To MAGA or to not MAGA?
Massachusetts Republicans face that query forward of the 2026 election.
And whether or not or to not embrace, and even tacitly acknowledge, President Donald Trump is inflicting main division this 12 months within the native Republican social gathering.
Debates are raging between conservative influencers and pundits on social media whereas political strategists are weighing whether or not and the way their purchasers ought to handle a president whose actions generate polarizing reactions all throughout america.
Certainly, Mike Kennealy, a former secretary below Gov. Charlie Baker who’s working for governor as a Republican, has confronted backlash for telling an area Republican city committee earlier this 12 months that he didn’t vote for Trump or Kamala Harris in 2024.
However on the flip facet, he was rapidly labeled “MAGA Mike Kennealy” by the Massachusetts Democratic Occasion as a part of a method to tie any Republican working for workplace in 2026 to the president within the hopes that left-leaning unbiased voters will stroll away from them.
Contained in the Massachusetts Republican Occasion, voters are arguing about simply how shut they need their candidate to be to Trump. Some say that Republicans working for workplace should a minimum of acknowledge what they contemplate to be accomplishments by the Trump administration this 12 months.
Others counter that sidestepping Trump — or ignoring him utterly — is the one means to attract in unenrolled voters who’re no followers of Trump however are additionally not proud of Democrats’ iron-clad grip on the Legislature, Congressional seats, and constitutional workplaces in Massachusetts.
John Deaton, who ran final 12 months as a Republican in opposition to U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, stated there are numerous average Democrats who really feel disenfranchised in Massachusetts as a result of the social gathering is “too far left.”
Republicans, he stated, ought to be working to persuade them to vote for his or her candidates.
Deaton confronted pushback throughout his marketing campaign final 12 months for holding some stances that the best wing of the Republican Occasion disliked. He additionally admitted in the course of the course of his run in opposition to Warren that he has “never been a Trump voter.”
However he nonetheless considers himself a “center-right person.”
“We live in Massachusetts, and are you really going to take the position that because you think I’m not conservative enough, that there’s no difference between me and Ed Markey or me and Elizabeth Warren? That is a foolish, quite frankly idiotic position to take,” Deaton advised the Herald in an interview this previous week.
Deaton earned 40% of the three.5 million votes solid in his race in opposition to Warren, or 114,137 greater than Trump earned in his matchup in opposition to former Vice President Kamala Harris, in keeping with licensed election knowledge from Secretary of State William Galvin’s workplace.
Republicans who need candidates to acknowledge or additional embrace Trump’s ideology usually level to the features that he made in Massachusetts final 12 months in comparison with his election in 2020.
He gained 87 cities and cities within the state final 12 months, together with 33 that had gone for President Joe Biden in 2020.
However conservative candidates in Massachusetts, particularly these working for governor or different statewide workplaces, are anticipated to face a troublesome street.
The Trump issue poses just one hurdle — political hopefuls are additionally coping with fundraising and identify recognition challenges, in keeping with consultants who beforehand spoke to the Herald.
Wendy Wakeman, a veteran Republican political strategist, stated she agrees that the “never Trumpers” and the “MAGA MAGAs” of the Massachusetts Republican Occasion must unify.
She additionally stated a candidate doesn’t essentially must swear loyalty to Trump, however they need to have the ability to discuss him with out worry.
“They tend to pull us apart, and that’s not good,” she stated of the 2 wings of the MassGOP. “… I’m not saying that you have to be a Trump loyalist in order to carry the banner for our party in 2026, but you must be able to acknowledge that the national Republican leader of the party is doing a heck of a job.”
Deaton, who’s weighing one other problem to U.S. Sen. Ed Markey in 2026, stated a Republican candidate mustn’t run in opposition to Trump however ought to run on the identical ideas because the president.
“Here in Massachusetts, you have to thread the needle,” he stated.
Employees Photograph By Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald
Candidate for Governor Mike Kennealy chats with the Boston Herald final month. (Employees Photograph By Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)
Nancy Lane/Boston Herald
Boston, MA – Republican candidate for U.S. Senate John Deaton talking throughout his marketing campaign to unseat Sen. Elizabeth Warren final 12 months. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)
