We asked, they answered: GOP gubernatorial candidate Brian Shortsleeve

The election for governor of Massachusetts is months away, but the primary race to determine who will challenge Gov. Maura Healey is already heating up. Three well-funded Republicans are on the trail to secure their party's nomination.

Brian Shortsleeve, a venture capitalist and MBTA official under former Gov. Charlie Baker, jumped into the contest in May with a pledge to “restore common sense to the commonwealth.” He has raised more than $1 million and spent over $435,000 on his campaign through October, state records show.

The 53-year-old Marine Corps veteran has focused his early messaging on immigration, the growing state budget and adding private sector jobs in Massachusetts.

WBUR sat down with Shortsleeve to discuss his plan to best two Republican primary opponents and take on Healey, as well as President Trump’s efforts to cut federal funding in Massachusetts, increase immigration enforcement here and attack local universities. The conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

You’ve made immigration one of your central planks. But the influx of migrants and the “shelter crisis” have subsided. We’ve now transitioned into national conversations around the role of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Do you still see immigration as an effective talking point for Republicans?

Shortsleeve: "Well, look, it's all about dollars and cents. We sit here in October of 2025, Maura Healey has been in office for three years, and we are still spending $3 million a day on the migrant shelter programs. That's a billion-dollar run rate on migrant hotels.

"Gov. Healey has now moved over 9,000 families into the HomeBase program, which is effectively free apartment rental vouchers. That's a program that was a $20 million a year program a year ago; it's now $100 million run rate.

"I think that's a slap in the face to hard-working taxpayers. I think it's a slap in the face to hard-working Massachusetts residents who are trying to pay their taxes, pay their utility bills, keep their head above water."

(The Healey administration closed all emergency shelter hotels and motels earlier this year. The state spent just over $109 million on the program and related services in fiscal 2026, from July through mid-October.)

The image from last year was hotel and motel shelters. The state was spending a lot of money. The image we’re now seeing is ICE agents in masks arresting people. Do you still think this topic connects and resonates with voters?

Shortsleeve: "Look, it's a huge spend, and at the end of the day, we've got to get state spending under control. Our state budget has grown by 50% in six years. Our population has not grown by 50%. In fact, we’ve got 500 taxpayers a week leaving the state.

"Under Maura Healey, spending is completely out of control … she's added over $10 billion in annual spending. A billion dollars of that is on the migrant programs. Another $1.2 billion of that is on a bloated state payroll that continues to grow. So when I look at Maura Healey's management of the state, I think it is a record of complete mismanagement fiscally."

(The fiscal 2024 budget Healey signed in August 2023 clocked in at $56 billion. She signed a nearly $58 billion fiscal 2025 budget in July 2024 and approved a $61 billion fiscal 2026 budget in July. Former Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, signed his first $38 billion budget in July 2015. The last budget he signed while in office in July 2022 ran more than $52 billion.) 

Beating Healey will be difficult. She's an incumbent Democrat with a lot of money who is also popular. If you make it through the Republican primary in September, describe your path to victory in the November general election.

Shortsleeve: "Look, Massachusetts works better with balance. Five of our last seven governors have been what I would call business-oriented Republican governors. This state benefits when there are two teams in the field.

"So when I'm out there traveling around the state and I'm talking to independent voters, I think independent voters are fed up. I think they are looking for someone who will come in and will bring balance.

"A Republican governor in the corner office balances the worst instinct of a supermajority Democrat Legislature. A businessman in the corner office who spent his life building companies and living in the private sector will get our economy moving again.

"What you see with Healy and [Lt. Gov. Kim] Driscoll are career politicians who've never built businesses, they've never lived in the private sector, and as a result, the policies that they are pushing are higher taxes and more spending."

(Healey spent seven years as an attorney at WilmerHale, a private law firm, in the early part of her career. Kim Driscoll’s resume says she spent a “few years in private practice” before working for local government.)

Your donors must also put this question to you. Is the answer that you are going to really focus on those independent voters and try to bring in that base? 

Shortsleeve: "At the end of the day, Massachusetts today is two-thirds independent. That is what drives the state. I think this is going to be a real change election.

"Back in 1990, when [former Republican Gov.] Bill Weld was elected, in that year running up to the election, things in Massachusetts were not going in the right direction, and by Election Day of 1990, voters were fed up. They'd had it.

"When I'm traveling around the state, I feel that energy. I think people want change."

We’ve seen more targeted moves toward Massachusetts from the White House. Do you think President Trump is making the correct decisions?

Shortsleeve: "I think Maura Healey has put a target on our back. I think [Boston Mayor] Michelle Wu has put a target on our back. If I was governor, I would fly to Washington, D.C., and I would cut deals with this president, whether it's the Cape Cod bridges or it's state and local funding. I would be at the table.

"We have a governor that just wants to do political grandstanding to her national audience. She has national ambitions. She continues to poke the president in the eye. I don't think that's good for Massachusetts.

"Five of our last seven governors have been what I would call business-oriented Republican governors. This state benefits when there are two teams in the field."

"And by the way, there's plenty of Democratic governors that have found ways to deliver for their state.

"Look at Gretchen Whitmer from Michigan. She had an Air Force base she wanted to protect, and she had a Michigan auto industry she wanted to protect. She went to the White House three times, and she fought for Michigan. And by the way, she's no fan of this president."

It seems that you think some of the blame, if not most of it, should go to the governor and the mayor of Boston. But at what point — the Cape Cod bridges are a great example — at what point is something like this unacceptable? At what point is the blame to be put on the president?

Shortsleeve: "But I don't think that Gov. Healey advocates effectively for our state. I think she's making things worse, not better. And by the way, I would tell you that the most important problems facing Massachusetts right now: Our taxes are too high, our fees are too high, our utility bills are too high.

"We are driving businesses out of the state. Those are things we can control."

(Massachusetts has seen economic growth and a steady employment rate this year. But local business owners have repeatedly reported low business confidence in 2025, according to an index by the Associated Industries of Massachusetts.)  

Just to be clear, there is no blame to be put on the president for his targeted attacks on Massachusetts?

Shortsleeve: "I guess what I’m telling you is, if I was governor, I think we’d be having a very different conversation right now.

"And what I see right now, is this state is a target of the federal administration, and if we had a governor that would get on an airplane and get down to Washington, D.C., and sit down with this president and do a deal, I think we'd all be a lot better off.

"But I don't see it. I don't see her leadership. Leadership means taking decisive action to solve problems. I'm a Marine. I understand what leadership is. Leadership is not press conferences and tweets and rallies. It's taking decisive action. Maura Healey could do that right now.

"She could get an airplane, she could fly to D.C., and she could cut a deal on some of these critical issues, and I'd be cheering for her to do it. We all would. We love Massachusetts."