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Editor’s Note: This is the second of two stories on candidates for governor. Read the story on Maura Healey, the Democratic incumbent, here.
In an interview with The Light during a campaign visit to New Bedford, Republican nominee for governor Mike Minogue said he wants people in the state to keep more of their incomes. The former medical industry executive is running against Democratic incumbent Maura Healey, whom he blames for fueling the state’s high cost of living.
“We’ve got to do things different, or we can expect the entrepreneurs and businesses to continue to leave, along with the people,” he said.
Like so many other political campaigns this election season, Minogue’s platform leans heavily into the affordability issues at the top of voters’ minds. Those are longstanding concerns for New Bedford — the buying power of household incomes in the city has stagnated for several years, and one in five city residents lives in poverty, census data shows.
Minogue told The Light he would address those financial woes by cutting taxes, working directly with business owners to create jobs, and rolling back policies designed to reduce the state’s carbon footprint.
Cutting costs and growing businesses
The Republican candidate said he would eliminate “a mandatory climate tax” that he said makes up a third of electricity bills in Massachusetts. While Eversource bills don’t include such a line item, a 2025 report by the Fiscal Alliance Foundation estimated that 29% of the average Massachusetts electricity bill is made up of charges related to renewable energy and efficiency programs.
Minogue has also proposed suspending the state’s gas tax whenever prices reach $4 per gallon. Meanwhile, Healey has proposed a temporary, two-month suspension amid high fuel prices linked to the war in Iran.
The candidate said he would opt the state into a federal school-choice program allowing residents to claim up to $1,700 in federal tax credits by donating to scholarship organizations, which he said could benefit local students.
To spur job growth, Minogue said he would do direct outreach to bring businesses into Massachusetts and keep existing ones from leaving the state.
“I would look at ways of getting them to add people, to add manufacturing, to do more work with suppliers in the area,” he said. “I want to make ‘made in Massachusetts’ the No. 1 focus when I’m meeting with businesses and entrepreneurs.”
Minogue’s blueprint for business recruitment calls for selling and leasing state land, not already set aside for conservation, to businesses concentrating on “manufacturing and investment in high tech, life sciences, defense, energy, and space development.”
This, he hopes, will help to reverse a trend of outmigration that has threatened the state’s economy in recent years.
Rolling back energy efficiency codes for new housing
Communities across Massachusetts are grappling with a housing crisis that’s straining household budgets.
Research has found that New Bedford needs to drastically increase its housing supply to keep up with the region’s growing population and put downward pressure on costs. But the cost of building new units is higher than what developers can expect to collect in rents, and the gap is especially pronounced in New Bedford, where developers often need steep subsidies to make projects work.
Minogue’s housing strategy mainly focuses on the “stretch code,” a set of state rules that communities can opt into that require new construction projects to meet certain energy efficiency requirements. New Bedford has opted in, along with 86% of cities and towns in the state.
Right now, opting into the stretch code makes communities eligible for state grants. Minogue said he would reverse that, instead giving communities financial incentives to opt out.
The candidate said the stretch code adds construction costs, making housing less affordable. Research has found that this can be the case, but it may depend on the project.
A 2025 MIT study found that stretch codes were associated with 4% higher single-family housing prices. Nearly half of the increase in prices comes from higher consumer demand, the researchers found — in other words, lots of people want energy-efficient homes, so the ones meeting the stretch code sold for higher prices. The rest of the 4% increase came from the stretch codes making it more expensive to build, which lowers the supply of housing.
An independent analysis commissioned by the state found that the added costs depend on the type of building, the type of heating system, and which tier of the stretch code the community has opted for. In some cases, it is cheaper to follow the stretch code, the analysis found.
Minogue said he would also give communities incentives if they speed up their permitting process, approving single-family homes in under 45 days.
Reversing Healey’s immigration policies
Minogue criticized Healey’s record on immigration. The governor has called President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown “cruel,” “callous,” and “fundamentally stupid.” Healey has also backed policies that limit the state’s cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and prohibits immigration arrests at certain locations.
“I think the leader of the state, the governor, should lower the temperature and should collaborate with local, state, and federal authorities so that we can make sure that we’re involved in the process, so we can prioritize people that have criminal records,” Minogue said.
Most of the people arrested in recent South Coast ICE raids had no criminal record and many were on their way to work, a Light review of court records found. Minogue said Healey’s refusal to communicate with federal authorities led to the indiscriminate arrests.
Wind, water, and infrastructure
Minogue does not support offshore wind, which he says is “not a good investment of tax dollars.”
The technology costs too much while harming the ocean environment and the fishing industry, he said. Instead, the candidate said he supports investments in natural gas pipelines and nuclear power.
Minogue said he would also seek federal funding to fix the New Bedford State Pier, which needs significant repairs. The lack of docking space is posing a challenge for fishermen.
“The better way to get federal dollars is to work with the federal government, not just sue it or not even speak to them,” he said.
To further support the fishing industry, Minogue said he would seek to get rid of “stupid rules” that strictly limit how many days vessels can spend at sea. The fishing industry is mainly regulated by the federal government through an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The agency’s policies, which are sometimes controversial, seek to prevent overfishing and consolidation of the industry.
The other half of the ticket
Minogue’s running mate happens to be New Bedford City Councilor Shawn Oliver. But he wasn’t Minogue’s first choice.
Oliver originally was running for lieutenant governor on a ticket with Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Shortsleeve, who lost to Minogue in the primary.
The current GOP ticket was formed after two candidates for lieutenant governor, Anne Brensley and Anne Manning Martin, failed to qualify due to signature-gathering problems. Brensley, Minogue’s original running mate, dropped out in May after blaming a signature-gathering firm she had hired for failing to collect enough signatures to make the ballot. She is now the Republican candidate for Secretary of State, after winning the nomination as a write-in.
Oliver filed a complaint against Manning Martin, claiming she had submitted false signatures, and she was disqualified from the ballot, leaving Oliver unopposed in the lieutenant governor primary.
Minogue called Oliver’s actions “shameful” at the time. But the candidates now have a “good” relationship, Minogue said. He added that the two have been coordinating on campaign strategy since forming a ticket.
Email Grace Ferguson at gferguson@newbedfordlight.org.
