Read more in the Boston Globe
Saying Massachusetts “needs a turnaround,” former MBTA executive Brian Shortsleeve launched a Republican bid for governor on Monday, touting his work at the beleaguered transit agency as evidence of the cost-cutting mindset he says he’ll bring to Beacon Hill.
Shortsleeve is the second Republican to launch a challenge of Governor Maura Healey, joining former Baker administration Cabinet member Mike Kennealy. Both Republicans are running for office for the first time. Healey, a first-term Democrat, said in February she will seek reelection.
A venture capitalist and former Marine Corps officer, Shortsleeve pitched himself in a Boston Globe interview and a campaign announcement video as a technocratic conservative who would explore ways to cut spending across state government, the state’s Medicaid program included.
He said he would undo a controversial zoning law, and pursue what he called broad-based tax cuts. Shortsleeve said Massachusetts should also cooperate with federal officials to “deport convicted criminals.”
The 52-year-old Barnstable resident indicated he has little appetite to engage in federal politics. Shortsleeve indirectly said he backed President Trump last year — “I voted the Republican ticket” — but declined to say whether he’d seek better ties to the Trump White House than Healey, who’s increasingly criticized the Republican’s embrace of tariffs and deep cuts to federal funding.
“My focus is on Massachusetts, and I think there’s a lot we can do in this state ourselves to get this state moving again,” Shortsleeve said in an interview in a downtown Boston office building. “Our voters want someone who’s going to take back Beacon Hill.”
The dynamic underscores the balance he, Kennealy, and other Republicans will likely walk in a GOP primary, in which they must woo a party base that supports the president to secure the nomination, while not alienating a wider Massachusetts electorate that largely rejects, or even despises, Trump.
Kennealy, for one, said he did not vote for Trump, but argued voters are more interested in hearing how candidates would chip away at the state’s high cost of living.
For Shortsleeve, his record at the T will also likely loom large in the race. Former governor Charlie Baker tapped Shortsleeve to serve as the T’s chief administrator in 2015, and then a year later, as its general manager. Shortsleeve stepped down in 2017 to serve three years on the T’s board.
As one of its top executives, Shortsleeve wrangled with budget gaps, helped revive the Green Line extension project, and moved to privatize several departments.
The MBTA has been hobbled by a string of problems in the years since, be it serious safety incidents, or issues with the Green Line extension tracks. Lawmakers are debating how to fill a new $700 million budget deficit at a time when Healey’s hand-picked general manager, Phil Eng, has won wide praise for paring back slow zones and restoring confidence in the system.
Just hours after Shortsleeve formally launched his campaign, the state Democratic Party quickly tried to tie him to the system’s woes by labeling him “Slowzone” Shortsleeve. Kennealy’s campaign similarly piled him, charging Shortsleeve “mismanaged the MBTA and left it in just as big a mess as he found it.”
In his campaign video, Shortsleeve said he “turned things around — until Governor Healy took it back and broke the budget all over again.” He later told the Globe he’s “very proud of what we accomplished” at the agency, and questioned whether the T, which has struggled to bring back the number of riders it had before the COVID-19 pandemic, has rebounded as much as Healey and others claim.
“Is the T $700 million better?” he said, referencing the deficit Healey pushed to close with taxpayer funds.
Shortsleeve enters the race with deep ties to Baker and other prominent Republicans. Before Baker tapped him to help lead the T, he worked at the venture capital fund General Catalyst, where Baker once served as “executive in residence.” (Shortsleeve has since cofounded his own firm, M33 Growth, which he said focuses on growing tech companies.)
He met Baker years earlier on Mitt Romney’s gubernatorial campaign, where Shortsleeve served as political director. He later raised money for Baker‘s 2010 and 2014 runs for governor and for Romney’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns. Last presidential cycle, Shortsleeve was an early backer and fund-raiser for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, but has also spread donations to Democrats, including US Representatives Jake Auchincloss and Seth Moulton — both fellow former Marines — and Attorney General Andrea Campbell.
Shortsleeve, a married father of three, has long been viewed as a future candidate for elected office, and has hovered over the governor’s race for months. His early entrance — a GOP primary is still nearly 16 months away — also underscores his need to introduce himself to voters who may not remember among the line of people who’ve been tasked with trying to manage the T.
Shortsleeve also heavily criticized Healey’s handling of the state’s emergency shelter system, where annual costs have ballooned to more than $1 billion under an influx of migrant families.
Healey and lawmakers have also sought to dramatically scale back how many families, while Healey has emphasized that Massachusetts is “not a sanctuary state” — a squishy term that’s become shorthand for those that refuse to cooperate with federal authorities. The state’s highest court ruled in 2017 that under state law, local law enforcement officials cannot hold a person who is wanted solely for immigration violations.
Shortsleeve, conversely, said he would tackle the “migrant crisis and Healey’s sanctuary state policies.” He said the state also has experienced “stagnant private sector growth” in recent years, and promised to focus on cutting people’s energy costs, something Healey, too, has vowed.
Shortsleeve said he wants to repeal the MBTA Communities Act, the controversial zoning law Baker signed and that Shortsleeve dubbed an unfunded mandate that “punishes towns.”
Trump will also likely loom large in any nascent GOP primary. Trump has enjoyed unmoving support among most of the small Republican base that will help decide the Massachusetts GOP primary. But he remains unpopular with the majority of Massachusetts residents, with some going as far in a UMass poll to describe him as “evil.”
Shortsleeve described his vote for Trump as one bound by his support for the party and his broader personal ideals.
“I vote as a Marine first, and a businessman second. I vote to lower taxes. I vote to deregulate the economy and unleash small business. I vote to eliminate waste and abuse. I vote to secure the border,” Shortsleeve said.
“Those are the issues I care about. And there’s some really common sense issues in this state that we should be caring about, right?” he added. “It’s going to be about the pocketbook. It’s going to be about jobs, about affordability.”