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Republican R. Tyler Macallister is challenging U.S. Rep. Bill Keating’s bid for a ninth term in Massachusetts’ 9th Congressional District — setting up a Nov. 3 contest between candidates who disagree on immigration enforcement, the Trump administration, and how to lower the cost of living.
Macallister, 58, a fisherman, business owner and former Mattapoisett Select Board member, said closer cooperation with the Trump administration would help bring federal resources to the district. Keating, 74, argued that Democrats must regain control of the U.S. House to halt the president’s expansion of executive power.
“My first priority in Congress is actually to reestablish a relationship between the state and the federal government,” Macallister told The Light. “It’s very stressed right now.”
“The Republicans have capitulated to Trump,” Keating said. “The House members, the only independent voices, have been defeated or are no longer running. What we don’t need is more Trump in this district.”
A campaign rooted in fishing
Macallister said his decision to run for Congress grew out of concerns about changes he observed during his life on the water. He said he was an unenrolled (independent) voter until last year, but that he decided to run as a Republican because he aligns more with Republican points of view. As examples, he cited his support for gun rights and his opposition to transgender girls participating in girls’ sports and using girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms.
He faulted both parties for political polarization.
“We’ve gone so far left and so far right,” he said. “I mean, the Republicans are just as responsible as a Democrat.”
Macallister grew up on Cape Cod and began commercial fishing at 12, first pursuing striped bass and later bluefin tuna. Now a licensed charter captain who stars in Discovery Channel’s “Harpoon Hunters,” he said he has spent the past decade working with the Commerce Department, NOAA and the Southeast Fisheries Science Center on bluefin management, including international coordination.
Macallister points to his recent fisheries advocacy as an example of the cooperation he wants with Washington.
Last year, Macallister said, he organized a September 2025 roundtable at the New Bedford Port Authority on behalf of the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy. The roundtable addressed President Trump’s August 2025 directive telling federal agencies to change how they approach commercial fishing, seafood trade and fisheries regulation.
“The United States is seriously deficient in supporting its fishing community. We import 90% of the seafood we consume in this country. That needs to change.”
— Republican challenger Tyler Macallister
That roundtable led to a follow-up meeting in Washington focused on domestic seafood production.
“The United States is seriously deficient in supporting its fishing community,” Macallister said, calling for greater federal support for fishing fleets and shoreside processing. “We import 90% of the seafood we consume in this country. That needs to change because we have opportunities domestically with a little support from the USDA, the federal government, SBA to really create opportunities for domestic seafood production.”
Keating’s political career dates to 1976, when, at 23, he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He was first elected to Congress in 2010 after serving in both the Massachusetts House and Senate and as Norfolk County district attorney.
In 2011, he joined the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where he called for halting arms sales to Saudi Arabia in 2018, strengthening sanctions on Russia over COVID-19 misinformation and expediting immigration for Ukrainian refugees after Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Keating’s key votes have included supporting Trump’s impeachment, the DREAM Act, LGBTQ anti-discrimination protections, voting rights, climate-risk disclosures, and gun safety restrictions.
Keating has said his first concern is affordability and that addressing it requires Democrats to regain control of the House.
“Trump has the House and the Senate, and what we don’t need is more cooperation with Trump,” Keating said. “He’s made it clear: He’s deliberately pulling emergency funds from blue states.”
Candidates differ on offshore wind energy
Macallister opposes further offshore wind development. He said he began research in offshore wind development areas in 2021 and has worked on environmental assessments there. By August 2024, he said, he was noticing fewer birds and whales, particularly around Vineyard Wind, and he described the environment there as “relatively sterile.”
“It’s about stopping this before it proliferates any further,” he said.
Research to determine the immediate and long-term impacts of offshore wind on marine life and commercially fished species remain underway, with studies often requiring years of data collection.
Keating strongly disagreed with Macallister’s claims on offshore wind. He said Vineyard Wind would help temper winter price increases, but that the wind projects that would’ve followed Vineyard Wind are now delayed because of President Trump’s policies and positions his opponent supports.
