Charlie Baker
Massachusetts Governor

Governor Charlie Baker is the 72nd Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He was sworn in for a first term in January 2015 and a second term in January 2019. Throughout his tenure, Governor Baker has focused on moving Massachusetts forward through bipartisan, results-driven leadership. Since taking office, Governor Baker and Lt. Governor Karyn Polito have assembled a diverse team and put forth a ‘get stuff done’ approach to build a state government that is as thrifty, hard-working and creative as the people of Massachusetts.

Governor Baker has prioritized downtown and regional economic development, allowed small businesses to become more competitive in a dynamic economy through regulatory reform, and delivered critical tax relief to more than 400,000 hardworking individuals and their families through a doubling of the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Under Governor Baker’s leadership, Massachusetts’ structural budget deficit has been eliminated without raising taxes on the people of Massachusetts and the Commonwealth’s Stabilization Fund has grown to its highest level ever by more than a billion dollars.

Responding to the historic challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Baker worked in partnership with the Commonwealth’s world-class health care system and leading medical experts to protect the health and safety of the Commonwealth’s residents. Massachusetts has led the nation in COVID-19 vaccinations, protecting communities and families and ensuring the Commonwealth’s economy continues to grow.

Ensuring Massachusetts continues to be a national leader in education, Governor Baker has signed seven budgets featuring historic investments in K-12 education, increasing local Chapter 70 education aid by over $1 billion, added 5,000 seats and supported over $100 million in equipment upgrades to the state’s vocational and technical schools. Governor Baker also launched the Career Technical Initiative, which aims to train 20,000 workers in technical fields over the next several years by transforming the Commonwealth’s vocational schools into Career Technical Institutes. Governor Baker also recognizes the difficulties the high costs of college create for students and families, and has taken steps to improve access to college through expanded early college opportunities especially in Gateway Cities, the Administration’s Commonwealth Commitment program and increased funding for community college scholarships.

Working with partners in the Legislature and in local communities, Governor Baker has put Massachusetts at the forefront of finding solutions to the opioid and heroin epidemic. Two major bills signed into law by Governor Baker have helped serve as models for other states fighting the epidemic and other important updates to drug laws have been made to help police officers crack down on fentanyl traffickers. Working with the Legislature, Governor Baker has more than doubled spending on prevention, education, treatment, and recovery.

Confronted with the challenges of rising energy costs and a changing climate, Governor Baker has taken critical and nation-leading steps to diversify the Commonwealth’s energy portfolio, safeguard residents, municipalities and businesses from the impacts of climate change, and secure progress toward greenhouse gas reduction targets. State procurements of offshore wind and hydroelectric power will lead to half of Massachusetts’ electricity being generated by clean resources, while the first ever State Hazard Mitigation and Climate Adaptation Plan stands as a blueprint to prepare for natural hazards and adapt to the impacts of climate change over the next five years. In 2020, Governor Baker set an ambitious emissions reduction target for the Commonwealth of net-zero emissions by 2050, a commitment codified into law when Governor Baker signed historic climate change legislation in 2021 that will reduce emissions and protect environmental justice communities.

Governor Baker signed the largest housing bond bill in state history, enhanced the Housing Development Incentive Program to boost housing production in Gateway Cities and worked with the Legislature to enact Housing Choice legislation that will improve zoning and generate more housing production. Governor Baker’s administration also launched the CommonWealth Builder program, an initiative designed to help communities of color build wealth by closing systemic homeownership gaps.

Governor Baker has spearheaded long-overdue reforms at the MBTA that have led to significant improvements to operations and finances, and supported historic investments in infrastructure upgrades, with the T now regularly spending over $1 billion each year on capital improvements for the first time ever.

From day one, Governor Baker has implemented essential reforms and continues to tackle difficult and persistent challenges in agencies across state government to streamline government, protect the vulnerable, and respect taxpayers’ time and money. Working with frontline social workers, Governor Baker has made tremendous progress at the Department of Children and Families to better serve some of the Commonwealth’s most at risk children and families by focusing on lower caseloads and increased oversight. In the last seven years, Governor Baker has reduced the number of homeless families being housed in hotels and motels by ninety-five percent.

Over the course of his career, Governor Baker has been a highly successful leader of complex business and government organizations. As a cabinet secretary under Governors William Weld and Paul Cellucci, Governor Baker helped lead efforts to reform and modernize state government, turn a billion-dollar deficit into a surplus, create a half million jobs, and enact an ambitious education reform agenda.

During his time as Chief Executive Officer of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Governor Baker turned a company on the brink of bankruptcy into the nation’s highest ranked health care provider for member satisfaction and clinical effectiveness for six straight years.

Raised in Needham, Governor Baker attended Massachusetts public schools and is a graduate of Harvard College. He went on to earn a Master’s of Business Administration from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, where he met his wife Lauren.  The Bakers reside in Swampscott, have been heavily involved in numerous civic and charitable endeavors, and are the proud parents of their three children, Charlie, AJ, and Caroline.

Lauren Baker has dedicated her tenure as First Lady to her passion for children by expanding the impact of the Wonderfund, a nonprofit supporting positive experiences for the Commonwealth’s most vulnerable kids under the care of the state’s Department of Children and Families.