Healey sworn in as governor

Affirming Thursday that she will "support the Constitution of the United States," Maura Healey made history twice.

She is now the first woman elected governor of Massachusetts to officially take office. And along with Oregon Gov.-elect Tina Kotek, she becomes one of the first lesbian governors in U.S. history.

Joining Healey on this day was former Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll, who took the oath to become lieutenant governor. Together they are the first all-female governor-lieutenant team to lead an American state. In all, five of the six statewide elected offices are now held by women.

Speaking after being sworn into statewide office, Driscoll leaned into her municipal experience in describing the opportunity that lay before the state over the next four years.

"Many of you know me as the Mayor of Salem," she said in her speech, "and having served as a local leader from the ‘get stuff done’ branch of government for the last 17 years, I know firsthand that what happens in this building impacts the quality of life of the people who live within our 351 cities and towns."

Calling herself an"Army brat," Driscoll talked about living a life on the move until she came to Massachusetts for college.

"But it wasn’t until I came to Salem and got the chance to attend public college at Salem State that I finally felt like I had a hometown. Like many of you, I could have called anywhere home after graduating but I fell in love with this place," she said. "This amazing tapestry of people and places called Massachusetts."

In her own inaugural speech, Healey claimed a Massachusetts legacy three centuries in the making, including her own Maryland birth.

"My grandparents met on the fishing docks in a Gloucester summer. She was in nursing school; he worked at the GE factory," Healey said. "Later, when I was to be born at a naval hospital in Maryland, they worried that I wasn’t starting my life on Massachusetts soil. So she dug up a little dirt from the woodlot, caught a plane, sneaked into the hospital room, and put the little bag under the delivery table. Massachusetts has been my home ever since."

Lauding the state's history of firsts, Healey said people coming to Massachusetts see within the state opportunity and challenges.

"They see the shared heritage of our beautiful land. They see a call to higher learning, to enlightenment. They see research and innovation, joined to build a better future. They see culture and charity. They see the granite dignity of hard work and an everlasting commitment to equality. They see people reaching for something better, something more.

"But they also see barriers that are holding back our people and our state. Keeping just out of reach what might be, what could be."

To that end, Healey laid out priorities to help address those challenges, including housing affordability, tax reform, child care costs, workforce development, school funding, transportation, equity of opportunity and climate change.

"In Massachusetts, we come together. We lift people up. And we lead," she said. "No matter what challenges we face, no matter what lies ahead, we will stay true to the best of ourselves. We will act with empathy and with equity. We will work together."