“[Trump] is antithetical to everything in the New Bedford region that’s going forward. He’s hurt us with his policy, which Macallister agrees with,” Keating said.
“In the longer run, our answer is not fossil fuel.”
“Trump has the House and the Senate, and what we don’t need is more cooperation with Trump. He’s made it clear: He’s deliberately pulling emergency funds from blue states.”
— U.S. Rep William Keating
Macallister agrees on that point and favors small modular nuclear reactors as an energy source. He pointed to existing energy infrastructure and grid connections in Sandwich as a potential starting point.
“The thorium reactor technology is not your father and grandfather’s nuclear,” Macallister said. “It’s totally different. It’s very safe and very scalable and very high in base load power capabilities.”
Keating noted that nuclear power is not a new idea.
“I think we will need every aspect of energy,” Keating said. “There would be a place for the appropriate small modular nuclear facilities. But they must incorporate local planning, control, and design.”
Divided on immigration and costs
The candidates differ sharply on immigration enforcement. Macallister said he sees no need to reform U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and defended agents’ use of force.
“These guys are highly trained; they’re just trying to do their job in a very stressful environment,” Macallister said. “If you’re a police officer or an ICE agent, someone tries to run you over with their car, I think it’s justified,” he said, referring to the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis in January. About Alex Pretti, who was not driving a car when immigration agents killed him, he said he doesn’t “have enough details in the background to really comment on” the case.
Keating has been calling for rebuilding the agency for a long time.
“ICE should be structurally taken down and built up for its intended purpose,” Keating said in an interview in August. “It’s lost its purpose. It’s lost its mission.”
Macallister said he favors immigration “the right way,” describing New Bedford as “the beacon of immigration.”
“I talk to many people who have immigrated the right way to this country,” Macallister said. “There is a right way: come through the front door, work hard, get your citizenship that you then pass that benefit off to your children and your grandchildren.”
Macallister suggested that the “right way” to immigrate and legally work was to apply for citizenship before or upon arrival. Under current U.S. law, applying for citizenship is generally possible only after a person has been a lawful permanent resident (green card holder) for five years.
Both candidates identify affordability as a priority. Macallister argues that cheaper energy would reduce costs throughout the economy, including the expense of transporting groceries.
Keating attributed high costs to Trump tariffs, which he said had raised consumer prices. A Democratic-controlled House, he said, could seek to require congressional approval for presidential tariffs and reclaim tariff authority previously delegated to the president.
“Those energy costs this winter, just a few months off, are facing greater cuts,” Keating said. “The price increases because of Donald Trump’s tariffs, and Donald Trump’s war is increasing those costs.”
On housing, Keating emphasized federal grants and efforts to expand the supply of homes. Builders, he said, face rising material costs and labor shortages worsened by the Trump administration’s deportation of immigrant workers.
Macallister identified purchases of single-family homes by large investment companies as a concern. When companies pay “$10,000, $20,000 over market value,” he said, “they just created a new ceiling for the price of that.” Those purchases, he argued, could drive up assessments of nearby homes, leaving homeowners with higher property tax bills.
In Keating’s financial disclosure reports — mandatory filings detailing candidates’ and lawmakers’ reportable personal financial interests — the congressman lists investments valued between approximately $1.75 million and $5.12 million, including joint and spouse-owned holdings, along with pension and IRA distributions.
Macallister initially reported “None disclosed” in every financial schedule in his 2025 and 2026 filings, despite telling The Light that he owns a business and property and receives income. After The Light inquired about those filings, he amended his 2025 report that covers the period from Jan. 1, 2024, through July 6, 2025, disclosing assets valued between $1.08 million and $3.24 million, including fisheries and solar-business interests, along with salary and investment income.
Through Aug. 12, Keating’s campaign reported about $422,000 in receipts and $496,000 in cash on hand, compared with Macallister’s $175,000 and $35,000. PACs and other political committees contributed about $170,000 — 40 percent of Keating’s receipts — compared with about $1,300 for Macallister.
The 9th Congressional District includes New Bedford, the Cape and Islands, and parts of the South Coast and South Shore.
Email Eleonora Bianchi at ebianchi@newbedfordlight.org.
