Andrea Campbell

Andrea Campbell
Official portrait, 2023
45th Attorney General of Massachusetts
Assumed office
January 18, 2023
GovernorMaura Healey
Preceded byMaura Healey
Bessie Dewar (acting)
President of the Boston City Council
In office
January 2018 – January 2020
Preceded byMichelle Wu
Succeeded byKim Janey
Member of the Boston City Council
from the 4th district
In office
January 4, 2016 – January 3, 2022
Preceded byCharles Yancey
Succeeded byBrian Worrell
Personal details
Born (1982-06-11) June 11, 1982 (age 41)
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
EducationPrinceton University (BA)
University of California, Los Angeles (JD)
Website

Andrea Joy Campbell (born June 11, 1982)[citation needed] is an American lawyer and politician who is serving as the attorney general of Massachusetts. Campbell is a former member of the Boston City Council. On the city council, she represented District 4, which includes parts of Boston's Dorchester, Mattapan, Jamaica Plain, and Roslindale neighborhoods. A member of the Democratic Party, she was first elected to the council in November 2015 and assumed office in January 2016. She served as president of the council from January 2018 until January 2020. Campbell unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Boston in 2021, placing third in the nonpartisan primary election behind Annissa Essaibi George and Michelle Wu, the latter of whom would go on to win the general election.

In 2022, Campbell announced her candidacy in that year’s election for attorney general of Massachusetts. Campbell was the first black woman to qualify for the ballot in a statewide election in Massachusetts. Winning the Democratic Party’s nomination with a sizable win in the Democratic primary, Campbell won the general election by a large margin. In January 2023, she was sworn-in as attorney general, becoming the first black woman to hold the office and only the second black person to hold it, preceded only by Edward Brooke.

Early life and education

Campbell poses with Lois Savage, her aunt and mother-figure, on the day of her swearing-in as attorney general. With Campbell's birth mother deceased and her birth father imprisoned for much of her childhood, Savage and her husband played a major role in Campbell's upbringing.

Campbell and her twin brother Andre were born in Boston, Massachusetts. They have an older brother named Alvin Jr. Soon after she was born, her birth father, Alvin Campbell Sr., was sentenced to an eight year prison term. When Campbell was only eight-months-old, her birth mother, Roberta, was killed in a car accident while driving to visit Campbell's birth father in prison. This forced Campbell and her brothers to spend time residing in foster care and with various relatives. Campbell refers to Lois and Ron Savage, an aunt and uncle who played a major role in her upbringing, as being her parents (her "mom" and "dad"). Campbell did not know her birth father until she was eight, at which time he was released from prison.

Campbell was raised in the Roxbury and South End neighborhoods of Boston in an area that is a key black population and cultural center of the city. Over the course of her youth, Campbell attended five different schools within the Boston Public Schools system. Campbell graduated from Boston Latin School, an esteemed exam school in the city. While Campbell found academic success, by the time she was a high school student, both of her brothers had served prison sentences. For her undergrad post-secondary education, Campbell attended Princeton University. While she was attending Princeton, her birth father died, leaving her an orphan. Campbell graduated from Princeton in 2004. When Campbell was 29, her twin brother, who suffered from scleroderma, died while in state custody awaiting trial. Campbell has said that the cause of her brother's death is not known to her. Following her graduation from Princeton, Campbell enrolled at the UCLA School of Law where she would earn her J.D.

Early career

After graduating from UCLA School of Law, Campbell began her legal career by spending a year working as a staff attorney at EdLaw, a nonprofit in Roxbury that provided students and parents with free legal services pertaining to education rights and access to education. After this, Campbell spend two years at the Proskauer Rose legal firm where she provided advice to companies located in Boston and New York City on matters related to employment law and labor relations.

Campbell spend three months working as the interim general counsel for Boston's Metropolitan Area Planning Council. She later worked as deputy legal counsel to Governor Deval Patrick.

