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WBUR TODAY OFFERED THIS ARTICLE TODAY....
WHAT HAVE THE OTHER BOOBS DONE?
Mass. is increasingly unaffordable. But not for the GOP hopefuls for governor
For the three Republicans running for Massachusetts governor this year, owning multiple homes in Boston’s tony suburbs, on beachfronts or near ski slopes, is almost a prerequisite for candidacy.
One has a $12 million seaside summer home in Osterville, plus a house in Wellesley and a pied-à-terre on Beacon Street. Another owns several properties in Lexington and a 6,000-square-foot getaway in Maine. The third owns two adjacent homes on big, leafy lakeside properties in South Hamilton and a ski pad in Big Sky, Montana.
Brian Shortsleeve bought his four-bedroom, six-bath Cape Cod home in 2024 for $11.7 million. (Screenshot Google Maps)
The trio of men competing for the Republican Party’s nomination to challenge Gov. Maura Healey in November do not struggle with affordability. Public records show each owns at least one multi-million-dollar home and additional high-end properties that reflect a standard of living far above that of most people in the Bay State.
Massachusetts Democratic Party Chair Steve Kerrigan said the three Republicans’ wealth renders them “entirely out of touch with people's lives and what everyday Bay Staters are going through.”
The candidates disagree.
Throughout this election cycle, each has pledged to make the state more affordable for all residents. But all three live in the upper end of an economy where rents are sky-high and buying a home is impossible for many.
Two of the candidates — Mike Kennealy and Brian Shortsleeve — had successful careers in private equity and venture capital before holding prominent roles in the Baker administration. Mike Minogue made his money as a biotech chief executive.
Both Minogue and Kennealy are pouring millions of dollars of their personal wealth into their gubernatorial campaigns.
All three have hammered Healey this year over the state’s rising cost of living and the struggles residents face to afford rent or a mortgage. They are campaigning on bringing down energy costs, encouraging private sector business growth and cutting taxes — the latter something critics say will mainly help the wealthy.
LEAVE IT TO AMY CARNEVALE TO OFFER AN
INANE COMMENT IN RESPONSE TO SUCH
MASSIVE REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS!
Massachusetts Republican Party Chair Amy Carnevale defended the Republican candidates, noting it’s common for home prices in the state to exceed $1 million.
“Certainly our Republican gubernatorial candidates understand what it means to have to pay taxes, and certainly they've been successful in building and succeeding in business in Massachusetts to the point that they've been able to afford a home,” she said in an interview. “I really wouldn’t read much more into it than that.”
Prior to public service, Kennealy worked for many years at the Boston private equity firm Spectrum Equity, which invests in companies to grow them and sell them at a profit.
The home Mike Kennealy lists as his primary residence in Lexington is nearly 5,000 square feet and recently was valued at more than $3.5 million. He and his wife own at least four other properties in the historic town. (Screenshot Google Maps)
Kennealy and his wife, Trisha Kennealy, own at least four properties in his hometown of Lexington — an entire neighborhood corner of homes worth millions of dollars, minutes away from the town’s famous Revolutionary War-era Battle Green, according to property records.
Lexington officials valued the 4,900-square-foot home Kennealy lists as his primary residence at more than $3.5 million for 2026.
Kennealy’s six-bedroom home in Kennebunk, Maine, is a short walk from the beach. He purchased it for nearly $1.6 million in 2016, and it was last valued at $2.2 million, records show.
Logan Trupiano, communications director for the Kennealy campaign, said Kennealy, a former housing and economic development secretary under Gov. Charlie Baker, connects with struggling residents “because he cares about their needs and wants to serve and he’s proven it.”
“If Maura Healey could make a similar claim, Massachusetts wouldn’t be dead last in job creation, with failing schools and a crushing cost of living,” Trupiano said in a statement.
He said Kennealy left a “successful career in private equity to help turn around Lawrence Public Schools” and to serve as a cabinet secretary and work at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston.
Kennealy has regularly accused Healey of making Massachusetts “one of the least affordable states in the country.”
