Mike Minogue, a Republican candidate for governor, pitted 2026 race as a two-person competition between himself and incumbent Gov. Maura Healey.
He joined Boston Public Radio Thursday to share why he thinks that not only should he win the primary on Sept. 1, but also the general election in November.
Minogue won the Massachusetts Republican Party’s endorsement in a landslide in April. Following several forums, he’s declining to debate the other Republican candidate Brian Shortsleeve.
“He doesn’t have an operational — or, the cash on hand to run a campaign,” he said.
The latest campaign finance filings show Shortsleeve has about $600,000 in cash on hand compared to Minogue’s more than $9 million.
“My focus is in the general election,” Minogue said.
“I understand that Democrats want us to fight each other for 12 months and then have two months from the primary to the general election,” he said. “This election is the most important tipping point in our lifetime history because we will not survive four more years of overtaxing, overspending and overregulating from Maura Healey.
“I do want to debate Maura Healey,” he added. “That’s why I issued the request: two debates with Maura Healey.”
Minogue is a husband, father of five, military veteran and he worked on the corporate side of health care for decades. He sold his health care technology company, Abiomed, three years ago, and since then, he has been spending his time with his family and working on his charitable foundation.
He said that it’s newfound time in his schedule that inspired him to look toward making a difference in a bigger way — by running for office.
“While I don’t want to be a politician,” he said, “I am signing on to be a public servant because I think we are going down the wrong path and I want to make Massachusetts the best place to live, work and raise a family the way I have for the last 20 years.”
Minogue is a major donor for the Republican party, putting up hundreds of thousands of dollars toward President Donald Trump and other Republican campaigns.
When asked if he supported the president, he replied, “I don’t know the president, but I am a Republican. And as a Republican, I supported the party. That election happened and the voters had their say. I’m only focused right now on running for governor for Massachusetts.”
Minogue said that the state governor shouldn’t worry about national politics, only what impacts the people in this state.
“Two years into the next term, there will be a new president. Whether that president is a Republican or a Democrat, I think it’s refreshing that we are going to have a governor who cares what’s best for our people, and our entrepreneurs and its business,” he said. “That’s the kind of governor I will be, and that’s the most important thing. I don’t think that governors should be party politics above people.”
Minogue also shared his point of view on a host of other hot-button issues. He said that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election — not Trump, as the current president has repeatedly claimed. He is personally pro-abortion but said he will support the Massachusetts law and the FDA approval of abortion medications.
Minogue also focused on another issue that’s important to many Massachusetts Republicans: the state auditor’s efforts to audit the Legislature. He strongly supports the initiative.
Earlier this year, he offered to pay for attorneys for Auditor Diana DiZoglio in her legal fight to get records from the state’s top lawmakers.
As Minogue reminded listeners, 72% of voters supported a ballot initiative in 2024 that would allow the state auditor to audit the Legislature.
He added that if the people who voted for an audit of the Legislature support him in the upcoming general election, he has no doubt he can win.
“My focus is in the general election,” he said. “I have more cash on hand than Maura Healey, and I’m going to win because 2.3 million people voted for the audit — and we need 1.5 million to win.”
