“We’re going up in the polls,” Tom Mountain of the Newton Republican Committee said with a smile as he held a parking spot outside of Johnny’s Luncheonette for a special guest Wednesday morning.

That special guest was Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Minogue, who made three stops in Newton on Wednesday: at the Boston Marriott Newton, Johnny’s and later, Cabot’s in Newtonville.

Minogue is counting on a wave of discontent rippling across the commonwealth, created by a lack of housing options, rising fuel costs and an overall sense of doom in the midst of financial instability and federal government chaos.

Mountain and other local Republicans have been working overtime to get Minogue’s name out to voters. As of Wednesday, Mountain was the only person left with Minogue campaign signs.

“I’ll bring some to Cabot’s,” Mountain told eager supporters looking for signs.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Minogue talks to supporters at Johnny’s Luncheonette in Newton Centre on Oct. 28, 2026. Photo by Bryan McGonigle

Minogue also faces backlash for his support of President Donald Trump. He donated to Trump’s campaign and hosted a party for Vice President JD Vance. He’s said he supports Immigration & Customs Enforcement. He’s criticized Trump’s tariff policy and has called for exemptions to Trump’s tariffs for life sciences and medical device companies like the one Minogue ran a few years ago, but he has said he supports Trump’s broader economic agenda.

Recent polls have Healey with a double-digit lead over Minogue.

But Minogue isn’t talking about Trump on the campaign trail. He’s focusing on affordability and crime. And he said that, despite the state’s heavily Democratic electoral history, if everyone goes out and votes, he can win. He called on young voters to bring friends to the polls to make that happen.

“If you get your friends to come out and vote early, we win in a landslide,” Minogue said at Johnny’s. “Most people between 18 and 40 do not vote. They have good intentions to vote, but on Nov. 3, they’re busy at work. Something happens. They can’t wait in the line. So please make sure that you do that.”

Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Minogue talks to voters at Cabot’s in Newtonville on Oct. 28, 2026. Photo by Bryan McGonigle

He kept that message of electability going at Cabot’s, insisting that “the polls are not real” and urging people to just go vote.

And as utility costs rise, he scoffed at efforts to transition the state away from fossil fuels.

“She’s not representing the people, or else we would already have natural gas pipelines here, and our energy would not be second highest in America,” he said,

Minogue, a Hamilton business owner and “MAGA Republican,” crushed the more moderate former MBTA manager Brian Shortsleeve in the September primary, as Massachusetts Republicans signaled a shift from the likes of Charlie Baker to Donald Trump. Statewide, Minogue won 76 percent of the vote in the GOP primary. In Newton, he won 66 percent.

Early voting ends on Friday. And here’s a primer for Tuesday’s election.

VIDEO: Mike Minogue at Cabot’s