Boston City Council

First term

Campbell speaking in 2017

In the 2015 Boston City Council election, first-time candidate Campbell placed first in the 4th district's preliminary election and went on to defeat sixteen-term incumbent Charles Yancey in the general election with 61% of the vote. Campbell was the first woman to represent her council district.

Campbell was a supporter of voting "yes" on the Massachusetts Charter School Expansion Initiative referendum in 2016, a ballot measure which would have authorized an expansion of the number of charter schools in the state. Campbell was one of only two city councilors to vote against a resolution to voice the City Council's opposition to the ballot measure. The resolution overwhelmingly passed the council 11–2. Campbell faced criticisms from teachers' unions and progressive activists for supporting charter schools. The referendum wound up being heavily defeated by voters.

In 2016 Campbell and Councilor Ayanna Pressley introduced an ordinance that would have banned the use of credit scores by employers to negatively assess job applicants and existing hires.

Campbell supported the proposed federal Second Chance Reauthorization Act of 2015, which would have reauthorized the 2007 Second Chance Act. She introduced an ordinance to the Boston City Council to express support for this.

Second term and council presidency

Campbell was reelected in November 2017, having run unopposed. Campbell was one of two members of the Boston City Council not to give an endorsement in the coinciding 2017 Boston mayoral election. Besides Campbell, Ayanna Pressley remained neutral (citing her husband's employment by Mayor Walsh),Tito Jackson was running against Walsh, and the other ten city councilors endorsed Walsh's reelection campaign.

On December 9, 2017, Campbell announced that she had unanimous support of her colleagues to be the next president of the council. She was elected council president on January 1, 2018. Campbell was the first African-American woman to hold the position.

In 2019, as City Council president, Campbell proposed an ordinance to create a city inspector general. Mayor Marty Walsh came out in opposition to it. The ordinance was rejected by the City Council in a 9–4 vote. Also in 2019, Campbell and fellow councilor Matt O'Malley proposed the idea of a vacancy tax on abandoned residential and commercial properties.

Campbell promoted the idea of extending City Council terms from two years to four years in duration. She argued that longer terms would strengthen the City Council's power in city government and make it a more effective body. Such a proposal would require a home-rule petition to garner state consent. In February 2019, during hearings on this, Campbell proposed making further changes to city election laws, including creating a prohibition from running for more than one municipal office at the same time and changing the law so that special elections would be held to fill vacant at-large seats rather than the seat being offered to the first runner-up of the previous at-large election. This latter proposal notably came at a moment when Althea Garrison had just joined the Boston City Council to fill the at-large seat left vacant by Ayanna Pressley (who had resigned to join the U.S. House of Representatives) because Garrison had been the first runner-up in the 2017 at-large Boston City Council election. Campbell denied that her proposal was in response to Garrison, instead claiming it came from a belief that giving a seat to someone who had not outright won election to it is undemocratic. Campbell, ultimately, did not combine these ideas into a single petition. She separated them into two different petitions. One petition, which passed the City Council 11–2, requested that the state allow the city to extend Boston City Council term limits to four years. Campbell introduced a separate petition to hold special elections to fill vacant at-large seats.

Campbell endorsed Kamala Harris's campaign in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries.

In April 2018, during her City Council presidency, Boston magazine ranked Campbell 51st on its list of the "100 Most Influential People in Boston". The magazine wrote that political insiders anticipated a continued political ascent for Campbell. She was one of only three city councilors included in these rankings, joined by Ayanna Pressley (ranked 20th after having won a upset primary election victory that made her poised to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives) and Michelle Wu (ranked 31st). At the end of Campbell's council presidency, Milton J. Valencia of The Boston Globe opined that during both Campbell's City Council presidency and the preceding tenure Michelle Wu as City Council president, the council had, "been, perhaps, the most aggressive in recent history in pushing reforms, often to the left of the mayor, on issues addressing climate change and economic and racial equity."

Third term

Campbell won reelection to the council in November 2019. She was succeeded as president by Kim Janey in January 2020.

