Massachusetts Republicans overwhelming endorsed a Trump-backed conservative for governor at the Massachusetts GOP convention in Springfield on Saturday. Speakers leaned heavily into national themes and culture war debates, railing against abortion, characterizing Democrats as “evil” and issuing vague yet vulgar warnings about the state of education.
Geoff Diehl, a former Whitman state lawmaker who’s trumpeted Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged, received 71% of the 1,194 votes cast by party delegates winning the party’s endorsement for governor. Diehl far outpaced Chris Doughty, a Wrentham business owner who cleared the 15% threshold to appear on the Sept. 6 ballot.
Diehl pitched himself as the progressive Democrats “worst nightmare” promising to hire back state workers fired by the Baker administration because they refused to be vaccinated and to dispatch the National Guard to the southern border “to stop the lawlessness”. Diehl and other statewide Republican candidates promised to be bulwarks against what he called the threat of critical race theory.
Governor Charlie Baker and Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito did not attended the convention. The overwhelming support for Diehl marks a drastic departure for a party that since 2010 had turned to Baker as its standard bearer in a sign of intense friction between Bakers and the party’s conservative leadership.
- Speaker Thomas Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement who Trump named his “border czar” in 2019, spoke for more than an hour, leading the crowd in a “Trump! Trump! Trump!” chant after he finished.
- Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, a Diehl adviser, weaved throughout the crowd.
- David Beriet, the former leader of 40 Days of Life, an antiabortion group addressed the crowd. The party’s platform in the past frowned on abortion.
- Jim Lyons told the delegates “We don’t get our rights from Beacon Hill. We don’t get our rights from Washington. We get our rights from God. It’s time Democrats realize this.”
- Rayla Campbell, the party’s candidate for Secretary of State, charged that Republicans “watched our elections be stolen” and vowed that a “red tsunami … is brewing” in this year’s election, using biblical terms to describe Democrats. “We are going to crush and destroy these rotten devils that call themselves Democrats!” “This is a battle of good versus evil.”
- Chris Doughty, to light applause and some booing drew on his experience as a business owner and promises to create jobs and his role as a grandfather in promises to root out “indoctrination” in schools. He received 29% of the delegate votes.
- Leah Allen and Kate Campanale – Diehl’s and Doughty’s hand-picked running mates, respectively – vied for party endorsement for lieutenant governor. Allen received 70% of votes.
- Jay McMahon, a Buzzards Bay lawyer is running for attorney general for the second consecutive time.
- Anthony Amore, from Winchester, is running for state auditor for the second time.
- No Republican is running for state treasurer.
- Byron Donalds, a conservative Florida US Rep who was endorsed by Trump was the keynote speaker. He urged activists to be “more active” to help begin cutting into Democrat control. He trained his sights lowers than turning the “deep sea blue” state red. “Let’s just get to, like, purple”
Boston Globe – May 22