NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Shawn Oliver, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, suspended his campaign on Sunday after police arrested him following a crash late Saturday night that flipped his SUV into parked cars.
The crash happened around 11:40 p.m. on Dartmouth Street. Police said Oliver’s SUV flipped over and hit multiple parked cars, and five cars were involved in all, two of them heavily damaged, according to CBS News. Oliver was taken to St. Luke’s Hospital and was arrested after police investigated at the scene and at the hospital. He is charged with operating under the influence of liquor, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, a marked lanes violation and speeding. The charges are allegations, and CBS News carries no response from Oliver to them.
The suspension lands just over two weeks before Election Day on Nov. 3. Oliver, who represents Ward 3 on the New Bedford City Council, was running on the Republican ticket with Mike Minogue, the party’s candidate for governor, against incumbent Democrats Maura Healey and Kim Driscoll. What happens to the Republican line on the ballot is unclear, CBS News said.
Minogue moved first. He called for the suspension in a Sunday statement that CBS News reported, and his post on X carried the same words. Minogue said he was “extremely disappointed” and that Oliver was “lucky to be alive and lucky that no one innocent was hurt.” He added that when elected he would “formally ask for his resignation.”
The same post turned to the governor’s race, closing on accountability, which Minogue called “something Massachusetts has not seen from Maura Healey.” A spokesperson for Healey said they had no comment at this time, according to CBS News.
Oliver’s own statement was shorter. He said the election “is too important to be overshadowed by personal matters” and asked that his family’s privacy be respected “during this difficult time.” As CBS News quoted it, the statement does not address the charges. The state Republican Party backed his decision, saying that “lives were put at risk and that is never acceptable.” New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell, a Democrat, called the allegations “deeply concerning.”
What replaces him is a legal question as much as a political one. Under Section 13 of Chapter 53 of the Massachusetts General Laws, a nominee withdraws by a request acknowledged before a notary public and filed within a set window, and Section 14 lets a party fill a vacancy left by a withdrawn nominee, but only after the withdrawal has been filed. Nothing CBS News quoted says whether Oliver has filed such a request, or who the party would pick if he has.
