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Massachusetts Democrats have posted dozens of attack ads about the governor's race. Every one is about Trump. Are they officially out of ideas?

Tuesday, April 28, 2026•
8 min read
MDN Staff
•
Massachusetts Democrats have posted dozens of attack ads about the governor's race. Every one is about Trump. Are they officially out of ideas?

Every single post from @massdems about the governor's race mentions Trump. Not one mentions housing, energy costs, schools, or the budget. The state's own data says everything they won't.

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BOSTON — The Massachusetts Democratic Party has posted more than 20 times on Instagram about the Republican governor's race since December. Every single post mentions Donald Trump. Not one mentions housing, education, the MBTA, or the state budget.
More than twenty posts. One word. Trump.
The posts target the three Republicans who were competing for the GOP nomination — Brian Shortsleeve, Mike Minogue, and Mike Kennealy, who was eliminated at the party convention on April 26. In five months, @massdems has not posted a single piece of content making the case for why Governor Maura Healey deserves reelection. Not one accomplishment. Not one policy win. Just Trump, over and over.
Republican governor candidate Mike Minogue
Republican governor candidate Brian Shortsleeve
GOP governor candidates Mike Minogue (left) and Brian Shortsleeve (right) — the targets of every @massdems attack ad. Neither has been criticized on policy. Only on Trump.
Governor Maura Healey
Governor Maura Healey. Her party has posted dozens of attack ads about Trump. Not one about her own record. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

December through February

It started on December 28 with a graphic titled "Brian Shortsleeve Triples Down on Support of Trump." From there, it never changed.
On January 29 and 30, the party posted back-to-back — first asking whether the three candidates "stand with Massachusetts families or with Trump and ICE," then a follow-up calling their "evasiveness" on Trump self-explanatory.
By February 25, the framing was set: "Try as they might to hide it, but it's crystal-clear: Republicans are working for Trump, not for you."

Debate night: three posts, one message

The party posted three times on March 11, all tied to the GOP gubernatorial debate. One read: "During tonight's GOP debate, you'll hear a bunch of lies from these two. But one thing is clear: at their core, they're both Trump lackeys."
Three posts about a debate. Zero engagement with anything the candidates actually said on stage. The party watched the debate and came away with one takeaway: Trump.

April: 'MAGA Millionaires'

On April 8, the party posted a carousel calling the three candidates "just three out-of-touch Republicans trying to buy the Corner Office from their multi-million dollar homes." It drew 152 likes and 166 comments — by far the most engagement of any post in the series.

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The final stretch came April 25–27 with three more posts. One labeled Minogue and Shortsleeve "MAGA Millionaires." Another introduced all three candidates under the banner: "All three support Donald Trump's agenda that's harming our communities, raising costs, and taking us backwards."
Raising costs. That's rich, coming from the party that raised them.

Voters aren't buying it

Earlier this week, Governor Healey went after the two remaining Republican governor candidates directly — painting them as "the most extreme" candidates, labeling them "MAGA candidates," and declaring them "bad for the people of Massachusetts."
Mass Daily News posted a clip of the remarks across all of our social media platforms. The response was overwhelming — thousands upon thousands of replies, comments, and shares, nearly all saying the same thing: voters aren't falling for it.
Here's a sample:

It's getting worse

If the first dozen posts weren't enough, the pace is accelerating. In the last week alone, @massdems has posted six more times about Trump and the Republican candidates. Six. In one week. The same message, the same graphics, the same playbook — as if saying "MAGA" louder will somehow make voters forget that their heating bill went through the roof.
At this point it's not a strategy. It's an obsession. Massachusetts Democrats have nothing to run on — housing is unaffordable, businesses are fleeing, energy costs are crushing families, construction has collapsed, and 180,000 people have packed up and left. And it's not subjective. By every measurable metric — business formation, energy costs, housing affordability, population loss, construction activity — the Healey era has been a disaster. The numbers are public. The Pioneer Institute published them. The Globe reported on them. The data is not in dispute. What's in dispute is whether posting "MAGA" on Instagram twenty-one times counts as a response.
So instead of defending a record that can't be defended, they post another Instagram graphic about Trump and hope the algorithm does what their policies couldn't.
The state party's Instagram has become a case study in what happens when you've been in power so long that you've run out of accomplishments to point to. When your only message is "the other guys are worse," voters start wondering what exactly you've been doing with the majority you've held for decades.

The real scorecard

While Democrats have been posting about Trump, here's what's been happening in the state they run:
  • Massachusetts has the worst business formation rate in America — dead last, 50th out of 50
  • Every New England state is outgrowing Massachusetts in business formation — the nearest neighbor is doing 15 times better
  • Energy costs are among the highest in the country
  • 180,000 residents have left since 2020
  • Construction has collapsed to its lowest level in decades
More than twenty attack ads. Zero mentions of any of it.
Dozens of posts. One theme. The Massachusetts Democratic Party has not used its official Instagram to highlight a single policy accomplishment, tout a budget win, or make the case for reelection on the merits. The data speaks for itself.

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