In June 2020, Campbell was one of the five city councilors in the minority that voted against Mayor Walsh's $3.61 billion operating budget proposal. She argued that it failed to include changes necessary for the city to address its racial inequality and systemic racism. That month, when Walsh announced the creation of a philanthropic fund focused on racial inequities, Campbell was somewhat critical. While she supported the creation of the fund itself and acknowledged that she believed philanthropy could play an important role, she argued that it was more important for the city to focus its own budget on such problems. Campbell was also critical of Walsh's coinciding move to create a new cabinet position within his administration dedicated to query and inclusion, considering it a "duplicative position" and criticizing Walsh for not instead other "actionable ideas" to "transform inequitable systems" that had been proposed to Walsh by her and others.

In July 2020, amid the George Floyd protests, Campbell proposed an ordinance to create a police oversight board. Ultimately, the Boston City Council voted later that year to approve a different ordinance creating an Office of Police Accountability that features a civilian police review board and oversight panel for internal affairs, which Mayor Walsh signed into law.

In 2021, Campbell and fellow councilor Kim Janey proposed an ordinance that would have banned almost all employers in Boston from running credit checks on job seekers, arguing that credit checks are most detrimental to low-income applicants.

In April 2021, in her capacity as chair of the public safety committee, Campbell refused to push forward $1.2 million in proposed grants for the Boston Police Department. Amid this, she engaged in a social media conflict with the account of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, which had issued criticism of Campbell. Campbell contrasted the union's vocal criticism of her with the union's failure to comment on the former child abuse allegations made against a past president of the police union.

In May 2021, the City Council passed an ordinance by Campbell and Ricardo Arroyo which limits the use of crowd control weapons by officers of the Boston Police Department. Acting Mayor Kim Janey signed the ordinance into law. Another such ordinance authored by Campbell and Arroyo had previously been passed by the City Council in December 2020, but had been vetoed by Mayor Marty Walsh in January 2021.

Pressley voiced opposition to the police department's use of exams which she contended were "biased" in order to weigh promotions of officers. She criticized Acting Mayor Janey for her initial defense of such exams. After Janey changed her position, Campbell criticized her for being late to address the matter.

As of January 2020, Campbell served on several council committees, including Community Preservation Act, Public Safety & Criminal Justice, Rules and Administration, and Whole.

Campbell did not run for reelection to the council in 2021, as she instead opted to run for mayor.

2021 mayoral campaign

Mayoral campaign logo

On September 24, 2020, Campbell announced her candidacy in the 2021 Boston mayoral election from her childhood home in Roxbury. In an announcement video that was released, she declared, "I'm running for mayor, because every neighborhood deserves real change and a real chance." Campbell's mayoral campaign launch followed the launch of her council colleague Michelle Wu's own campaign for mayor earlier that month.

During her campaign, Campbell was critical of Acting Mayor Kim Janey, who was also a candidate in the election. Campbell worked to illustrate a strong contrast between herself and Janey. Campbell held press conferences criticizing Janey on various topics, including urging her to release legal documents related to a police scandal and to make greater cuts to the city's police department budget. In early August, Campbell called for Janey to put in place rules which would require that many businesses require patrons provide proof of vaccination. Campbell also criticized Janey for having, per her criticism, waited too long to put in place a vaccine mandate for city employees.

Campbell received the endorsement of The Boston Globe's editorial board.

Campbell's campaign platform included a proposal to reallocate ten percent of the Boston Police Department's budget ($50 million) to other programs matters related to public health, economic justice, and youth issues. She also proposed removing the Boston Public Schools' 125 school resource officers and reutilizing those funds to pay for more mental health specialists.

As a candidate for mayor, Campbell was also supportive of safe consumption sites for illegal drugs as a tool for addressing drug addiction in the city and encouraging recovery. These would be similar to supervised injection sites. She would later recant her support for these when she ran for attorney general the following year.

