who thought Donald Trump did such a good job in the first term, he gave him a million ...

Gubernatorial candidate Maura Healey joins her endorsed candidate for Attorney General, Andrea Campbell, on Primary Day at the Lower Mills Library voting place on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022, in Mattapan, Massachusetts.

Nancy Lane/Boston Herald/TNS

Gov. Maura Healey spoke on the issues central to her reelection bid in an interview Sunday, including gas tax proposals, ICE and abortion protections, making the case to once again to tie her opponent Mike Minogue to President Trump.

“That’s a big difference in this race: remember, my opponent is a guy who thought Donald Trump did such a good job in the first term, he gave him a million dollars to run again,” Healey said on WCVB’s “On the Record” segment aired Sunday. “He supports Trump. He supports Trump’s agenda. And you just look at what Trump is doing with this war, the way he is wrecking the economy, hurting people not just across Massachusetts but across this country every single day, I’m going to stand with the people. My opponent’s going to stand with Donald Trump and his policies.”

Healey is set to face Republican candidate Mike Minogue, a billionaire former medical technology CEO, in the November election. The governor’s mid-campaign interview comes just a week after Minogue spoke in a segment on similar election issues.

Asked about Minogue’s claim that she is “lying” about him agreeing with Trump on issues like tariffs and NIH cuts, Healey noted the Republican chose to donate to Trump after his first term and seeing Project 2025.

“He can try to distance himself now, but Mike Minogue made a decision and continues to stand by Trump’s policies,” said Healey.

Healey addressed her proposal to suspend the state’s 24 cents a gallon gas tax as prices rise amid the ongoing war in Iran, which came two weeks after Minogue announced a similar proposal. The incumbent argued there is a “big difference” between the two policies.

“What Mike Minogue was proposing was a holiday that was just going to be a big giveaway to big oil,” Healey said. “Mine was going to be time-limited, two months. And I know from my time as Attorney General, you have to write it in a way that the money actually gets back to drivers, and that’s what my proposal does. It will guarantee the savings to drivers who need relief.”

Minogue proposed looking into suspending the tax anytime gas is over $4 a gallon initially and aiming to examine “ways to find $600 to $700 million in spending to pay for it permanently.”

Healey also differentiated her and Minogue’s views on ICE, noting he wants to repeal the PROTECT Act she signed – which aims to limit civil ICE law enforcement activity in nonpublic areas of state property and healthcare facilities, among other provisions. The governor described recently sitting with families who’s husbands and dads were picked up by ICE in New Bedford.

“I would like Mike Minogue to tell the voters of Massachusetts how that is good for our families, for our communities, for our workforce and economy, to support ICE and what they are doing by taking these people away,” Healey said. “That is not sound economic policy. It is terrible immigration policy, and beyond that, it’s just cruel.”

Asked about her opponent’s argument for opening communication with the agency, she said she’s “always” communicated with federal agencies and ICE, adding that now the communication is, “Stay out of our schools. We can’t have kids afraid to go to school. We can’t have people afraid to go to work. We can’t have people afraid to go to church.”

Healey also addressed a lawsuit from three states challenging Massachusetts’s Shield Act, protecting abortion and gender-affirming care patients and providers from out-of-state or federal investigation or arrest.

The governor said hadn’t seen the lawsuit yet, but called the case “political showmanship.”

“What the Shield law does is says to another jurisdiction, stay out of our business and don’t be a hostile jurisdiction and try to come in and exert your authority, exert your power over people here in Massachusetts,” Healey said, noting Minogue “does not support the Shield law.”

Veering from her reelection, the governor spoke to her energy bill that the Legislature has not yet taken action on. Healey said she is still “pushing really hard,” adding the bill would “save ratepayers about $13 billion over time.”

In the meantime, Healey said she is looking to take charges off of bills and opposed all utility hikes, amid the indefinitely ongoing Iran war and coming winter of impacted heating oil bills.

Healey briefly spoke to several ballot questions set for the November election, saying she would “vote no” on Question 8 repealing recreational marijuana, she supports rank choice voting but is “not sure about a jungle primary” on Question 3, and Question 5’s take on expanding tax rebates through Chapter 62F is a “challenging one right now.”

“The way I look at it now, we also have to take account of what those revenue sources are funding,” Healey said of Question 5. “We’re talking about the voters need to take a look at this and understand we’re talking about funding for schools and roads, police and fire departments. So this is something I think that everybody’s got to account for. But I’ve always supported 62F.”

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