Voters want ‘someone tough': Mass. GOP governor candidate Brian Shortsleeve makes his pitch

Yahoo

6 hours ago

A venture capitalist, Marine Corps veteran and Charlie Baker-era MBTA executive, Brian Shortsleeve believes a businessman belongs in the corner office.
Less than a month into his run for governor, Shortsleeve forms one half of the Republican primary race alongside fellow Baker executive Mike Kennealy. Shortsleeve has spoken volumes during his short time on the trail about immigration and the emergency shelter system in Massachusetts, his desire to repeal the MBTA Communities Act, and what he sees as a lack of private-sector growth crippling the state.
Shortsleeve points to his time in the Marine Corps as essential to who he is, calling his run for governor his most recent 'mission.' The pro-choice Republican is running on a 'common sense, conservative leadership' platform.
In a recent conversation with the News Service, Shortsleeve spoke about running as a GOP candidate in Massachusetts, his stance on energy and housing policy, and immigration.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
Q: Can you talk to me a little bit about your family political history? Your uncle, Joe Shortsleeve, ran for Senate in 2017 — where does that interest in moving into the public sector come from?
A: 'I've always had a passion for public service. My grandfather served in the Navy in World War II. He was on a destroyer called the Cassin Young, which actually sits at the Charlestown Navy Yard now; it was the last U.S. Navy ship hit by a kamikaze in World War II — July 30 of 1945, one week before the war ended. He was one of only two officers that survived the attack."
I grew up in a family that really valued service. I graduated from Harvard, I had an ROTC scholarship and I joined the Marine Corps. Many of my friends went off to work at Goldman Sachs and McKinsey and Bain, but I felt a real strong sense of service. I've done a lot of things in life — I've built a phenomenal business, I spent a couple years working for [Gov. Charlie] Baker, but more than anything, I'm a Marine. I think it's that experience that shaped who I am and how I think."
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Q: Charlie Baker is one of a number of Republicans who have held statewide office in Massachusetts — Bill Weld, Paul Cellucci, John Volpe, Mitt Romney, to name a few. Do any of those names stand out to you? Who are some of your political inspirations?
A: 'Massachusetts works better with balance. I would say some of the greatest times this state has ever had are times when we had business-oriented Republican governors in the [State House], whether that was Mitt Romney, Charlie Baker, certainly Cellucci.'
'But if you look back to the stretch from 2015 through COVID, this was the fastest-growing state in the country. Massachusetts was the fastest-growing state in the northeast. We were creating lots of jobs, our private sector was growing. I look back at that era as a great era for our economy.'
'Fast forward to now, under Governor Healey, we haven't created a single private sector job since the day she took office. Think about that — not a single private sector job since January 2023. There are fewer people working in the private sector today than there were the day she took office."
'People are leaving. Businesses are leaving. No private sector growth. I think having a business builder, an entrepreneur in the corner office who knows how to build businesses and stimulate private companies is so important.'
Read More: 'Mission for Mass.': Ex-MBTA boss Brian Shortsleeve launches GOP guv bid
Q: Why this focus on the private sector piece?
A: 'If you're growing private sector jobs, it means you're a good place to do business. It means companies want to come here. If your private sector is contracting, it means you're not a good place to do business. There's a lot of growth out there — states are growing, companies are growing."
'The markets have been terrific over the last few years. If we were just keeping pace, we would have created 85,000 private sector jobs in Massachusetts. We lost 5,000 over three years, tied only with Illinois. Businessmen live in the real world. We've got to balance budgets. We have to manage costs. We have to think about how to scale and how to grow.'
'When you have a career politician, a lawyer in the corner office, I think you're missing the ingredients that it takes to get a state's private sector growing again. From a state of Massachusetts standpoint, we've always done better with business-oriented, fiscally conservative Republican governors in the corner office.'
Q: You voted for President Donald Trump, and you've said that you'd want to work with the Trump administration. Massachusetts, as a state, is not his biggest fan — how are you approaching running as a Republican in Massachusetts, where so many associate the party with what's happening at the federal level? How are you appealing to Bay State independent voters, and the moderates within either party?
A: 'I'm running to lower taxes. I'm running to lower utility bills. I'm running to improve affordability. I'm running to grow our private sector. Every time a company closes in Massachusetts and leaves, that's someone who's losing a job.'
'Every time a young person leaves the state, that's a company that can't find someone to work there. I think these issues are really personal, and we need to get refocused as a state on making this a place where working-class people can grow and can build their companies and can scale.'
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'The issues I'm running on are the issues that Massachusetts voters care about: affordability, the cost of electricity. We've got the highest electricity rates in the whole country, and under Healey's failed energy policies, they've gone up 30% in the last year. If you look at your utility bill today, about a third of it is the cost of power. Two-thirds of it are all the distribution charges, and half of that are a variety of state mandated fees, which should be eliminated entirely.'
