Campbell enters Mass. AG race

Andrea Campbell returned to the campaign trail last fall after coming up short in the mayoral preliminary, turning to the race to be her successor in District 4. Campbell, left, is seen here getting ready to campaign for Brian Worrell. (File photo via Worrell campaign)

Former Boston mayoral candidate Andrea Campbell on Wednesday plans to launch her statewide campaign for attorney general in Dorchester’s Codman Square. Campbell, 39, joins a field that already includes a labor rights attorney and a government lawyer.

Campbell, who as District 4 councillor represented Dorchester and Mattapan for six years and placed third in the 2021 mayoral preliminary, is scheduled to kick off her campaign for attorney general at 10 a.m. at Codman Square Park.

Afterwards, she is slated to head west and visit the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance and the Boys and Girls of Club in Worcester, and then the White Lion Brewery in Springfield.

“I’ve dedicated my life to fighting for greater equity and opportunity, and that’s what I’ll do as Attorney General because the Attorney General is not just the top law enforcement official of the commonwealth, she must be an advocate for fundamental change and progress,” Campbell said in a statement. “From Boston to Springfield, and Lawrence to the Cape & Islands, I will be an Attorney General for justice and opportunity for all -- no matter who you are, where you come from, or where you live.”

Campbell, a Boston Latin School graduate who grew up in Roxbury, lives in Mattapan. She was eight months old when she lost her mother, who was going to visit her father in prison. She met her father when she was eight years old and he was released from prison. She would later lose her twin brother Andre when he died in custody of the Department of Corrections as a pre-trial detainee.

A graduate of Princeton University and UCLA School of Law, she worked for Proskauer LLP and as general counsel for the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission, as well as serving as Gov. Deval Patrick’s deputy legal counsel.

She knocked 30-year incumbent Charles Yancey out of the District 4 seat in 2015 and became City Council president in 2018, the first Black woman with the title.

A statewide poll of 504 registered voters, conducted by MassINC Polling Group in January and released this week, showed Campbell with a lead in the race for attorney general. The race was thrown wide open after Maura Healey, the current attorney general, announced her run for governor.

Campbell picked up 31 percent, while labor attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan and government lawyer Quentin Palfrey, the 2018 Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, drew 3 percent and 2 percent, respectively.

Liss-Riordan launched her campaign earlier in January from the Ironworkers Local 7 hall in South Boston.

All of the candidates running are Democrats.

Material from State House News Service was used in this report.

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