Maura Healey Went From Pro Basketball Player to Massachusetts Governor

Thirty years after serving as the captain of Harvard’s women’s basketball team, Democratic candidate Maura Healey has been elected governor of Massachusetts. 

She’ll be the first openly lesbian governor in U.S. history.

“I hope tonight shows you that you can be whatever, whoever you want to be,” she said on Tuesday night. “And nothing and no one can ever get in your way except your own imagination, and that’s not going to happen.”

But before her career in politics, Healey was committed to basketball. 

• When she graduated Harvard in 1992, she went on to spend two years playing professionally in Austria.
• She then went to law school at Northeastern, and spent several years in private practice.
• Healey spent eight years as the state’s attorney general before being elected governor.

Healey is part of an exclusive club: former athletes who, upon retiring from their sport, become elected officials. 

Among the many examples are Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), who played football at Stanford, and former Rep. Tom McMillen, who played basketball at Maryland and had a professional career with stops at the Knicks, Hawks, and Bullets.