Marty Walsh Bio
Martin Joseph Walsh (born April 10, 1967) is an American politician and trade union official. A Democrat from Dorchester, Boston, he served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1997 to 2014, was elected the 53rd mayor of Boston, and later served as the 29th United States Secretary of Labor in the administration of President Joe Biden. After resigning as labor secretary in March 2023, he became the executive director of the National Hockey League Players’ Association. Walsh is a former construction trades leader who rose to head the Boston Building Trades Council before entering elected office.
Walsh is a recovering alcoholic who has been sober since 1995 and was the first member of a U.S. presidential Cabinet to openly be in a twelve-step program. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Boston College in 2009. Since 2024, he has been married to Lorrie Higgins.
Early Life and Background
Martin Joseph Walsh was born on April 10, 1967, in Dorchester, a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, to John Walsh and Mary O’Malley. He grew up in a working-class Boston household with strong roots in the city’s Irish American community. As a child, Walsh battled cancer, an experience that became a defining part of his life story.
Walsh attended The Newman School in Boston for his secondary education. He later enrolled at Suffolk University before dropping out after a single semester, and many years afterward completed his undergraduate degree at Boston College’s Woods College of Advancing Studies, earning a Bachelor of Arts in 2009. His early working life was shaped by Boston’s construction industry, where he became active in the building trades.
Path to US Politics
Walsh began his involvement in the labor movement as a member of the construction trades, steadily working his way up within organized labor. He served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, representing the 13th Suffolk district, and held leadership roles on several committees, including chair of the House Committee on Ethics and chair of the House Homeland Security and Federal Affairs Committee. He also served as co-chair of the Special Commission on Public Construction Reform.
In 2011, Walsh was chosen to head the Boston Building Trades Council, a position he held until 2013, when he resigned to mount a campaign for mayor of Boston. His background as a union leader, combined with his personal story of overcoming cancer and alcoholism, became central themes of his political identity as he transitioned from labor organizing to elected office.
Marty Walsh Career
Early Career (1997–2013)
Walsh first ran unsuccessfully for the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1996 as a write-in candidate. He won a special election for the 13th Suffolk district seat in 1997, defeating several Democratic primary opponents, including future Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley. Walsh went on to win eight two-year reelections to the House, often running unopposed.
During his time in the state legislature, Walsh built a reputation as a labor-aligned lawmaker focused on construction industry issues, consumer protection, and municipal matters. His committee work and relationships within the building trades unions helped him build the organizational network that would later support his campaigns for higher office.
Mayoralty of Boston (2014–2021)
Walsh announced his candidacy for mayor of Boston in April 2013. He finished first in the September 2013 preliminary election with 18.4 percent of the vote and went on to defeat City Councilor John R. Connolly in the November 2013 general election with 51.5 percent of the vote, becoming the 53rd mayor of Boston. He was sworn in on January 6, 2014, and was reelected in 2017 with 65 percent of the vote against City Councilor Tito Jackson, with then-Vice President Joe Biden presiding at his second inauguration.
As mayor, Walsh signed the Boston Trust Act in 2014, establishing Boston as a sanctuary city by limiting local cooperation with federal immigration detainer requests. He supported a paid parental leave ordinance for municipal employees in 2015, signed short-term rental regulations into law in 2018, and launched the Climate Ready Boston initiative. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Walsh declared a municipal state of emergency in March 2020, closed city facilities, and established the Boston Resiliency Fund and the Boston Rental Relief Fund to assist residents affected by the crisis.
Walsh’s tenure also included negotiations that brought General Electric’s headquarters to Boston in 2016, a building boom that saw the approval of 7.7 million square feet of real estate development, and ongoing challenges addressing homelessness at the Mass and Cass area. He resigned as mayor on March 22, 2021, the same day he was confirmed as United States Secretary of Labor.
US Secretary of Labor (2021–2023)
Walsh was sworn in as the 29th United States Secretary of Labor in March 2021, becoming the first former union leader to serve in the role in roughly 45 years. During his tenure, he focused on pro-labor policy priorities, including reversing Trump administration rules that limited environmental, social, and governance considerations in retirement fund management and that allowed employers to pay tipped workers a subminimum wage.
Walsh became the first sitting labor secretary to join a picket line when he stood with striking workers during the 2021 Kellogg’s strike. He mediated a resolution to a nine-month nurses’ strike at Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts, and played a role in negotiations during the 2021–22 Major League Baseball lockout. He also worked to avert a national rail strike in 2022, negotiating a tentative agreement that was ultimately imposed by Congress after some union members rejected it.
NHLPA Executive Director (2023–Present)
Walsh resigned as Secretary of Labor in March 2023 to become the executive director of the National Hockey League Players’ Association, the union representing professional ice hockey players in the National Hockey League. In this role, he has negotiated on behalf of players in collective bargaining and other matters with the league. He was also the designated survivor during the 2023 State of the Union Address.
Under Walsh’s leadership, the NHLPA negotiated an agreement with the NHL, the International Olympic Committee, and the International Ice Hockey Federation to allow NHL players to compete in both the 2026 and 2030 Winter Olympics. In mid-2025, Walsh negotiated the terms of a new four-year collective bargaining agreement between the NHLPA and the NHL, set to take effect before the 2026–27 season.
Notable Events and Milestones
Walsh’s political rise from state representative to mayor of a major American city to a U.S. Cabinet position is itself a defining milestone. His 2016 address to the Democratic National Convention, in which he openly identified himself as an alcoholic using the traditional twelve-step introduction, drew national attention. He was the first U.S. Cabinet member to openly be in a twelve-step program for recovery from addiction, and he has been recognized with multiple honorary degrees from institutions including Wentworth Institute of Technology, Bridgewater State University, and Suffolk University.
Marty Walsh Family
Family Background and Personal Life
Walsh is the son of John Walsh and Mary O’Malley, and he grew up in Dorchester, Boston, in a working-class Irish American household. His Catholic faith and Irish heritage have remained central to his personal identity, and he holds both American and Irish citizenship.
Personal Life
Walsh married Lorrie Higgins in March 2024 in a civil ceremony in the Caribbean. The two first met when Walsh was a Massachusetts state representative and Higgins was working as an aide to a state house colleague. The couple resides in the Lower Mills neighborhood of Dorchester, where they have lived since 2015. Walsh is a long-time season ticket holder of the New England Patriots and has continued to speak openly about his recovery from alcoholism, attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings throughout his career in public service.