Marine, Business Leader, Government Reformer Vows To Shake Up Beacon Hill
Boston, MA — Today, Marine Corps Veteran, successful business leader, and proven government reformer Brian Shortsleeve officially launched his campaign for Governor of Massachusetts with a campaign video and website at www.BrianShortsleeve.com.
“I’m a Marine, a business leader, and a proud husband and father of three boys. And now I’m running for Governor because Massachusetts is badly off course,” Shortsleeve said. “Under Maura Healey, we’ve seen reckless spending, skyrocketing living costs, and a government that puts special interests and illegal migrants ahead of working families. Small businesses are closing. Families are leaving. It’s time for no-nonsense leadership to get us back on track.”
Shortsleeve brings a unique background of service, leadership, and results. After serving as a Marine Corps officer on deployments to Bosnia and the Persian Gulf, he built a successful career in the private sector, founding M33 Growth to help small American technology companies grow and create jobs.
In 2015, following the collapse of the MBTA during a winter crisis, Governor Charlie Baker turned to Shortsleeve to help lead the system’s turnaround. As Chief Administrator, Acting General Manager, and a member of the Fiscal and Management Control Board, Shortsleeve led a sweeping reform effort that cut waste, balanced the budget, modernized outdated systems, accelerated repairs, and rescued the Green Line Extension. The Boston Herald credited him with helping turn “a bloated, underperforming agency into one focused on riders, performance, and results.” The Boston Globe called those reforms “the best thing that ever happened to the transit system.”
“Everything is more expensive with Maura Healey in the Corner Office,” Shortsleeve said. “We’ve spent hundreds of millions on emergency housing for migrants, while homeless veterans sleep on the streets. And we’re dead last in job growth nationwide. That’s not leadership—it’s failure.”
Shortsleeve identified several urgent priorities he would seek to address starting on Day 1 in office:
- End the costly migrant crisis and Healey’s sanctuary state policies to restore the rule of law;
- Reduce taxes and fees, including state-mandated utility fees, to make the state affordable again for working people;
- Repeal the MBTA Communities Act, an unfunded mandate that punishes towns and ignores infrastructure limits, and go back to the drawing board to develop a win-win solution to the housing crisis;
- Audit every agency of state government, cut wasteful spending and put government on a real budget.
“On day one, I’ll start putting Massachusetts residents first,” Shortsleeve said. “Because true compassion means no veteran, no single mom, and no child should be pushed aside to serve those who break our laws.”
A proud Massachusetts native, Shortsleeve attended Harvard College on a ROTC scholarship and earned his MBA from Harvard Business School. As a student, he was a leading voice in the effort to protect the ROTC program from efforts by the university to sever ties with the military. He has been named one of the 50 Most Influential People in Boston by the Boston Business Journal and was honored on the Boston Globe’s “Game Changers” list.
Brian and his wife, Liz, have three sons.