Republican state Senate candidate Chris Lauzon is running because he doesn’t like the changes he has seen on Cape Cod. “The way things are going, my kids won’t be able to make a future on the Cape unless policies change,” he says.
He is a critic of state policy on housing development, immigration, and energy. Lauzon says he wants to return power to the local level.
“I want to work with local communities on what works best for them — to be an ally for local towns on the state level,” he says.
Lauzon was born and raised in Hyannis and attended Barnstable High School before getting a degree in anthropology at Louisiana State University. “I had dreams of being an archeologist, but that didn’t quite work out,” he says.
He moved back to the Cape and settled into his family’s auto repair business, Alignment Plus, which he now runs. That’s where he met his wife. “She came in for an oil change, and we got married,” he says.
This is Lauzon’s second run against incumbent Julian Cyr, who beat Lauzon in 2022 with 64 percent of the vote. They will face off again on Nov. 5.
Lauzon has not been elected to local or state office before, but he serves on the Marstons Mills Village Association, was appointed to the Barnstable Comprehensive Financial Advisory Committee, and is an elected member of the Barnstable Republican Town Committee.
Lauzon says the lack of affordable housing is the biggest threat to Cape Cod’s future and that the state has been approaching the subject all wrong.
“Statewide policies have not had their intended effects,” Lauzon says. He names Chapter 40B, enacted in 1969 to reduce the regulatory obstacles faced by affordable housing developments. “The whole chapter really needs to be reviewed so we can identify what has worked and what hasn’t worked,” he says. “We are talking 60 years of affordable housing policy, and the problem seems to be worse than ever.”
Lauzon also criticizes the MBTA Communities Act, signed in 2021 by Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, that requires communities near MBTA train stations to allow multi-family housing developments by right. Communities that fail to comply could lose state funding for infrastructure projects.
“I would not punish local communities — I would work to incentivize them to build the housing that works for them,” Lauzon says.
The MBTA law does not directly affect the Cape, but Lauzon says “it is critical moving forward that MBTA service is expanded throughout the state,” including onto Cape Cod.
“I am very much about local control” when it comes to housing, he says. “Each town knows what is best for its own citizens.”
Another abuse of state power, Lauzon says, concerns the 1983 right-to-shelter law, one of the only state laws in the country that guarantees emergency shelter for homeless families. Last summer, Gov. Healey established an emergency shelter assistance program that Lauzon sees as a misapplication of the law. “It’s intended for Massachusetts residents,” Lauzon says.
The influx of migrants “has overwhelmed the system,” he says. “There are people sleeping in the airport, there are people sleeping at MBTA train stations. They’ve taken over community centers.” The state’s other social welfare programs also “make us a magnet for migrants,” Lauzon says.
He’s a critic of the state’s energy efficiency goals, which require a reduction in carbon-dioxide emissions by 2030 and are “not practical” and will do more harm than good, he says.
Lauzon is strongly opposed to offshore wind farms including Vineyard Wind and the eight new leasing areas in the Gulf of Maine. “I’ve been opposed to these projects right from the start,” Lauzon says, citing effects on marine life and potential economic costs.
The turbine blade that broke off the coast of Nantucket while the Vineyard Wind project was being installed is proof of Lauzon’s argument, he says: “Businesses were impacted. People canceled travel plans. We all want cleaner energy, and I’m all for it if makes sense. Offshore wind doesn’t make sense.”
Lauzon says he supports greater transparency on Beacon Hill. Massachusetts is known for having one of the most opaque legislatures in the country, and Lauzon says it is because the Democrats, who control all but four seats in the Senate and 24 seats in the House, have complete control of the legislature. “There is no incentive for the Democratic supermajority to do things with any transparency,” Lauzon says.
He also supports statewide ballot Question 1, which would require the state auditor to conduct regular audits of the legislature. “It would go a long way toward shining a light on what’s going on up there,” Lauzon says.
