Mike Kennealy, former economic secretary under Baker, launches Republican bid for governor
In a
'The unspeakable violence in migrant shelters is a human tragedy and a national embarrassment,' Kennealy says in the video. 'The political class on Beacon Hill is more concerned with their future than with ours.'
Advertisement
Kennealy worked in private equity before he was tapped in 2013 as a special adviser in Lawrence Public Schools, which was put under state receivership in 2011. After Baker left office in 2023, Kennealy has worked as a senior advisor and chief strategy officer at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston, according to his campaign.
Advertisement
He likely won't be the only Republican to enter the race. Senator Peter Durant, a Spencer Republican and vocal critic of Healey's handling of the shelter system, has said that he's
Brian Shortsleeve, a former chief administrator of the MBTA under Baker, is also considering getting into the race on the Republican side, according to GOP insiders.
Healey has said she'll seek a second term amid a rapidly shifting political environment. She is trying to govern a blue state at a time when President Trump has returned to the White House, and has increasingly criticized the president, be it on
Kennealy did not mention Trump during his two-minute launch video.
He has yet to open a fundraising account with the state's campaign finance office, making it unclear with what kind of financial support he could be entering the race.
Healey entered April with nearly $2.9 million at his disposal after raising more than $400,000 in March alone.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Matt Stout can be reached at
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Federal efforts to revoke buffer zone around Chaco Canyon prompts delegation letter
Peñasco Blanco at Chaco Culture National Historical Park in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. (Photo by Mary Cornatzer/Source NM) In a new letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, New Mexico's congressional delegation chastised federal efforts to revoke a 10-mile buffer zone for oil and gas development around Chaco Culture National Historical Park. 'Pursuing increased development on [Bureau of Land Management] lands within the ten-mile area that surrounds Chaco Canyon—so rich in cultural, spiritual, and historical significance—is misguided and risks permanent damage to one of the most sacred landscapes in North America,' the letter stated. 'Additionally, it is unacceptable to push forward without full and robust Tribal consultation.' U.S. Interior Department finalizes fossil fuel, mining ban near Chaco Canyon The area around Chaco Canyon holds paramount spiritual and cultural significance to several New Mexico Pueblos, the Hopi Indians of Arizona and the Navajo Nation. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization designated the archaeological sites at Chaco among one of only 24 World Heritage Sites in the U.S. The site sits atop the Mancos Shale formation in the San Juan Basin. Approximately 90% of federal lands surrounding the site are leased for oil and gas, according to the All Pueblo Governors Council. Pueblo governments and advocates fought for years for protections from further encroachment of oil and gas. In 2023, under the Biden Administration, the federal government issued Public Land Order No. 7923, banning further oil and gas development on federal lands within 10 miles of the historic site for 20 years, which was celebrated by advocates and tribal governments. In April, members of the delegation re-introduced federal legislation to make the withdrawal permanent. But a competing Republican-backed bill and the Trump Administration's efforts to unwind the order are threatening that progress, the delegation said in their letter. Bureau of Land Management officials failed to offer proper notice of virtual May 28 tribal consultation, the delegation said, adding that federal officials did not send a letter to all of the impacted tribal governments. The delegation pressed the federal government to hold in-person consultations, give a timeline for when decisions will be made and urged Burgum himself to tour in-person. A Source NM request to the Bureau of Land Management for a copy of the letter sent to tribal governments in May went unreturned Monday. Efforts to remove the buffer are unsurprising, said Julia Bernal (Sandia), the executive Director of Pueblo Action Alliance, who noted it was one of the plans outlined in the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025. Bernal said her nonprofit is pushing for further safeguarding the ancestral site and reducing pollution from oil and gas, and worries that walking back Chaco protections will erode future restoration or protection efforts. 'If we're undoing or just disregarding those very important mandated tribal consultation processes, then that really just does show how unimportant it is for this administration to uphold their sovereign rights,' Bernal said. A reversal will face 'widespread public opposition and yield minimal benefits,' in oil and gas development, the delegation wrote. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Republicans focus on trans athletes in their early attacks against Jon Ossoff in Georgia
