There is another Republican primary race aide from Massachusetts’ gubernatorial contest worth keeping an eye on over the next year — the battle to find out which conservative will take on U.S. Rep. Bill Keating in 2026 for his South Shore and Cape Cod district.

Pols & Politics logo (Boston Herald)

Top brass at the Massachusetts Republican Party pointed to Keating’s last reelection bid, in which he fended off Manomet’s Dan Sullivan with 56% of the vote, as a good sign. Party officials argued Sullivan’s ability to pull in 46% of ballots cast bodes well for the next election cycle.

MassGOP Chair Amy Carnevale said she is looking “forward to retiring Bill Keating next year.”

“We certainly need the change here in Massachusetts and need checks and balances and two-party government, so we look forward to doing that,” she said at a MassGOP meeting in Canton Thursday night.

Sullivan is running again next year and is set to face Mattapoisett’s Tyler Macallister in the primary election.

At the MassGOP meeting Thursday, Macallister pitched himself as an avid fisherman who understands the struggles of local businesses. The 57-year-old blasted renewable wind energy projects off the coast of Massachusetts for creating a “biological desert.”

“What I’m seeing now is a desert, a biological desert, being created by international companies who are reaping our dollars,” he said.

Macallister said he wants to serve in Congress because the Congressional district has “a lot of coastlines” and a lot of “interaction with the ocean.”

“It’s time that we had more representation at the highest level for the fishery side, but also the environmental side,” he said.

Sullivan stuck to a more traditional Republican line of attack.

He slammed Democrats on Beacon Hill and said President Donald Trump “is not a threat to democracy.”

“He is a threat to bureaucracy. And bureaucracy is not democracy, and a permanent bureaucracy is not public services. That’s an oligarchy,” he said at the MassGOP meeting.

Sullivan, who said he is a registered nurse, also slammed Democrats for being “unwilling” to downsize the federal government.

“What’s the Democrats’ version of the American Dream? Rent an apartment? Okay, rely on the MBTA to get around. No children. Can’t have any children. So the Democrats are campaigning to lower the standard of living,” he said.

Mike Kennealy’s stump speech…

Sullivan and Macallister were not the only candidates to find themselves offering stump speeches in front of a friendly crowd Thursday night.

Mike Kennealy, a Republican hoping to challenge Gov. Maura Healey next year, gave a roughly 10-minute pitch to the Massachusetts Republican State Committee in which he described the 2026 race as a “critical year” for conservatives.

“We got to succeed up and down the ballot — local, state federal races and ballot questions,” he said.

The 57-year-old from Lexington also tried to set himself apart from his competitor Brian Shortsleeve, a venture capitalist and former MBTA official who is also running to take on Healey next year.

“I am the Republican with the rack record, the experience, and the relationships to compete for and win and do the job,” he said. “I am ready to be your governor given my experience in business and local government, in education and state government.”

Kennealy previously served as the state’s secretary of housing and economic development under former Gov. Charlie Baker, a top official at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston, and as an executive in private equity.

He touched on reining in government spending, transparency on Beacon Hill, state-run emergency shelters, and illegal immigration into the United States.

“I will declare on day one that Massachusetts is not a sanctuary state,” he said to a round of applause. “And local, and state, and county law enforcement will work with the feds to get criminals out of our shelters, off our streets, and out of our state.”

Political sign anger in Hyde Park

It’s a free-for-all outside the Fairmont Rest Home in Hyde Park as political signs scream out from all sides of the intersection. “The whole neighborhood is tired of it,” a local resident tells us, adding it has become an “eyesore and a nuisance.”

Election-year lawn signs can be annoying but this has taken that up a few notches. As you can see, everybody is getting in on the action. Maybe the elected officials could dial it back a bit, or it may cost them votes in this neck of the town.

The Herald takes all Pols & Politics tips (actually, any tip) to joed@bostonherald.com. – Joe Dwinell 

MassGOP thinks that Congressman Bill Keating, seen here speaking to the media last year, is vulnerable in the next election. (Photo By Matt Stone/Boston Herald)