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# Mike Minogue Says He Won't Debate Brian Shortsleeve, Focusing On Maura Healey
- URL: https://www.newbostonpost.com/mike-minogue-says-he-wont-debate-brian-shortsleeve-focusing-on-maura-healey/
- Published: 2026-07-16T19:27:22.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-16T19:27:22.000Z
- Description: There will be "no debate" between the Republicans running in the Sept. 1 gubernatorial primary, candidate Mike Minogue declared Thursday on the radio.
- Author: State House News Service
- Tags: News, Politics, #morning-bell, Massachusetts, Maura Healey, #lead, morning-bell, #4

There will be "no debate" between the Republicans running in the Sept. 1 gubernatorial primary, candidate Mike Minogue declared Thursday on the radio.

Minogue won the party's backing at its April convention and has pivoted to the general election, training his attention on incumbent Gov. Maura Healey rather than fellow Republican primary contender Brian Shortsleeve. 

Minogue told GBH Radio's Jim Braude and Margery Eagan that he did 11 side-by-side appearances with other Republican candidates earlier in the campaign calendar. 

"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. And this election is the most important tipping point in our lifetime history," he said. 

Minogue added, "I'm very focused on the general election" and "the answer is, no debate." 

He said Shortsleeve, who has pressed Minogue to debate during the primary contest, "doesn't have an operational or the cash on hand to run a campaign." 

"So my focus is – in the general election, I have more cash on hand than Maura Healey – and I'm going to win because 2.3 million people voted for the \[legislative\] audit \[ballot question\], and we need 1.5 million \[votes for governor\] to win," Minogue said. 

Healey won the 2022 gubernatorial election with about 1.58 million votes.

Shortsleeve responded Thursday that Mingoue's "refusal to debate isn't a strategy. It's a confession that he lacks substance, can't defend his record, and fears being exposed on a stage where I'd eat his lunch." 

Shortsleeve also argued that the lack of debate hurts the Republican Party at large, depriving the party an opportunity to get the party's message out to more voters