BOSTON — On a shoestring budget, and with the endorsement of the 45th president, Republican Geoff Diehl sailed to a primary victory Tuesday and on to a November contest with Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey to be governor of Massachusetts.
Diehl joined supporters in Weymouth for a victory party and to celebrate the win over his opponent, self-funded Wrentham businessman Chris Doughty, despite the fact the wealthy manufacturing executive dropped $2.4 million of his own fortune on the race.
Diehl’s campaign managed to win with less than $17,000 in the bank at the end and against an ongoing onslaught of television ads and the recent endorsement of his opponent by conservative radio legend and Herald columnist Howie Carr.
The endorsement of Trump, first announced last October, seems to have been enough to carry former state Rep. Diehl through the primary.
That endorsement was essentially the last voters heard from Trump about the race in Massachusetts until late Monday when the former president held a “tele-rally” for Diehl’s campaign, telling voters Doughty was nothing more than a tool of outgoing Gov. Charlie Baker.
“(Diehl is) the only conservative running for Massachusetts governor,” Trump said Monday night. “Geoff is a proven fighter who successfully pushes back on the liberal extremists.”
Trump’s endorsement of Diehl and outspoken distaste for Baker was enough to leave Baker with little hope of winning a GOP primary, despite generally being seen as a popular governor. Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito announced in December they would not seek reelection to third terms.
The Whitman Republican will have his work cut out for him in the general election. Healey’s war chest approaches $7 million and she hasn’t had to dirty her hands fending off a primary opponent, after state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz announced in June she would stop campaigning.
Diehl’s made a good start with a recent signature drive to add a question to the November ballot, collecting more than 100,000 signatures to ask voters whether they would overturn a new law that will license those without lawful presence in the commonwealth.
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