Healey wins big in Mass. Attorney General primary

Massachusetts Attorney General candidate Maura Healey won the hotly-contested Democratic primary, advancing to the November general election.

If she wins in November, Healey would become the first openly LGBT attorney general ever elected in the United States.

Healey, who announced her candidacy in October 2013, enjoyed a late surge in polling following the Boston Globe’s endorsement earlier this month.

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Healey worked in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office for seven years where she began as Chief of the Civil Rights Division and went on to direct the Public Protection & Advocacy Bureau as well as the Business & Labor Bureau. She was a primary architect of the state’s landmark challenge to DOMA in 2009. Healey and her team also filed briefs in several marriage equality cases, including the challenges to California’s Proposition 8.

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Prior to serving in the Attorney General’s Office, Healey worked as a litigation partner at prominent Boston law firm WilmerHale, as well as Special Assistant District Attorney in Middlesex County.

A graduate of Harvard University, Healey was captain of the Ivy League champion women’s basketball team. Today, Healey and her partner reside in Charlestown neighborhood of Boston.

Democratic Incumbent Attorney General Martha Coakley, a longtime LGBT ally, also advanced in Tuesday’s primary in her bid for governor.