Given Minogue’s preferred color palette, she may not be alone in wondering. Minogue is vying for the GOP nomination to face Governor Maura Healey in November. But experts in political branding said the Republican’s embrace of a largely blue color scheme — typically signaling Democratic alignment — sends a message, even if it’s not an intentional one, that could make him more appealing to voters in a state that largely elects Democrats.

Ken Cosgrove, a Suffolk University professor who specializes in political branding, said candidates from both parties actually use versions of blue. Democrats, he said, prefer light blue, which stresses reassurance. Republicans tend to lean toward dark blue, which Cosgrove said is supposed to project strength.

Minogue’s color scheme — which draws on both shades heavily — “is straight up trying to be a centrist merger,” he said.

“He’s trying to do both of those things,” Cosgrove said. “… He’s trying to hyper-localize everything and stay away from Trump and the national Republican brand, which is completely toxic to Massachusetts.”

A flag Michael Minogue’s campaign is selling on his campaign website.Mike Minogue campaign

Elizabeth Hopkins, a spokesperson for Minogue, did not make the candidate or anyone from his campaign available for an interview. She also declined to comment on whether the color scheme was a purposeful choice to appeal to Democrats and independent voters.

To be sure, in press releases and statements to the media, Minogue has highlighted his Republican credentials, including endorsements from the state party and Massachusetts’s two Republican National Committee members.

As he makes his pitch to voters, however, he hasn’t always frontloaded party affiliation. His campaign website doesn’t appear to nod to the Republican Party, nor do the various lawn signs or stickers his campaign sells, which could key in voters to his political membership.

That’s in stark contrast to his primary opponent, Brian Shortsleeve, whose campaign signs have a deep red hue and whose website promises to bring “conservative leadership” to Beacon Hill.

The two major parties have long been defined by the opposing color schemes. The term “red states” has become shorthand for those who often elect Republicans, “blue states” for those who pick Democrats. TV networks for years have used color-coded maps to distinguish between which of the parties’ presidential candidates won which states.

Secretary of State William F. Galvin said Thursday that his office, recognizing the popular associations, changed the color code on the state’s primary ballots. Previously, Democratic ballots in Massachusetts were topped with a salmon-colored bar, while Republican ballots had one in blue. This year, they’re reversed, he said.

“They’re actually now more consistent” with the federal brands, he said.

A sweatshirt available from Michael Minogue’s campaign’s online store.Mike Minogue campaign

Minogue was registered as an independent voter for 18 years before enrolling as a Republican roughly five months before launching his campaign. In an interview with WBUR last year, Minogue said he didn’t “identify with a party” but acknowledged that he voted for Trump, whose ticket he backed with a high-dollar fund-raiser in Gloucester in 2024, headlined by now-Vice President JD Vance.

In the video his campaign posted to X on Thursday, after the woman correctly pronounces his name and asks for his party affiliation, Minogue responds: “I’m a American,” before pausing slightly and adding, “that’s running for [the] Republican Party.”

“I’m a business person. I’m a military veteran. And I put America first,” he adds. (The woman then responds that she loved that he said he was an “American first” before his party.)

Minogue overwhelmingly won the state party’s endorsement in April, and in the days afterward, touted the backing of party leaders in an unsuccessful pressure campaign to try to force Shortsleeve to drop out.

He has also donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Republican National Committee and a super PAC that backed Trump’s successful 2024 campaign for the White House, federal records show. And Republican primary voters overwhelmingly identified him as more closely aligned to Trump than Shortsleeve is, a June Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll found.

Trump and his “Make America Great Again” brand are synonymous with the color red, which Minogue’s campaign has small traces of in its campaign merchandise and signs.

But supporters looking to buy Minogue-branded gear are more likely to find a variety of light- and dark-blue hats, accented with white and emblazoned with his name. They can buy dark blue flags. And his campaign shows off stickers and car magnets for purchase by setting them against a dark blue SUV or water bottle.

A car sticker Michael Minogue’s campaign is selling on its website.Mike Minogue campaign

Tobe Berkovitz, a former political media consultant and professor emeritus at Boston University, said Minogue’s merchandise has “a soft look to it — which for a Republican in Massachusetts, is probably pretty important.”

“There’s nothing hardcore [Republican] about any of it,” Berkovitz said.

In conservative-leaning states, Berkovitz said Republicans largely take the opposite approach, dousing their campaigns in red.

“Red meat for the red voters,” he said.

Pat Nestor — a spokesperson for Shortsleeve — said his campaign’s colors are meant to reflect Shortsleeve’s service in the US Marine Corps. His campaign merchandise store largely sells mugs, stickers, and lawn signs bearing his name in red, with gold accents.

Berkovitz said the first thing that came to mind when he saw Shortsleeve’s color scheme was Boston College and the University of Massachusetts.

“Close enough for government work,” he quipped.

Matt Stout of the Globe staff contributed reporting.

Chris Van Buskirk can be reached at chris.vanb@globe.com. Follow him on X @byChrisVan