Minogue, who has donated $12.5 million to his own campaign, is a U.S. Army veteran who went on to become chief executive of Abiomed Inc., a Danvers heart pump maker. The company was sold to Johnson & Johnson in 2022 for $16.6 billion on his watch.
He lives on 14 acres in an 8,200-square-foot home with six bedrooms and a tennis court in South Hamilton, a wealthy town 30 miles northeast of Boston, according to town and state campaign finance records. The home, which is held in a trust, was most recently assessed at $3.5 million.
Mike Minogue's 8,200-square-foot home in South Hamilton has six bedrooms and a tennis court. Its last assessment valued it at $3.5 million. (Screenshot Google Maps)
He also owns a four-bedroom, colonial-style home next door, which was last assessed at more than $1.7 million. And he confirmed he owns a ski home in Big Sky, Montana.
Minogue has made clear during his campaign that he opposes a ballot question this election cycle to institute statewide rent control. Instead, he has said he wants to encourage developers to build more housing by cutting red tape and speeding up permitting.
Minogue said he understands the struggle residents face to pay rent or afford a home.
“I absolutely understand it, because I'm on the other side of it now,” Minogue said in an interview. “West Point and serving in the military, those are hard things to do. And when I got out of the military, I had to struggle, and I had to work hard and save money, and I also went to get my MBA on the weekends. And so these are things that I understand firsthand.”
A spokesperson for Minogue said further details of his finances not already public will be available in financial disclosures this year. To qualify for the ballot, all three Republican candidates must disclose their assets with state officials by early June.
Shortsleeve, another Republican running for governor, is a venture capitalist who co-founded the firm M33 Growth and served as the MBTA's chief administrator from 2015 to 2017 under Baker.
Shortsleeve, who attended Harvard College on a ROTC scholarship, has said families across Massachusetts are being “crushed by the cost of living, the housing crisis, and one of the highest state tax burdens in the country.”
He blames Healey, saying she has “taken billions from struggling taxpayers to provide free housing, free health care, free meals, and free transportation to migrants.” And Beacon Hill has allowed those funds to be diverted, he contends, shifting financial pressure onto cities and towns.
Shortsleeve and his wife, Liz Shortsleeve, have raised their family in Wellesley. But the candidate lists his primary address on campaign finance records as a 9,675-square-foot oceanside home in Osterville, an exclusive Cape Cod village.
Shortsleeve bought the four-bedroom, six-bath home with a long porch overlooking a beach and a dock in 2024 for $11.7 million, according to property records, upgrading from a prior home on the Cape. Back in Wellesley, Shortsleeve’s five-bedroom home was assessed at $2.3 million last year, records show.
Shortsleeve and his wife also own a nearly 2,000-square-foot, three-bedroom apartment in Boston that includes a "luxury" bathroom, according to property and state records. The property was last valued at nearly $3 million.
A spokesperson for Shortsleeve did not comment on the properties, providing instead a statement from Shawn Oliver, a New Bedford city councilor who is running for lieutenant governor alongside Shortsleeve.
“After Brian served in the Marines, he went on to a successful career in business and founded his own company dedicated to helping small businesses grow and thrive,” Oliver said. “He’s not going to apologize for his success.”
Healey, who is running for reelection this year, last owned a home in 2010, when she sold a condo in Brookline for nearly $600,000, according to public records and her campaign.
The governor currently lives in a four-bedroom home in Arlington that is owned by her partner, Joanna Lydgate, according to campaign finance and town records. The home was last assessed at $1.3 million, public records show.
A spokesperson for Healey’s campaign said the governor does not currently own any other property.
Related:
- Here's who's running for Mass. governor in 2026
- We asked, they answered: GOP gubernatorial candidate Mike Kennealy
- We asked, they answered: GOP gubernatorial candidate Mike Minogue
- We asked, they answered: GOP gubernatorial candidate Brian Shortsleeve
Chris Van Buskirk is the state politics reporter at WBUR.
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