Ahead of the primary election, a super PAC associated with UNITE HERE Local 26, supporting Kim Janey's candidacy, ran a negative radio advertisement against Campbell which attacked her past support for charter school expansion, and which alleged that Campbell was "supported by special interests that want to take money from our schools, and give it to other schools that discriminate against kids with special needs". The latter accusation was seen as alluding to the fact that a super PAC supporting Campbell's candidacy received funding from wealthy charter school proponents, such as Reed Hastings. Campbell publicly took issue with the characterization of her in this ad, and urged Janey to disavow it, which Janey did not. Janey's campaign manager accused Campbell of being a hypocrite, characterizing Campbell's campaign as being entirely, "based on negative political attacks on Mayor Janey".

Campbell delivered a concession speech on the night of the nonpartisan mayoral primary, despite extremely little of the vote having yet been officially reported. Once the votes were counted, Campbell had finished third in the primary, meaning that she did not advance to the general election.

Following her loss, Campbell stated that she would have a publicly transparent process in contemplating which general election candidate (Annissa Essaibi George or Michelle Wu) to endorse, if any. She stated that she would seek firm commitments to the Black community to be made by any candidate she might endorsed. She ultimately gave no endorsement to either remaining candidate.

Attorney general of Massachusetts

2022 campaign

Logo for Campbell's 2022 attorney general campaign

On February 2, 2022, Campbell announced her candidacy for Massachusetts Attorney General in the 2022 election. Campbell's announcement came after incumbent attorney general Maura Healey announced that she would not seek reelection and run for governor of Massachusetts instead.

Campbell's inclusion on the ballot for the election's Democratic primary made her the first black woman in the history of Massachusetts to qualify for inclusion on the ballot for a statewide election. Healey endorsed Campbell in August, prior to the primary election. Campbell won the Democratic nomination and, in the general election, was elected to serve as attorney general. She is the first black woman to hold the office, and the second black person to hold the office, after only Edward Brooke. Other focuses of her platform included addressing public safety as well as housing-related matters.

As a candidate, Campbell pledged to approach the position through what she dubbed an "equity lens". She pledged that she would use the office to address matters such as disparities of health and economics negatively impacting the rural parts of the state prison reform, and juvenile justice. She promised that she would seek to ensure that nobody would be treated as "above the law". She also promised to revive public faith in the criminal justice system. Campbell made criminal justice reform a focus of her candidacy. Campbell also made addressing police misconduct one of the focuses of her campaign. Among the positions she staked out was a promise to end the practice of qualified immunity. Campbell's Republican opponent, Jay McMahon, attempted to paint her as being "soft" on crime. After the Dobbs v. Jackson decision by the United States Supreme Court overturned the federal protections of abortion rights that had been previously protected by the Roe v. Wade decision, Campbell pledged that as attorney general she would establish a reproductive justice unit under the Office of the Attorney General.

Tenure

Campbell (far right) taking her oath of office as attorney general

Campbell took office on January 18, 2023. Her swearing-in ceremony took place at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. Campbell has said that she views primary role for the office of attorney general as being to serve as the "people's lawyer". Campbell's husband, Matthew Schier, held the Bible upon which she took her oath.

In March 2023, Campbell threatened legal action against Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority municipalities that were not adhering to the transit-oriented housing policy of the MBTA Communities Zoning Law.

While Campbell stands by her personal opposition to qualified immunity, within months of taking office she had backed away from her promise of ending it, viewing such a pursuit as detrimental to the working relationship her office needs to maintain with law enforcement officials.

On April 4, 2023 Campbell spoke to the state legislature to request that the state's upcoming budget fund the creation of four new departments under the Office of the Attorney General: a Reproductive Justice Unit, an Elder Justice Unit, a Gun Violence Prevention Unit and a Police Accountability Unit.

In a June 2023 filing with the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, Campbell advised that it would be wiser to grant only a much smaller procurement of offshore wind power than Governor Healey had requested approval from the Department to procure. Campbell argued that the a 20-year contract to procure energy should be for a smaller amount of power than Healey was proposing, arguing that it was unwise to make an agreement for larger purchase at a time when prices for offshore wind power had increased.

