Jon Fetherston, a former emergency shelter director and Ashland selectman, endorsed Republican candidate for governor Mike Kennealy, a sign that Kennealy’s marketing campaign is seeking to native conservatives who’ve amassed giant followings on social media to spice up their message.
Fetherston’s choice to again Kennealy is the primary official endorsement within the 2026 gubernatorial race and makes clear that Republicans working for greater workplace plan to lean into Gov. Maura Healey’s choice to spend billions on state-run shelters for native households and migrants.
In a video Fetherston was anticipated to submit to social media Friday morning, he pointed to his time as an operations director for Eliot Neighborhood Human Companies working an emergency help shelter in Marlborough.
“I served as the director of one of Maura Healey’s migrant shelters, and I blew the whistle on the atrocities happening on the inside. I witnessed criminal acts with my own eyes. I did everything I could to report them, first to the Healy administration, and then to the public. And what did the governor do? Nothing. Mike Keneally understands the gravity of this crisis,” Fetherston stated within the video.
After a trove of stories had been printed that detailed disturbing incidents inside state shelters, the Healey administration and Beacon Hill lawmakers put in place a sequence of restrictions on who might entry providers and instituted background examine necessities.
Shelter caseloads have steadily dropped this 12 months from a peak in July 2024 partially due to the strict necessities to obtain emergency help advantages. Healey has pledged to shut all inns and motels serving as shelters by the tip of the 12 months.
Kennealy stated he “proudly accepted” Fetherston’s endorsement, calling the previous shelter director a “pivotal figure in exposing the truth behind the state-sponsored humanitarian disaster that continues to unfold in Massachusetts.”
“His courage and relentless advocacy on the migrant crisis are among the key reasons the public is aware of what’s really happening. I am deeply honored to have the endorsement of Jon — a conservative champion and a tireless fighter for the people of Massachusetts,” Kennealy stated in a press release.
Fetherston earned nationwide and worldwide media consideration in 2024 after the Maine Wire, a conservative media outlet, printed incident stories alleging home abuse and baby sexual assault contained in the Marlborough shelter.
The Every day Wire later picked up the story, and Fetherston has since appeared on nationwide media retailers like Fox Information. His X account — “All Politics is Local with Jon Fetherston” — has additionally seen a lift in recognition, based on information he beforehand shared with the Herald.
Fetherston was awarded the Lincoln-Reagan Award Thursday night time, which the Kennealy marketing campaign described because the “highest honor in Massachusetts Republican politics.” An occasion was held on the Lenox Lodge that featured former Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito.
In his endorsement video, Fetherston pointed to Kennealy’s declare that he warned Healey of rising shelter caseloads in 2022.
“I’ve seen firsthand his integrity, his discipline, and his deep commitment to conservative, common-sense values. He’s a fiscal watchdog, a public servant, and a real leader ready to fix what’s broken in Massachusetts. If we want to defeat Maura Healey in 2026, Mike Kennealy is the only candidate that can get it done and actually govern on day one,” Fetherstone stated.
Democrats have slammed Kennealy for what they argued was his failure to reform state-run shelters when he was secretary of housing and financial growth below Baker.
