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Mike Minogue represents a “tiny and failing political establishment,” a spokesperson for gubernatorial candidate Brian Shortsleeve said after Minogue’s big convention win.
Brian Shortsleeve worked the floor at the Massachusetts GOP Convention in Worcester. Jonathan Wiggs/Boston Globe
After delegates at the Massachusetts Republican Party Convention overwhelmingly endorsed gubernatorial candidate Mike Minogue last weekend, some in the party are now calling for his last remaining primary opponent to step aside.
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Mike Minogue wins GOP endorsement for governor in landslide
That opponent, former MBTA head Brian Shortsleeve, is having none of it.
“The convention represented less than 1% of the people who will vote in September, and it’s a shame Mike Minogue is so bent on disenfranchising the rest of the electorate,” Patrick Nestor, a spokesperson for Shortsleeve, said Thursday in a statement.
Minogue, the former CEO of Danvers-based medical device company Abiomed, won the support of more than 70 percent of GOP delegates. In order to qualify for the September primary ballot, candidates needed to surpass a 15 percent threshold. Shortsleeve narrowly made it, qualifying with the support of 15.5 percent of delegates.
The third major candidate, former Baker administration official Mike Kennealy, suspended his campaign after falling short of the threshold.
Not long after the convention ended, pressure began mounting on Shortsleeve to follow in Kennealy’s footsteps. Massachusetts First, a pro-Minogue super PAC, explicitly urged Shortsleeve to drop out in the interest of uniting the party to defeat Gov. Maura Healey.
“Let’s face it: The only ‘winner’ of a drawn-out primary is Maura Healey,” Massachusetts First PAC Chairman Rob Neuner said in a statement. “By doing the honorable thing, suspending his campaign, and endorsing Mike Minogue, Mr. Shortsleeve can allow the party to focus its full attention and resources on winning in November, which will benefit Republicans running for office up and down the ballot.”
Minogue’s campaign said in a statement this week that no candidate who received 15 percent support at the Mass GOP convention has ever gone on to win a primary, while no candidate who has received 70 percent or more has ever gone on to lose one.
Former Mass GOP chairman Jim Lyons made a Facebook post showing the lopsided results of the convention, asking “Is this all about you Brian?” and saying that it was “time to [do] the right thing.”
Shortsleeve maintains that Minogue is refusing to engage with him to set up debates.
“The nomination cannot be purchased, but must be earned by making a real case for change, outlining your agenda, and defending your record in debates, which Mike Minogue refuses to do,” Nestor said.
In a recent Instagram post, Shortsleeve called the Mass GOP convention an “insider game” and said that it would be up to approximately 300,000 Republican primary voters to decide the contest. Candidates who avoid debates are “not ready” and lose to their general election opponents, Shortsleeve said.
On the heels of Minogue’s convention victory, his campaign launched a new ad this week titled “momentum.” It makes no mention of Shortsleeve, and focuses on presenting Minogue as “a new kind of governor” willing to “shake up the political establishment.”
Shortsleeve is pitching himself as more of an “outsider” than Minogue, who he says represents political elites who do not know how to pick winners.
“This is now a contest between a true outsider in Brian Shortsleeve and the hand-picked choice of a tiny and failing political establishment with a terrific record of endorsing general election losers,” Nestor said. “In September, primary voters will nominate Brian Shortsleeve because he is the only candidate who can defeat Maura Healey and make Massachusetts affordable for working families.”
Healey, for her part, used an appearance on GBH’s “Boston Public Radio” this week to paint both Minogue and Shortsleeve as radical right-wingers closely aligned with President Donald Trump.
“The Republicans are moving forward with the two most extreme candidates. They are MAGA candidates,” Healey said. “This election is going to present a really clear contrast, whoever emerges from the Republican party, I don’t know who that will be. You cannot stand with Donald Trump and stand for the people of Massachusetts. Period.”
Ross Cristantiello
Ross Cristantiello, a general assignment news reporter for Boston.com since 2022, covers local politics, crime, the environment, and more.
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