AMESBURY — Michael Minogue, the wealthy Republican nominee challenging Governor Maura Healey, on Thursday sketched out an array of campaign promises — some specific, some not, and others that would likely run into resistance on Beacon Hill or largely fall outside the scope of the governor’s power.
The so-called blueprint Minogue released in a speech to dozens of supporters at a concrete factory near the New Hampshire border includes pledges to “utilize” an obscure tax cap law that the governor, alone, can’t trigger; to audit the state Legislature, an authority that doesn’t rest with the office; and to use artificial intelligence to help ease the region’s notoriously knotty traffic.
The Republican also built tax-cutting promises into his plan, vowing to enact a “gas tax holiday” when gas prices top $4 per gallon. (The Legislature would have to approve such a move.) He also promised to cancel what he called an “unachievable Net Zero mandate,” referring to a requirement to effectively zero out the state’s emissions by 2050. (Changing that, too, would need legislative approval.)
The event, scheduled more than a week after Minogue won his party’s nomination, functioned as a general election launch for his largely self-funded campaign, in which he’s emphasized working across the aisle and largely distanced himself from the national GOP and its standard-bearer, President Trump.
But in remarks Thursday, Minogue also pitched everything from pursuing mandatory jail time for convictions of violence against law enforcement to other familiar conservative talking points, such as ending “sanctuary state” policies and providing girls “safe and fair sports.”
“I’m going to solve problems. I don’t believe Massachusetts is beyond repair,” he said to a crowd of roughly 100 supporters as heavy vehicles and equipment rolled past.
The general election matchup between Healey and Minogue comes as Massachusetts faces difficult headwinds, from crushing housing and rental costs to one of the nation’s highest costs of living.
Minogue did not offer a detailed plan Thursday to increase housing supply or lower rents, but said he would lease or sell state land not used for conservation to “developers, builders, and companies” with a focus on the high-tech, life sciences, defense, energy, and space sectors.
It’s a plan similar to one Healey has sought, tapping “underutilized” state-owned land to construct new housing units. In a June statement, Healey said the state had “advanced plans” for 5,600 units across nearly 700 acres.
Minogue said selling or leasing state land to businesses focused on manufacturing is the “way we come back.”
“The critical path forward requires entrepreneurs and businesses to stay in Massachusetts and expand operations and manufacturing,” he said. “... We will be again the leaders of manufacturing.”
Minogue is a former Abiomed chief executive who made a small fortune when Johnson & Johnson, in 2022, bought the Danvers-based company for more than $16.6 billion. He has made his private-sector experience central to his pitch to voters.
He also told supporters on Thursday that he wants to pursue a plan to hire 25,000 veterans for private-sector jobs by the end of his first four-year term in office. Minogue, an Army veteran, founded a nonprofit, MedTechVets, which helps veterans find careers in the medical technology industry.
And Minogue also said he would provide “girls fair and safe sports and a right to privacy.”
“I will enforce that,” he said.
Elizabeth Hopkins, a spokesperson for Minogue, did not provide more details, including whether Minogue supports banning transgender people from participating in sports with athletes who do not align with their sex assigned at birth. A Massachusetts state law that protects students from discrimination based on sex includes students based on gender identity.
Hopkins said that Minogue’s “position is one of compassion.”
“He will explore the best way to implement those safety standards,” she said in a statement hours after the event.
At an unrelated campaign event in Boston, Healey tried to tie Trump to Minogue, a tactic she has repeatedly employed this election cycle.
“If he doesn’t explain how he, as governor, would stand up to the damage that Donald Trump is doing to our residents, to our healthcare system, to our economy, that’s not a blueprint,” she told reporters.
A group of Healey supporters stood in front of the concrete factory where Minogue held his event with Healey campaign signs and ones that said, “MAGA Mike Supports ICE.”
Minogue floated other proposals on Thursday that could be difficult, if not impossible, to fulfill without buy-in from the Democratic leaders who control the state Legislature.
That includes a promise to “utilize” an obscure law, known as Chapter 62F, intended to limit state tax revenue growth to the growth of total wages and salaries and return any excess to taxpayers.
The voter-passed law has been triggered only twice in four decades, the last time being in 2022, when it delivered $3 billion back to taxpayers. It is also the subject of a controversial ballot question this November that seeks to rewrite the formula underpinning the statute, effectively making it easier to trigger.
When asked how he would “utilize” the law — which is triggered when collections exceed a certain threshold, not by a gubernatorial decree — Minogue did not offer a clear explanation to reporters. When the state issued refunds in 2022, then-governor Charlie Baker administered the payments through his budget office, but it was former Auditor Suzanne Bump’s office that determined whether collections surpassed the allowable limit.
“That is in the Constitution,” Minogue said.
The provision is considered a general law, not baked into the Massachusetts Constitution.
In another part of his plan, Minogue said he would appoint “strong” members to the state’s Parole Board who prioritize “the safety of our people” and eliminate cashless bail.
But remaking the board as he envisions could be difficult. Any nominees to the Parole Board must first clear the Governor’s Council, an eight-member body of elected officials — it currently features all Democrats — who hold final say over a range of gubernatorial nominations.
Healey herself experienced a rare rebuke from the council when she tried to appoint a former prosecutor to the Parole Board. The council ultimately approved Healey’s second choice, a different former prosecutor, for the post after months of public lobbying.
Minogue said he also would “eliminate” enforcement of the MBTA Communities Act, a transit-focused zoning law that became a contentious flashpoint between municipalities and the Healey administration.
Healey’s housing office drafted and implemented the regulations behind the law and, in some cases, threatened to withhold grant money from communities that did not comply. But Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office has handled legal enforcement of the law.
Minogue said he would “work with everyone to solve problems” when asked how he would make good on campaign pledges that fall outside the scope of the governor’s power or require buy-in from other parts of state government.
“On many of those things, that’s already in the template, and you don’t actually have to get complete buy-in from the Legislature,” he said.
Kelly Garrity of the Globe staff contributed reporting.
Chris Van Buskirk can be reached at chris.vanb@globe.com. Follow him on X @byChrisVan