In the early stages of the campaign, Republicans seeking to unseat Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff in one of the key races of the 2026 midterm elections are leaning heavily into attacks over transgender athletes in women's sports. Two GOP-aligned groups launched ads on the issue in recent weeks. And GOP Rep. Buddy Carter hit the airwaves with an ad prodding Ossoff on the issue soon after launching his campaign. Republican candidates and campaigns have frequently leaned on culture war issues in recent years as a way to excite the base and frame Democrats as out of touch, particularly in red-leaning states. And they're even more emboldened after President Donald Trump bombarded then-Vice President Kamala Harris with an onslaught of ads that attacked her support for transgender people during the 2024 election. But while Democrats are gearing up for a difficult re-election fight for Ossoff in a state Trump won narrowly in 2024, they think the issue will be drowned out by voters' concerns about the economy, particularly Trump's handling of it. Even so, it's an issue for which Democrats lack a consensus about how to respond to GOP broadsides, as prominent members of the party grapple with whether to embrace protecting the transgender community as part of their values, deflect the question, or come out against including transgender athletes in women's sports. Ossoff is the only Democratic incumbent defending a seat in a state Trump won last year, making him far-and-away the top target for Senate Republicans. Still, some Republicans admit that Ossoff will be difficult to beat, particularly now that Gov. Brian Kemp decided not to seek the seat. The early Republican criticism of Ossoff points to the Democratic senator's vote on legislation in February that would make it a Title IX violation (jeopardizing federal education funding) for states to allow transgender women and girls to participate in female sports. The bill failed to get the 60 votes it needed to advance in the Senate. One Nation, the nonprofit aligned with Senate Republicans' main super PAC, has spent at least $400,000 airing an ad reminiscent of a key tagline from one of Trump's anti-Harris ads from last year: 'Man-to-man defense isn't woke enough for Ossoff, he's playing for they/them.' Carter's opening salvo of ads included a spot touting the congressman's MAGA credentials while a person purporting to be a transgender woman holds sports trophies and stands in front of a transgender pride flag talking about how Ossoff has been an ally to the community. Asked about the GOP criticism of that vote, Ossoff campaign communications director Ellie Dougherty told NBC News in a statement that 'American parents don't need federal bureaucrats confirming our children's genitalia,' a reference to how a state might enforce the mandate in the Republican bill. Scott Paradise, who managed Republican Herschel Walker's losing Senate campaign in 2022, told NBC News that Ossoff's first Senate run in 2020 provided a 'perfect storm' that allowed Ossoff to position himself as a 'centrist' by narrowing his focus to 'bread-and-butter issues.' 'If he's talking about the economy or he's talking about moments where he has stood with the right — whether it's Middle East, to the extent he has on immigration — it's easier for him to muddy the waters. But this is such a black-and-white issue in a center-right state' that allows Republicans to try to frame him as out of step, Paradise said. Polling broadly shows the American public doesn't support transgender women playing in female sports. Last month's NBC News Stay Tuned Poll, powered by SurveyMonkey found that 75% opposed it and 25% supported it. Other national polling has found similar trends. That's one reason why Trump's campaign focused heavily on the issue in ads, arguing that Harris was outside the mainstream and pointing to her past support for gender-affirming treatments for prison inmates. After the election, Democrats have disagreed over whether the party's position on transgender rights, particularly in women's sports, cost them electorally. Asked about the attacks last month during an interview on "Political Breakfast," a podcast hosted by Georgia's public radio affiliate, Ossoff said the big early spending is a signal to him that "demonstrates the national GOP understands the strength that I'll be bringing to this re-election campaign." The Democrat called Republicans, particularly GOP political consultants, "obsessed and preoccupied with this issue." Thinking ahead about "top of mind" issues for voters in 2026, Ossoff added, will it be "whether or not federal bureaucrats are investigating the sexual biology of adolescent athletes? I don't think so," he added. Amy Morton, a Democratic strategist in Georgia, elaborated that she believes the