Andrea James

That didn’t happen by accident. It’s the result of a political system that protects wealth and powerful interests while asking everyone else to work harder just to get by.

I am Andrea James, an Independent candidate for governor of Massachusetts. My family has been proud residents here for seven generations. I am the candidate working to put the priorities of our government’s agenda, focused on the needs of the people.

Any candidate or incumbent running for Governor of our state of Massachusetts whose priorities are not focused on housing, healthcare, childcare, education, and a better quality of life doesn’t deserve to be your governor. Housing is a human right. People should be able to see a doctor without going into debt. Families should have accessible childcare with people they trust to care for their children. Equitably funded education is the foundation of democracy.

Right now, Massachusetts works great for the wealthy and well-connected. Everybody else is being crushed by the cost of simply trying to live.

Stand Up for Educators and Public Sector Worker Union Rights

I have executive experience. I have led organizations. I’ve managed people. I’ve managed budgets. I’ve had real-life experiences, learned from each of them, and developed compassion beyond judgment that informs solutions beyond the establishment parties’ support of the profit agendas of private interests and corporations.

Massachusetts should not have contracts with ICE, and we deserve a governor who will ban data centers and focus instead on lowering utility costs and promoting green energy solutions.

Protect Our LGBTQ+ Community

2 Years In Prison Inspired Me to Fight for Justice Reform

Would declare a statewide housing emergency, create a Social Housing Authority, use state-owned land to build permanently affordable housing, support rent stabilization, and tie state housing funding to tenant protections.

• Would finance housing through public/infrastructure bonding, progressive taxes on luxury real-estate speculation and large corporate landlords, and state-owned land; would protect RAFT and housing vouchers.

Supports a Massachusetts single-payer healthcare system covering residents and qualifying workers without premiums, co-pays, or deductibles.

• Would seek federal waivers to pool Medicaid and ACA funding, cap hospital and pharmaceutical costs, use existing state healthcare infrastructure, and prohibit duplicate private coverage for services already covered by the state system.

Would expand publicly funded childcare centers, grow the childcare workforce, raise childcare-worker wages, and create state tax credits for employers that provide childcare benefits.

• Frames universal childcare as economic infrastructure intended to expand workforce participation and educational opportunity.

Calls for a $25 living wage in Massachusetts.

• The current platform states the $25 target but does not provide additional implementation detail on the main platform page.

Would expand K-12 community schools with on-campus services, invest in trade schools and high-school work-study opportunities, and make public college in Massachusetts free.

• Funding strategy cites Fair Share revenue, restored state higher-education funding, and improved financial aid.

Supports regulating state use of artificial intelligence through transparent government contracting and greater employee and public scrutiny of how AI tools are deployed.

• Says state AI decisions should consider workers' concerns and the effects of surveillance and other uses of the technology.

Supports a moratorium on new data centers while Massachusetts studies infrastructure and environmental impacts and redesigns utility-rate protections.

• Would rescind the state sales-and-use-tax exemption for data centers, require developers to pay added energy, water, and grid costs, and require strong labor standards.

Would declare a climate emergency, stop expansion of fossil-fuel infrastructure, accelerate renewable-energy deployment, create a Climate Jobs Corps, and electrify buildings and transportation.

Would pause design and construction of the proposed new women's prison and prioritize reducing incarceration and expanding alternatives before building new prison capacity.

• Says public dollars should instead support housing, healthcare, treatment, and community needs.

Supports developing an equity, reparative-justice, and community-investment framework and reducing Massachusetts's racial wealth gap.

• The campaign points to the Black Agenda Coalition and the State of Black Boston 2026 Report as a framework it would work from.

The campaign states that it opposes what it describes as genocide by the State of Israel against Palestinians.

• Retained as the campaign's stated belief without treating the contested characterization as an independently established fact.

Would end Massachusetts Department of Correction agreements that transfer people into ICE custody upon completion of a prison sentence.

• Frames the policy around due-process protections for immigrants and people leaving prison.

Would raise the minimum wage, ban captive-audience union-busting meetings, require labor-peace agreements for state contractors, and support worker organizing.

• Also supports public banking as part of a broader affordability and homeownership agenda.

Would codify protections for gender-affirming healthcare and strengthen and enforce nondiscrimination protections in housing, healthcare, employment, and education.

• Also supports expanded affirming healthcare access, mental-health supports, protections for LGBTQ+ students, and accountability for state agencies.

Would freeze utility rate increases through the Department of Public Utilities, audit utility profits, crack down on predatory suppliers, and move toward publicly owned power.