Q: You've said you'll cut taxes on day one. What would that look like, tangibly, for Massachusetts residents?
A: 'A lower cost of living. If you live in the city of Boston, you just got a tax bill hike of somewhere between 18% and 25%. Why? Because Mayor [Michelle] Wu cranked up spending by another $400 million this year to fund the growth of government.'
'That's a very tangible example. When government grows, it's coming out of your pocket. This needs to be a state where working families and working people can grow and can raise their kids and can put food on the table. When you have an electricity bill that, in some cases, has doubled over the course of one or two years, that's making it hard for people to do that.'
'There's a lot of things a governor can do day one to address those things. When I come in, day one, we'd be focused on the utility bills. Day one, we'd be focused on taxes. Day one, we'd be focused on going through every single item of state government in finding opportunities to run more efficiently, every line item, every contract, every department. I've done it before. I know how to do it, and I can tell you that in a $65 billion budget, there's a lot of opportunity to run more efficiently.'
Read More: From Baker to Ballot: Republican Mike Kennealy makes his pitch for governor | Bay State Briefing
Q: With regard to energy policy, are you at all supportive of the state's clean energy transition and the associated climate mandates?
A: 'I've got three young boys that are the most important thing in my, and my wife's, life. We need clean air. We need clean water. I care a lot about those things, but we have to do that in a way that doesn't bankrupt the state, doesn't drive families out, doesn't ruin the fishing industry, doesn't kill whales.'
'From an affordability standpoint, we should not be running a $1.5 billion green energy program through utility bills. I would remove that from your utility bill. Day one, I would build a natural gas pipeline. Governor Healey fought hard against that pipeline when she was attorney general.'
'That pipeline, if it was in place today, would be saving ratepayers $2 billion a year. I would invest in a lot of the new nuclear technology. It's got to be all of the above, but we've got to start with nuclear, with the pipelines, and you've got to start with removing all of those program charges from people's utility bills and put it back to the Legislature. If they want to fund it, they can fund it, but it's not appropriate to drive it through bills.'
Q: Do you support any offshore wind infrastructure?
A: 'It's interesting, Governor Healey's focus on the most expensive way to generate electricity. There's a lot of alternatives out there, renewable and otherwise, and we should start with the ones that are most cost-effective. Offshore wind by a factor of three is the most expensive of the ways to create renewables. So I would look at it, and I would say, what are the most cost-efficient ways to achieve our goals? And let's start there.'
Q: You support a full repeal of the MBTA Communities Act, one way the state is attempting to build more affordable housing. What is your housing plan?
A: 'The MBTA Communities Act is an example of administrative overreach. It's an unfunded mandate — I agree with the auditor on that — and it's a one-size-fits-all approach. Under the powers granted to the state in that act, the state is withdrawing funds from Marshfield for dredging."
'They're taking money from local fire departments for fire suppression equipment. That's inappropriate. The way to build housing in this state looks much more like the housing compact program, which still exists and was a major initiative a decade ago.'
'Here's where I would start: there's 100,000 acres of land that the state owns in metro Boston. The municipalities own another 200,000 acres. In greater Boston, somewhere between 17% and 35% of that land sits vacant.'
'You could build 85,000 units if the state just developed 5% of that vacant land. What the governor should be doing is looking at thousands of acres of vacant land and thinking about how to develop, because there you can move quickly, often in areas where you're not going to get community opposition. I know how to build housing. When we were at the MBTA, we built thousands of units of housing up and down the Red Line.'
Q: You worked on the fiscal side of the T under Governor Baker. You've said the Healey administration is at fault for the T's existing issues — both fiscal and operational. But data from 2024 shows that there have been measurable improvements in the T's service over Healey's tenure. Those are two different stories.
A: 'When Governor Baker asked me to take two years away from the business world to step in and play a leadership role, I agreed to do it. I was charged with [serving on] the Fiscal and Management Control Board to do three things: Get operating expenses under control, get the Green Line Extension back on track, [and] develop and deliver a balanced budget.'
'We did those things. We took out waste and abuse, we streamlined parts of the organization, we rebid contracts, and when we were done, we had the lowest operating expenses in the history of the T. That shows you what's possible in terms of reforming government, when you bring a businessman sort of mindset, an outsider perspective, and a Marines determination to the job.
'What I would tell you is that Governor Healey has never delivered a balanced budget for the T. Today, the T takes a billion dollars more to run than it did six years ago, and the T's costs in almost every area have grown rapidly. What I've seen in the fast past few years is unrestrained cost growth.'
