UMass Poll Results Say Massachusetts Is on the ‘Wrong Track’

A new poll indicates a growing number of Massachusetts residents are unsure about the direction the Commonwealth is heading. The survey results could not come at a worse time for politicians looking for re-election next year.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst/WCVB Poll indicates a growing displeasure with the way things are going in the People's Republic of Maura Healey. The poll results are not good news for a governor who, three-quarters of the way through her first term, faces at least four challengers to her re-election.

According to the school's website, for the first time since 2020, a UMass Amherst/WCVB Poll finds that the "plurality of residents say Massachusetts is on the 'wrong track.'"

The October 2025 poll indicates 40 percent of respondents believe Massachusetts is on the "right track," while 43 percent disagree and 18 percent are unsure. That's down from February, when 41 percent said Massachusetts is on the "right track" and 38 percent disagreed, with 21 percent undecided.

A year ago, in October 2024, 46 percent believed Massachusetts was on the "right track," 41 percent the "wrong track," and 14 percent were unsure.

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The economy may be influencing some people's souring attitudes about life in the Bay State.

Tatishe Nteta, Provost Professor of political Science at UMass Amherst and director of the poll, said, "With the state continuing to endure a housing crisis, food and utility costs increasing, and the state losing billions of dollars in federal funding, the rosy outlook expressed by Bay Staters has seemingly ended – for the first time since 2020, we find more citizens believing that the state is on the wrong track than heading in the right direction."