Brian Shortsleeve, a enterprise capitalist and former MBTA chief administrator, formally launched his marketing campaign for governor Monday, making the 52-year-old the second Republican to formally leap into the race for the state’s govt workplace forward of the 2026 elections.
The Barnstable resident joins a race that has already began to deal with Gov. Maura Healey’s dealing with of an inflow of migrants to Massachusetts and legislative Democrats’ spending habits on Beacon Hill. However Shortsleeve faces an uphill battle to win the Governor’s Workplace from a well-funded Healey with President Donald Trump within the White Home.
In an announcement video shared with the Herald, Shortsleeve drew closely upon his time with the U.S. Marine Corps, arguing that Massachusetts wants a veteran to chop spending, scale back taxes, and make the state inexpensive for households and companies.
“I’ll restore common sense to the commonwealth and put Massachusetts first. This is our home where we’re raising our boys, and I’m not letting it fall apart without a fight. This isn’t a campaign. It’s a mission for Massachusetts, and I’m ready. You in?” mentioned Shortsleeve, who has three sons together with his spouse, Liz.
The primary-time candidate for elected workplace doesn’t plan to seed his marketing campaign with any of his personal cash on the outset. Healey had practically $3 million in marketing campaign money readily available as of the tip of April, in keeping with state data.
Shortsleeve mentioned he desires to deal with 4 “urgent priorities” on his first day in workplace — the surge of migrants to the state, taxes and costs, repealing a transit-oriented housing regulation, and auditing each state company to chop “wasteful spending.”
He criticized Healey, who mentioned she plans to run for a second time period subsequent yr, for spending “hundreds of millions on migrants while raising taxes on us.”
“It’s no wonder people and businesses are fleeing the state,” he mentioned within the launch video. “This isn’t leadership, it’s insanity, and Massachusetts deserves better. I’ve got my mission as governor on day one, I’ll cut spending. The budget is soaring, up 50% in just six years.”
The Healey administration has spent greater than $735 million this yr on state-run shelters housing migrants and native households. However caseloads have began to fall, and the governor says roughly three-quarters of these in shelter are “longtime Massachusetts families.”
Shortsleeve’s entrance into the race for governor units up the potential for a Republican major during which he may face Mike Kennealy, a 57-year-old Lexington conservative who beforehand served as a cupboard secretary underneath Gov. Charlie Baker and launched his personal bid final month.
In a press release to the Herald, Ben Hincher, Kennealy’s marketing campaign supervisor, mentioned Shortsleeve had an opportunity to steer, however “mismanaged the MBTA and left it in just as big a mess as he found it.”
“Massachusetts needs a manager to clean up Maura Healey’s mess,” Hincher mentioned. “It’s hard to imagine what exactly he’s ‘proud’ of.”
Michael Minogue, a mega-donor to Republican causes, can also be contemplating operating for governor subsequent yr..
Shortsleeve served as chief administrator of the MBTA from July 2015 to July 2017 and was a member of the previous Fiscal Administration and Management Board from July 2017 to July 2020. He additionally served as performing common supervisor of the company.
In an interview with the Herald final week, Shortsleeve touted his time on the transit company, saying Baker referred to as him to assist handle the group’s monetary well being. In his launch video, he mentioned he took on a “mission impossible.”
“A few years ago, the MBTA was falling apart. Gov. Baker called me in. Talk about mission impossible, but I got to work. Cut the waste, balanced the budget, modernized the system. We turned things around, until Gov. Healy took it back and broke the budget all over again,” he mentioned.
The MBTA was the topic of a sequence of high-profile failures that stemmed again to Baker’s time in workplace, together with slim and faulty tracks on the company’s $2.3 billion Inexperienced Line Extension and a month-long shutdown of the Orange Line.
Shortsleeve additionally oversaw one of many early expansions of a contract with CRRC, a Chinese language-owned firm that was employed by the state to provide new Orange and Pink Line automobiles. The deal has confronted a number of delays and is now price greater than $1 billion.
The veteran can also be certain to face criticism from Democrats for serving to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential marketing campaign and backing Trump in final yr’s election.
Shortsleeve held a 2023 fundraiser for DeSantis that helped the unsuccessful presidential candidate elevate greater than $500,000. He was additionally appointed to the DeSantis presidential marketing campaign’s nationwide finance committee.
Within the interview with the Herald final week, Shortsleeve didn’t immediately say why he labored with DeSantis. He as a substitute pointed to his time at Harvard, the place he mentioned he labored with the Florida governor to push the college to maintain its ROTC program.
“I’m very proud to have been a member of the Advocates for Harvard ROTC, which is a group today that still advocates on behalf of ROTC. Gov. DeSantis is a member of that group, and it’s been a great effort,” Shortsleeve mentioned.
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