Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll over the weekend tried to paint the two Republicans running for governor in 2026 as faithful to President Donald Trump in their most direct attacks against the pair of conservatives since they jumped into the race earlier this year.
Healey and Driscoll, who both plan to run for reelection next year, excoriated Brian Shortsleeve, a venture capitalist and former MBTA official, and Mike Kennealy, a former cabinet secretary under Gov. Charlie Baker, during the Democratic Convention in Springfield Saturday.
Healey said neither Kennealy nor Shortsleeve “will stand up to Donald Trump.”
“I will,” the first-term Democrat said. “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 local Democrats have used all summer — tie any conservative opponent to Trump and the “Make America Great Again” movement in an attempt to push voters away from the Republican candidates.
Healey has regularly criticized Trump since he took office in January, as the president has cut off funding to myriad areas in Massachusetts like K-12 education, targeted key institutions like Harvard University, and filed a lawsuit against Boston’s immigration policies.
Kennealy said Healey will never take responsibility “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 said in a statement to the Herald.
Shortsleeve said Healey talks about the president because it is easier than “defending her failed records.”
“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 said in a statement to the Herald.
Shortsleeve has said he voted for Trump in last year’s presidential election, and he previously helped Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis raise money for a failed presidential bid. Kennealy blanked the top of the ticket, according to an advisor.
In an April interview with the Herald, Kennealy said Healey’s approach 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 said.
But Healey said the two 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 said.
Driscoll also took swipes at the “deep-pocketed Republicans who want to be governor” — a reference to Kennealy’s pledge to seed his campaign with $2 million and Shortsleeve’s venture capital background. Both have tapped their business connections for campaign cash this year.
“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 said at the Saturday convention.