Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll over the weekend tried to color the 2 Republicans working for governor in 2026 as devoted to President Donald Trump of their most direct assaults in opposition to the pair of conservatives since they jumped into the race earlier this 12 months.
Healey and Driscoll, who each plan to run for reelection subsequent 12 months, excoriated Brian Shortsleeve, a enterprise capitalist and former MBTA official, and Mike Kennealy, a former cupboard secretary beneath Gov. Charlie Baker, through the Democratic Conference in Springfield Saturday.
Healey mentioned neither Kennealy nor Shortsleeve “will stand up to Donald Trump.”
“I will,” the first-term Democrat mentioned. “If you’re not willing to stand up to Donald Trump, heck, if you’re not able to say it’s wrong to take food from babies, it’s wrong to fire veterans, it’s wrong to defund public education, if you won’t so much as lift a finger or utter a word to protect people’s health care, then you should never be governor of this great commonwealth.”
The governor was drawing on a playbook that native Democrats have used all summer season — tie any conservative opponent to Trump and the “Make America Great Again” motion in an try and push voters away from the Republican candidates.
Healey has repeatedly criticized Trump since he took workplace in January, because the president has minimize off funding to myriad areas in Massachusetts like Ok-12 schooling, focused key establishments like Harvard College, and filed a lawsuit in opposition to Boston’s immigration insurance policies.
Kennealy mentioned Healey won’t ever take accountability “for her record making Massachusetts the least affordable state in the nation, creating the least competitive economy in the country, sky high energy costs, or her tolerance and negligence of the appalling crimes in migrant shelters.”
“It’s no surprise her campaign will center around deflecting attention towards national politics,” the Lexington Republican mentioned in a press release to the Herald.
Shortsleeve mentioned Healey talks in regards to the president as a result of it’s simpler than “defending her failed policies.”
“But it’s not the president’s fault the people of Massachusetts are paying some of the nation’s highest electricity rates, highest housing costs, highest taxes, all while Maura Healey is giving away free housing for migrants, free phone calls for convicts, and free needles for addicts. That’s Maura Healey’s record, and those are Maura Healey’s priorities,” Shortsleeve mentioned in a press release to the Herald.
Shortsleeve has mentioned he voted for Trump in final 12 months’s presidential election, and he beforehand helped Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis elevate cash for a failed presidential bid. Kennealy blanked the highest of the ticket, in response to an advisor.
In an April interview with the Herald, Kennealy mentioned Healey’s strategy to Trump is “to oppose” him.
“My approach will be to want to work with the president, because I think a governor has to work with the president to get things done for their state. So there will be a difference of approach in that regard,” Kennealy mentioned.
However Healey mentioned the 2 Republicans are “afraid to stand up to Donald Trump.”
“If they’re afraid to stand up to Trump, that means they won’t be standing up for you,” Healey mentioned.
Driscoll additionally took swipes on the “deep-pocketed Republicans who want to be governor” — a reference to Kennealy’s pledge to seed his marketing campaign with $2 million and Shortsleeve’s enterprise capital background. Each have tapped their enterprise connections for marketing campaign money this 12 months.
“Just look at what they’ve already done or refused to do when they had the chance to stand up to Trump’s costly tariffs; they stayed silent. His devastating cuts to Medicaid and anti-hunger programs. Silent again. On Maura’s plan to protect people’s vaccines against Robert Kennedy’s craziness, crickets. They were nowhere to be found,” Driscoll mentioned on the Saturday conference.
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