Massachusetts Republicans handed Michael Minogue 75.84 percent of the vote in Tuesday's primary for governor, a 51.67-point win over the candidate the Boston Globe endorsed. The number that should worry them is elsewhere on the same ballot: their party left 143 of the state's 200 legislative seats without a single Republican name on it.
Minogue beat the Globe's pick by better than three to one
Minogue, a former medical device executive from South Hamilton who has never held office, took 192,287 votes to Brian Shortsleeve's 61,268, according to Associated Press tabulation compiled in this results breakdown. That is a margin of 131,019 votes out of 253,555 cast, the widest gap in any contested statewide race on the ballot.
Shortsleeve had the establishment behind him. The Boston Globe editorial board endorsed him five days before the vote, praising him as cut from the same cloth as Charlie Baker and noting that he supports abortion rights. Republican primary voters were not buying it. Minogue had already taken 70 percent at the MassGOP convention in April and used that to justify skipping televised debates, as WBUR reported on election night. Shortsleeve conceded within minutes: "I am proud to fully endorse Mike Minogue to be the next governor of Massachusetts."
| Race | Winner | Runner-up | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Governor, Republican | Michael Minogue, 192,287 (75.84%) | Brian Shortsleeve, 61,268 (24.16%) | 131,019 votes, 51.67 pts |
| U.S. Senate, Democratic | Edward Markey, 572,595 (64.85%) | Seth Moulton, 310,365 (35.15%) | 262,230 votes, 29.70 pts |
Republican turnout went down while Democratic turnout went up 105,000
Secretary of the Commonwealth Bill Galvin projected 800,000 Democratic ballots and 280,000 Republican ballots five days out, up from 777,000 and 275,000 in 2022, and he told reporters plainly that "that's my guess, and it is a guess." Half of that guess was low and half was high.
Democrats cast at least 882,960 votes in their Senate primary, roughly 105,700 more than the 777,226 ballots certified in 2022. Republicans cast 253,555 in the governor's race, about 21,600 short of the 275,188 certified four years ago. Democratic participation beat Galvin's projection by about 10 percent. Republican participation missed it by about 8 percent. In a year when the national mood is supposed to run against the party holding the White House, Massachusetts Republicans produced fewer primary voters than they did for Geoff Diehl.
The Massachusetts State Senate chamber. Twenty-nine of the chamber's 40 districts had no Republican candidate on Tuesday's primary ballot. Photo by Montanabw via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
143 of 200 legislative seats had no Republican on the ballot
The Secretary of the Commonwealth publishes the certified list of who actually qualified for each party's primary ballot. Read the Republican list office by office and the picture is worse than any turnout figure. In the 40-seat state Senate, 29 districts show "No Nominations." In the 160-seat House, 114 do. That is 143 of 200 seats in the Massachusetts General Court where no Republican filed, which means Beacon Hill's Democratic supermajority was mathematically locked in before a single vote was counted.
All 19 House districts in Suffolk County, which covers Boston, Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop, are on that list with zero Republicans. So are six of the eight Governor's Council districts, the body that votes on every judicial nomination in the state. Four of nine U.S. House districts have no Republican candidate for November either.
Official record
2026 Republican State Primary Candidates, Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, William Francis Galvin. View the official candidate list and compare it with the Democratic list.
"Secretary of State: No Nominations. Auditor: No Nominations." · 2026 Republican State Primary Candidates, statewide offices
Two of the seven statewide offices on this November's ballot have no Republican nominee at all. The Secretary of State line recorded 38,834 Republican write-in votes on Tuesday and is still uncalled.
Markey was never in danger, and Moulton gave up a safe seat to find out
Ed Markey, 80 years old and running for a third full term, beat Congressman Seth Moulton 572,595 to 310,365. That is 64.85 percent against 35.15 percent, a 262,230-vote margin. Moulton walked away from a safe seat in the Sixth District to make the run and will hold no office after January. Markey's answer to the age question was one line: "I'm always the youngest guy in the room when it comes to new ideas."
Sen. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, who won renomination Tuesday by 29.70 points at age 80. Official U.S. Senate portrait, U.S. Senate Photographic Studio, public domain.
Every incumbent who drew a challenger survived. Richard Neal, first elected in 1988, had the closest call in the First District at 8.15 points. In the Eighth, Patrick Roath spent more than $1.2 million and won the Globe's endorsement against Stephen Lynch, then lost by 11.39 points. Markey now faces Republican John Deaton, who was unopposed, on November 3.
Nothing is certified, and the recount clock runs out today
Every figure above is an unofficial tabulation. The Secretary's certified results archive contains no September 1, 2026 election, and four races still have no winner: a Suffolk and Middlesex state Senate seat decided by 20 votes, the 9th Bristol House seat by 14, the 1st Franklin House seat with precincts outstanding, and the 1st Bristol and Plymouth Republican Senate primary. Two are inside recount range, and the petition deadline is 3 p.m. Thursday, September 3. That is today.
Minogue starts the general election with a unified party, a self-funded campaign and a mandate from his own voters that few Massachusetts Republicans have ever gotten. He also starts it as the only Republican on the ballot across most of the state. A governor who wins while 143 legislative seats go uncontested has a veto pen and nothing else, facing a legislature that answers to nobody he brought with him. Recruiting candidates for those seats was a job the MassGOP had four years to do, and Galvin's candidate list is the receipt.
Header photo: Massachusetts State House, Boston, by King of Hearts via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
