Washington – Candidate Geoff Diehl, supported by former United States President Donald Trump (2017-2021), won the Republican Party primaries on Tuesday for the elections for governor of the state of Massachusetts next November.
This year’s Republican primaries have become a thermometer to measure the influence of Trump, who remains the most visible face of the party but has not yet announced whether he will repeat as a presidential candidate in 2024.
According to US media projections, Diehl won with about 56% of the vote compared to 43% for Chris Doughty, considered a more moderate candidate.
The candidate supported by Trump has opposed the restrictions due to the covid-19 pandemic and has celebrated the Supreme Court ruling that last June struck down the constitutional right to abortion at the federal level.
Diehl will face Maura Healey next November, winner of Tuesday’s Democratic primary, who aspires to be the state’s first openly gay female governor.
Massachusetts, where the city of Boston is located, has been governed since 2015 by Republican Charlie Baker.
However, the president of the United States, Democrat Joe Biden, won the 2020 elections against Trump in this east coast state.
Both Biden and Trump have been personally involved in the mid-term elections on November 8, when the House of Representatives, a third of the Senate and several state positions will be renewed.
Last week, Biden gave a speech in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he accused Trump and his supporters of being a “threat” to democracy as they continue to fail to acknowledge his defeat in the 2020 election.
Trump, in the eye of the hurricane due to the investigation against him for having taken classified documents from the White House, responded days later at a rally also in Pennsylvania by assuring that “the enemy of the state” is Biden.