GOP Digest — September 2, 2026 | Minogue Routs Shortsleeve 72-28 to Set Up Healey Showdown

Wednesday's Republican brief: Massachusetts Republicans hand Mike Minogue a landslide and a cash advantage over Maura Healey, Ed Markey buries a generational-change challenge at 80, the House takes the shutdown weapon off the board before November, and Charlie Kirk's accused assassin is bound over on every count.

Today's Digest

• PRIMARIES — Minogue routs Shortsleeve 72–28 for the Massachusetts GOP nod: Mike Minogue, the former Abiomed president and CEO who poured more than $15 million into his own campaign, closed out the Republican gubernatorial primary Tuesday night with 72 percent to Brian Shortsleeve's 28 percent in unofficial results. Minogue had already dominated April's state party convention, winning support from 70 percent of its 1,800 delegates. Shortsleeve conceded and endorsed him the same night.
• MONEY — The Republican nominee starts the general with more cash than the incumbent: Minogue holds more than $8 million on hand against $6.6 million for Gov. Maura Healey and $527,000 for Shortsleeve, per state campaign-finance filings reported by CommonWealth Beacon. A mid-August University of Massachusetts Amherst/WCVB poll had Healey ahead 53–33 — a gap Minogue can now spend against for two straight months in a state where Republicans claim fewer than 8 percent of registered voters.
• SENATE — John Deaton is the Republican nominee in Massachusetts: Deaton, a Marine veteran and cryptocurrency attorney, advances to the November ballot against Ed Markey. Deaton lost to Sen. Elizabeth Warren by about 20 points in 2024. Massachusetts has not sent a Republican to the Senate since Scott Brown's 2010 special-election win.
• DEM WATCH — Markey, 80, crushes Seth Moulton's pass-the-torch bid 70–30: Moulton, 47, launched last October arguing it was time to pass the torch and lost by roughly 40 points — the second consecutive time Markey has swatted down a younger member of his own delegation, after Joe Kennedy III six years ago. The Boston Globe endorsed Moulton and it did not matter; Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez held off endorsing Markey until the race's final week. Democrats will now carry an 80-year-old Green New Deal author into a midterm they say is about affordability.
• CONGRESS — House clears funding to Dec. 11, taking a shutdown off the pre-election board: The stopgap passed 370–48 on Tuesday and went to President Trump's desk, with 19 Republicans and 29 Democrats voting no. The Senate had already cleared it 90–6 in August. Speaker Mike Johnson moved the bill under suspension, and the lopsided bipartisan margin pushes the appropriations fight past the November midterms into December.
• JUSTICE — Accused Kirk assassin bound over on all seven counts: Fourth District Judge Tony Graf ruled Tuesday that prosecutors had presented sufficient evidence to move the case forward, sending Tyler Robinson, 23, to trial on aggravated murder, a capital offense; felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury; two counts of obstruction of justice; two counts of witness tampering; and committing a violent offense in the presence of a child. Robinson pleaded not guilty to each charge. Utah County prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty.

On the Record

“Hard-working families are falling behind while the political establishment keeps taking care of itself. They’ve built a system that spends more, taxes more, and asks working people to carry more, while their friends and insiders get the breaks. Tonight, we sent a message: those days are over.”

— Mike Minogue, Republican nominee for governor of Massachusetts, in his victory speech Tuesday night