'I think that if the T does not get its cost growth under control, the T will not be fiscally sustainable for the long term. There's a pretty good debate going on at the State House as to whether the T deserves an incremental $500 million. What I would counsel leaders to do is get focused on cost control and get focused on making sure the T is run in a way that's fiscally sustainable.'
Q: The feds found that there weren't enough T workers around the time it was running fiscally soundly. You need to run a fiscally sound transit system, but you need to invest in it enough to have a strong workforce there to run it safely. How do you manage those aspects, as they weren't all happening together when you worked there?
A: 'Under Maura Healey in 2024, the T had more derailments than any transit in the country, number one in derailments by a factor of four. I would put that question back to the team there, as to what they are doing to get serious about safety and serious about derailments.'
Q: Let's talk about education. Are there any aspects of the state's education system you're most focused on?
A: 'I think some of the things going on in this state with vocational schools is really exciting. I think we've got to be creative and bold. The number-one thing we've got to do is return money back to cities and towns through Chapter 70 local aid.'
When I look at what Governor Healey is spending on the migrant crisis, that's over a billion dollars a year that could be returned to cities and towns. You could give every city and town $7 million to $10 million dollars, which they could put into their local schools.
'Most of education policy is happening at the local level. Many cities and towns are looking at flat funding for Chapter 70 this year. The state should be pushing as much money down to those cities and towns as they can to help them build great schools. But that means we've got to get serious about reducing our spend on the migrant crisis, about the broad size of state government.'
'The local teachers, the local police, the local fire — that's where services are delivered. I would advocate for as much choice for parents as we can [give], to give parents good alternatives, because I think parents always know best."
Q: Vocational and technical school admissions policy is a big conversation right now. What are your thoughts?
A: 'I think we just need more of those schools. Everywhere where they build really good vocational schools, there's tremendous demand, so let's just start with that. That's where I would focus, is really on the supply side of the equation.'
'It's clear people vote with their feet, right? There are 500 people a week leaving Massachusetts. They're voting with their feet. Parents vote with their feet when it comes to schools, and when you see the demand for vocational schools, that's parents and families voting with their feet saying, 'We want more of that.''
Q: You're vocal about supporting local law enforcement being able to cooperate with federal immigration agents.
A: 'Governor Shortsleeve day one: The State Police would cooperate with ICE to deport people with criminal records. That's critically important. I also think that the financial side of this crisis is enormous. You're looking at just over the first nine months of this fiscal year, a run rate spend of over a billion dollars.'
'In cumulative total since January 2023, the state has probably spent $2 billion to $3 billion on this. That's money I think would be much better spent on Massachusetts citizens, much better spent on local schools, much better spent on reducing the tax burden, making the state more affordable.'
Q: You're supportive of federal agents coming in and arresting and detaining criminals. ICE agents have reportedly been taking people who weren't initially targets and who are not criminals, but are undocumented. A lot of immigrant communities are very fearful. They're not going to work, they're not going to school. Immigrants are a big part of the Massachusetts economy. How do you approach those situations?
A: 'We've always had a vibrant immigrant community here. Massachusetts needs it. It grows our economy. But people need to be here legally. They need to come here legally. So I would support deporting convicted criminals.'
'I would support doing universal background checks in the shelters — Healey does CORI checks, which don't help you much, because that's Massachusetts only."
'So day one, universal background checks. But most importantly, I think we've got to focus on solving the problem: That our sanctuary city policies and our right-to-shelter law have made this state a magnet for illegal immigrants, and it's costing the state billions of dollars.'
Q: Agents are coming in and taking people who are undocumented but are NOT criminals. Are you supportive of that?
A: 'I think people should get due process. And from what I read, I see due process playing out. But look, I'm running for governor, I'm not running for president, and I'm not running to be the arbiter on these things. I'm focused on Massachusetts. Maura Healey is going to run against Trump.'
'I'm running for the people of Massachusetts. That's what I care about. Governor Healey loves talking about all the problems with the current president. Guess what? She didn't do very well under the previous president, either. Our problems in this state — in terms of private sector job growth, affordability, runaway state spending — are Healey's problems."
Q: You're running in the Republican primary against another former Baker executive, Mike Kennealy. What sets you two apart? Why are you the right Republican to chart this path?
A: 'Our voters want a winner. They want someone who's tough enough to win this race. I'm the candidate that can beat Healey. And I will bring not only a sort of a businessman's mindset and outsider perspective, but I'll bring a Marine's determination to the task.'
'We had a phenomenal first 20 days of fundraising. We raised more than anyone ever has in their first month. Shattered the records. When I'm out with the grassroots, when I'm talking to donors, I think people feel I've got the right profile, I've got the energy, I got the determination, and most importantly, I'm a fighter. It's gonna take a fighter to win this race. It's not going to be an easy race.'
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