Personal life

Campbell was born in Boston. Her mother and father died when she was at a young age; she refers to an aunt and uncle as her parents. By the time Campbell was a high school student, both of Campbell's brothers had served prison sentences. When she was 29, her twin brother, who suffered from scleroderma, died while in state custody awaiting trial. Her other brother, Alvin, is an accused serial rapist currently awaiting trial on nine sexual assault charges. Campbell, in 2022, stated that she had not visited her brother Alvin since he was arrested, remarking, "I view my older brother's charges and what is happening there as just another brother lost, which is sad and tragic for me. So now I have two brothers who are lost."

Campbell has often discussed traumas such as the death of her mother, childhood absence of her father, and her experience in foster care, as well as her twin brother's life story. Campbell once remarked to a reporter from The Associated Press,

One thing I do frequently is share my story because I think there are so many who carry their story with a sense of shame and don’t want to talk about it, including the criminal aspects of my family. But there is no shame in one sharing their story. There is power in it.

Campbell has credited family members, teachers, and employers with helping her to find a path to success. Throughout her political career, she has cited her family's experience with inequity and the criminal justice system, particularly her twin brother's life experience, as impacting her views and priorities.

Campbell's is married to Matthew Scheier. She and her husband have two sons. Campbell lives in the Mattapan neighborhood of Boston.

Electoral history

City Council

2015 Boston City Council 4th district election
Candidate Primary election General election
Votes % Votes %
Andrea Campbell 1,982 57.92 4,311 61.32
Charles Yancey (incumbent) 1,159 33.87 2,701 38.42
Terrance J. Williams 217 6.34  
Jovan J. Lacet 60 1.75  
all others 4† 0.12 18† 0.26
Total 3,422 100 7,030 100

† write-in votes

2017 Boston City Council 4th district election
Candidate Votes %
Andrea Campbell (incumbent) 8,027 98.64
Write-ins 111 1.36
Total votes 8,138 100
2019 Boston City Council 4th district election
Candidate Votes %
Andrea Campbell (incumbent) 4,558 87.15
Jeff Durham 637 12.18
Write-ins 35 0.67
Total votes 5,230 100

Mayor

2021 Boston mayoral election
Candidate Primary election General election
Votes % Votes %
Michelle Wu 36,060 33.40 91,794 63.96
Annissa Essaibi George 24,268 22.48 51,125 35.62
Andrea Campbell 21,299 19.73  
Kim Janey (acting incumbent) 21,047 19.49  
John Barros 3,459 3.20  
Robert Cappucci 1,185 1.10  
Jon Santiago (withdrawn) 368 0.34  
Richard Spagnuolo 286 0.26  
Scattering 0 0.00 595 0.41
Total 107,972 100 144,380 100

Attorney General

2022 Massachusetts Attorney General Democratic convention vote first round
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Andrea Campbell 1,622 39.2
Democratic Quentin Palfrey 1,605 38.8
Democratic Shannon Liss-Riordan 906 21.9
Total votes 4,133 100.0%
2022 Massachusetts Attorney General Democratic convention vote second round
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Quentin Palfrey 1,920 54
Democratic Andrea Campbell 1,631 46
Total votes 3,551 100%
2022 Massachusetts Attorney General Democratic primary results
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Andrea Campbell 365,362 50.10%
Democratic Shannon Liss-Riordan 248,648 34.10%
Democratic Quentin Palfrey (withdrawn) 115,200 15.80%
Total votes 729,210 100.0%
2022 Massachusetts Attorney General election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Democratic Andrea Campbell 1,539,624 62.85% -7.06%
Republican James R. McMahon, III 908,608 37.09% +7.07%
Write-in 1,550 0.06% -0.01%
Total votes 2,449,782 100.0%
Democratic hold

Commentaries and op-eds authored


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