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Bristol County Republicans have big plans for 2026.
About 40 party members gathered in a small ballroom at the Whaler Inn and Suites this month for a meeting of New Bedford’s Republican City Committee. It was the group’s second meeting after a 16-year hiatus.
Shawn Oliver, the New Bedford city councilor who is running for lieutenant governor on a ticket with Brian Shortsleeve, chaired the meeting. His most important ask to the crowd: Get your Republican friends to run for office.
“Talk them into it,” he said. “It’s a good time. It’s fun. It really is.”
Republican candidates face long odds elsewhere in deep blue Massachusetts. But in Bristol County, the party has been gaining ground for years — President Donald Trump received 48% of the county’s votes in 2024. Local Republicans want to build on that momentum in state elections this fall.
The party’s goal is to recruit candidates to run in all 19 of the county’s statehouse races. Already, 14 Republicans have announced bids, more than in any year since at least 2012. The slate includes two candidates running against longtime Democratic incumbents who have never faced a Republican challenger.
Bob McConnell, a member of the state Republican committee, is collecting signatures to become the first Republican to run against state Sen. Mark Montigny, first elected in 1992.
“We’ve got to try to get more of our Republican candidates elected to change this one-party rule, which has been disastrous,” McConnell said to the city committee.
Local Republicans say voters are turning to their party because they’re frustrated with the high cost of living. GOP candidates are doubling down on affordability in their campaigns. They’re blaming the Democrats in power for allowing utility bills and local property taxes to rise beyond what many households can afford.
What it means to have a Republican city committee again
The re-establishment of New Bedford’s Republican City Committee in February is a sign of “huge and tremendous growth” for the party, McConnell said. It had been inactive since at least 2010, public filings show.
Jacob Ventura, a New Bedford Republican who informally advises South Coast candidates and has previously run for state and local office, said New Bedford is starting to feel the benefit of having a more organized party.
“It makes it easier to fill a room, to generate buzz,” he said.
Republicans can now raise money for candidates across the city. The committee plans to send 42 delegates to the state Republican convention, where later this month the party will nominate gubernatorial candidates. That’s ”a huge, huge uptick from zero,” Oliver said at the meeting.
It’s a reflection of the area’s changing politics.
Bristol County has historically been one of the most conservative parts of the state, and it’s becoming even more conservative. New Bedford’s steady drift to the right can be seen in its presidential votes over the last decade. Support for President Donald Trump has increased from 33% in 2016 to 38% in 2020 to 45% in 2024. Most of the votes in New Bedford wards 1 and 2 went to the president in the last federal election.
“There’s certainly an upswing in what you would call MAGA,” Ventura said, referencing Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.
While City Council races aren’t explicitly partisan in New Bedford, there are some signs of a rightward shift in city politics. Ward 1 Councilor Leo Choquette left the Democratic Party and registered as a Republican late last year, shortly after Oliver officially joined the GOP. Ventura said he expected at least one more councilor to change ranks “soon.”
Oliver said he’s received lots of messages since the committee was re-established from Republicans who said they’re glad to now have a “safe space” to talk about their beliefs.
Local Republican candidates had nearly identical responses to the question of why voters are turning to the GOP. They say voters want a change in leadership because they’re fed up with how unaffordable life in Massachusetts has become, pointing to skyrocketing energy bills in particular.
“People are done staying quiet,” Oliver said.
The candidates said the state needs to roll back clean energy programs and increase local aid, the portion of the state budget that gets sent to municipalities. The candidates also back an audit of the state Legislature that voters approved in 2024, which legislators have resisted.
It’s a pragmatic message focused on household budgets, steering clear of the nation’s red-hot immigration and culture-war debates.
To address high utility bills, Oliver said the state needs to turn its climate plans into “goals,” rather than “mandates.” Being “cleaner and greener” is good, he said. “It’s the method with which you get there.” He pointed to MassSave, an energy program that utility customers are required to pay into, as a driver of utility bills that the state should cut back.
Oliver said he’s running for lieutenant governor in part because state funding to cities and towns has not kept pace with inflation, putting pressure on local property taxpayers. The Massachusetts Municipal Association says local budgets are reaching a “breaking point.” New Bedford is facing a budget gap of at least $10 million, and Mayor Jon Mitchell has said declining local aid is one reason for the shortfall.