midterms will instead be a "referendum on the economy" and Trump's handling of it, emphasizing the Democratic attacks on the GOP's broad policy bill that's working its way through Congress. "They're going to continue to lean into that issue because they don't want to talk about the issues that are really impacting Georgians," she said, adding, "They made a strategic decision to wrap their arms around Donald Trump so there won't be a degree of separation between his failure as an executive and their failure." A Democratic strategist who worked on Sen. Raphael Warnock's successful re-election in Georgia in 2022 added that, like their former boss, Ossoff's high-profile elections have helped to define him in the state, making them skeptical that a GOP attempt to brand him as extreme will stick. They added that while Warnock's 2022 Republican opponent, Herschel Walker, leaned heavily on social issues during his unsuccessful bid, Kemp won comfortably with a very different message on the same ballot, showing how a campaign can focus on the issues it wants and leave others to the side. "You saw Brian Kemp run an extremely disciplined race on the economy. You were hard-pressed to get Kemp on the record about abortion in 2022 — the man was laser-focused on small businesses, jobs and the economy. That was the consistent message you heard out of Brian Kemp. You compare that to Herschel Walker and, you can do the math: 300,000 votes," the Democrat said. But the economy was also a top issue in the 2024 election, and Trump and the Republican Party still managed to turn their attacks on trans issues into a memorable tagline that stuck with some voters. That's why one national Republican strategist told NBC News that the attack isn't a "replacement" for a cogent economic argument, but "part of the equation." 'It's an issue that obviously had a massive impact in 2024. The Trump campaign's 'Harris is for they/them' ad is one of the greatest ads of our generation in that it's so simple and was so effective,' the strategist said. Ads about transgender participants in women's sports can run "on top of: Oh, he also voted to help ensure that illegal immigrants get government-paid health care and he voted against the Laken Riley amendment in 2024 before it was convenient," the strategist added. While the transgender sports attacks are drawing headlines, both sides have been running ads focused on spending in Washington, too. Democrats have attacked the GOP's policy bill working its way through Washington, and Republicans hit Ossoff for backing former President Joe Biden's signature spending bill in 2022. Tharon Johnson, a Georgia Democratic strategist who worked for Biden's 2020 campaign in the state, agreed that Republicans are "going to be hard-pressed to make Jon Ossoff into this radical," in part because of his work both in office and on the campaign trail. And while he believes the situation Harris found herself in last year isn't the same one Ossoff finds himself in now, he said Democrats can still draw a lesson from it: "Respond sooner, and more effectively." So far, Ossoff's response has been to stay focused on the economy and try to frame the debate as about local control. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump backs arrest of California governor amid LA protest strains
US President Donald Trump said Monday it would be "great" if California Governor Gavin Newsom was arrested, in an extraordinary threat as the two men sparred over protests in Los Angeles. Republican Trump, 78, deployed the National Guard in America's second city on Saturday after clashes erupted over immigration raids -- but he did not seek the Democratic governor's consent, the first time a US president has taken such an action in 60 years. As temperatures rose, Newsom, 57, then dared Trump's border czar Tom Homan over the weekend to arrest him, after Homan said the governor and LA Mayor Karen Bass could face federal charges of trying to impede immigration agents. "I would do it if I were Tom. I think it's great," Trump told reporters when asked if Homan should arrest Newsom, as the Republican president arrived on his Marine One helicopter at the White House. "Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing." Trump said Newsom, who has been widely tipped as a possible 2028 presidential candidate, had "done a terrible job" in curbing the Los Angeles clashes. "Look, I like Gavin Newsom, he's a nice guy -- but he's grossly incompetent, everybody knows," Trump said. Trump later said that "I don't want a civil war," but that "civil war would happen if you left it to people like him." Newsom has bitterly accused Trump of manufacturing the crisis for political gain, saying that local law authorities could have handled the protests without the National Guard. On Sunday, he blasted border chief Homan, telling MSNBC: "Come after me, arrest me, let's just get it over with, tough guy." The Democrat then branded Trump as "dictatorial" later Monday after the Trump administration deployed 700 active-duty Marines to Los Angeles. dk/jgc
