In a missed bromance opportunity with former Boston mayor and now U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, Gov. Charlie Baker on Thursday laughed off the possibility of wanting to serve in the U.S. Cabinet once his second gubernatorial term comes to a close.
“I’m not thinking about stuff like that at all,” Baker said during an interview on WBUR’s Radio Boston. “I’m thinking about the legislative agenda, the work that’s in front of us and the stuff we need to do to continue to move the commonwealth forward and out of the sort of aftershocks of the pandemic.”
Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito announced in December that they would not be seeking a third term in office. But a recent Morning Consult survey found that Baker was the most popular governor in the nation, notching a 74% approval rating.
Baker said Thursday he will support candidates in other races at least until he leaves office — but after that, the scope of his political involvement, and what his family decides, remains an open question.
The Republican leader, who regularly reminds people he’s 65, is not interested in running for elected office again, describing that as a career path with a “pretty slim” likelihood.
Baker doesn’t have post-gubernatorial personal plans ironed out yet either.
The governor — who visited Washington, D.C. last week to meet with Biden administration officials and went on a family ski trip to Utah earlier this year — lamented he hasn’t left Massachusetts “hardly at all” since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“To tell you the truth, I really haven’t figured out what I’m looking forward to,” Baker said. “But the one thing my wife and I have agreed on is when this is all over, she and I are going to spend some time together doing something — we don’t know what — for some period of time that’s more than a few days.”
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