Gov. Maura Healey, the state’s first openly gay governor, on Tuesday singled out Democratic support for transgender athletes as part of her diagnosis of why the party lost the presidential election to Donald Trump, and U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton. accused of “playing politics with the people.” Mr. Trump.
Moulton’s comments last week to the New York Times are a sign of how Democrats will discuss difficult topics in the wake of President Trump’s victory, including not just transgender issues but gaining support across New England. This caused a heated debate within the organization.
Mr Healy, one of the country’s first openly lesbian governors, said the party should openly discuss the issues behind the defeat. But after an unrelated incident in Middleton, she told reporters it was also important “not to bully children, especially those who are vulnerable.”
“The discussion about transgender athletes is a different discussion as someone who was a college athlete, right?” said Healy, who played basketball at Harvard University. “But things are so mixed up right now that what I saw, and what I saw with that comment (of Moulton), was that we were playing politics with people. That’s not the case. We shouldn’t do that. We should have real conversations and not play politics with people, especially young people and vulnerable people.”
Moulton, a Salem Democrat, said last week that the party is doing itself a disservice by not considering how everyday Americans feel about issues such as trans student-athletes participating in women’s sports. He said he personally doesn’t want to see his daughters “run over by men or former male athletes on the field, but as a Democrat I should be scared to say that.”
Days later, Moulton said he was “speaking sincerely as a father,” but the backlash he has faced so far, including condemnation and calls for his resignation from the state’s LGBTQ+ community, means Democrats have a hard time discussing tough issues. He claimed to prove his claim that he did.
“If you ignore everything as a scapegoat because you don’t like the subject matter, how can you start winning again?” he told reporters in Marblehead on Monday.
Healy said last week that he believes voters have sent a clear message that the cost of living and the economy are their top concerns.
In Fall River, for example, one of the state’s poorest cities, voters feel overwhelmed by inflation and rising home prices, and it’s been 100 years since Trump won the state. He became the first Republican presidential candidate. High costs and inflation led voters in places like Boston to lean toward Trump, and there were hopes that changes at the highest levels of the federal government could start an economy that was already on the mend, according to some indicators.
The first-term Democrat told reporters he had not yet spoken to Trump since he took office. Indeed, when asked if there were any issues she envisioned working with the president-elect’s administration, she gave no indication she would reach out to him. (She and other Massachusetts Democrats have already begun mounting a defensive front against Trump’s second term.)
“The job I have to do as governor is to take care of business here and continue to focus on what I think many people in Massachusetts and frankly across the country are concerned about: reducing costs. That’s true,” Healy said.
Matt Stout can be reached at matt.stout@globe.com. Follow @mattpstout.