Who’s running
Republicans are running in 13 of the 19 statehouse districts in Bristol County, and the party is working to recruit candidates for the handful of remaining races.
With one contested Republican primary so far, at least 14 people have pulled papers or announced plans to run for the county’s state senate and house seats.
That’s the highest number of Republican candidates in the county since at least 2012, according to data provided by election tracker Ballotpedia. Between seven and 13 Bristol Republicans have run in the last several election cycles, the numbers show.
Candidates still have until April 28 to submit nomination papers, and they have to gather a certain number of signatures to get on the ballot, so the number of candidates could change in the coming weeks.
Two Republicans are running for the 9th Bristol district, an open race now that incumbent Rep. Chris Markey, a Democrat, is running for Bristol County District Attorney. The district covers Dartmouth and parts of New Bedford’s Far North End. Trump prevailed there by 141 votes in the last federal election.
The GOP candidates are Henry Bousquet, a New Bedford teacher who was passed up for a spot on the city’s School Committee earlier this year, and Chester Tam, an IT worker from Dartmouth.
Bousquet said Republicans seem to be gaining support from centrist voters who feel left behind by the Democratic party.
“I think there are lots of people that are just uncomfortable with how far to the left things have gotten,” he said.
Tam said the increasing cost of living was part of his decision to run for the open seat. As he campaigns door-to-door, voters are telling him they can’t keep up with the cost of necessities like utilities and insurance, and a surprising number of them are thinking about moving out of Massachusetts.
“The opportunities I had as a kid, I don’t see those opportunities opening up for my children,” the father of three said. He said is 23-year-old son may have to leave the state to afford the life he wants.
Jesse St. Gelais, who is running for the 8th Bristol district held by Democrat Steven Ouellette, had nearly the same thoughts about his 25-year-old daughter. He said he bought his first home at 21, but she can’t afford to do the same.
Democrats are campaigning on affordability too. But St. Gelais said voters aren’t swayed because they aren’t feeling it personally.
“When you look around, nothing’s getting better,” he said. “Everybody’s hurting around here.”
The 8th Bristol is another seat Republicans may be able to take. In 2024, Trump earned 54% of votes in the district, which covers Westport and parts of Fall River, Acushnet, Freetown, and New Bedford’s Far North End.
St. Gelais first ran for the seat in 2024 as an independent, losing to Ouellette. But Ouellette only won in the five-way race by a plurality, receiving 31% of votes cast. Republican Christopher Thrasher received 30% and St. Gelais received 18%.
So far, this time around, no independents have announced a run for the seat, and St. Gelais is the only Republican who has jumped in the race.
“I identify more with the Republican values — faith, hard work, play by the rules,” St. Gelais said.
For the first time, two long-serving Democrats from New Bedford could face Republicans on this fall’s ballot.
McConnell, the Republican state committeeman, is challenging Montigny, Greater New Bedford’s state senator, who has held influential positions close to Senate leadership. Montigny has faced rare primary challenges since he was first elected in 1992, but never a Republican.
Seyyed “El Cid” Shahrouzi, who moved from Winchester to New Bedford late last year, is the first Republican to challenge Rep. Tony Cabral since the incumbent was elected to the 13th Bristol district in 1990. At the committee meeting, Shahrouzi told a reporter that he was passionate about the district despite his recent residency, and he had a vision for New Bedford’s future.
“This is the center of the universe,” he said.
Democrats hold supermajorities of 131-25 in the Massachusetts House and 35-5 in the Senate. Bristol County’s delegation, while overwhelmingly Democratic, includes a few Republicans in the northern part of the county.
Republicans elsewhere in Bristol County are also challenging Democrats, including Sen. Michael Rodrigues, the powerful chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, as well as Fall River representatives Carole Fiola and Alan Silvia.
Ventura, the informal Republican advisor, said voters want options on their ballots. “The more fundamental issue is just bringing competition back,” he said. “It’s just good for democracy.”
There’s a silver lining even if Republicans don’t win, Oliver said as he urged people at the committee meeting to run for office.
“At the very least, Republican challengers make for better Democrats,” he said.
Email Grace Ferguson at gferguson@newbedfordlight.org
