Meet State Representative candidate Henry Bousquet

Living in New Bedford his whole life, Republican Henry Bousquet said he has “deep ties to the surrounding communities.” Now, he wants to continue serving the South Coast by running for state representative.

Bousquet decided to run because he sees that now is a time of heavy political division, and said people need someone who is thoughtful of relationships and is ready to step up and serve. He is now stable financially and professionally, with his kids mostly out of the house, and feels this is a good time to serve

He said the first role of state representative is to represent the people in the district, listen to what people have to say, go to meetings and get a sense of the issues and challenges for the next five to 10 years. 

Bousquet said he wants to understand the challenges and opportunities in the district, then go to Boston and advocate for solutions and highlight the opportunities. 

Bousquet teaches culinary arts at Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School. In the past, he would often work two jobs. This gives him experience managing people and budgets, as well as building relationships. 

“There’s not any transferable skills between cooking and the State Rep seat. However, the other skills that go into doing what I’ve been doing for the last 25, 30 years like managing people, building relationships, fostering the best of people.” said Bousquet, “I feel like those are all transferable skills.”

Bousquet unsuccessfully ran for Councilor at Large in 2007. Later, he ran for the Ward for 3Z and served for three years, between 2012 and 2016. During this, he got into a situation for taking a town salary and a salary from the municipality. He chose to continue working in both roles, but work for the city for free. 

He describes himself as a “Massachusetts Republican,” someone who is socially liberal but also believes in fiscal responsibility and being middle of the road. He said he feels that people should more or less be able to do what they want if it doesn’t overly impact anyone else. 

He added that Massachusetts used to be a Democratic state, but more voters are unenrolled now than previously. 

He said he would prioritize five issues: putting local families first; public safety; fiscal responsibility; support for local businesses; and education and workforce development. 

“As a city councilor, I was responsive to people’s concerns,” he said. “I was, much to my wife’s chagrin sometimes, a little overly enthusiastic about assisting them.”

Bousquet describes his plans for legislature as “unlegislature.” Rather than proposing laws, he would look at what laws are not being used or enforced, what’s being overly enforced and what should be reversed. He does support the transparency initiative, which would require that the Legislature and Governor’s Office comply with public records law.

He plans to look into the spending and find a way to get more money back into the cities and towns. Bousquet would also look at the budgeting formulas and find ways to get a better rate of return on what is sent to the state. 

He has many ways that he would be available to the community; he has a website, Tiktok account, Facebook page and a phone number that he gives out publicly. 

“If you need your State Representative on your front door, I’ll be that guy,” Bousquet said.

Bousquet asks that voters who are torn between voting for him and Republican Chester Tam consider the diversity of experience he has. He’s been an educator and a leader, and worked with people on both sides of the political spectrum. He also stated that he feels the others running do not have what it takes to handle the role. 

He noted that the state representative often has to take a side, and he plans to take the side that makes the most sense and where the most people win.