Massachusetts primaries divide state and national figures

The Bay State is the only place in the country holding primaries the day after Labor Day, and voting there marks the beginning of the end of the primary season. With intraparty contests in all but a handful of states complete, both parties have begun campaigning across the country with an eye on November, clashing over inflation, crime, abortion rights and the records of President Biden and his predecessor.

In heavily Democratic Massachusetts, the gubernatorial contest is one of Democrats’ best opportunities to flip a GOP-held seat. Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican and Trump critic, declined to seek a third term in office.

On the Democratic side, Maura Healey, the state’s attorney general who has sued the Trump administration nearly 100 times, according to a tally by the Boston Globe, is effectively running for the Democratic nomination uncontested after state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz suspended her campaign.

Healey was first elected to the post in 2014 and became the first openly gay attorney general in the country.

Republicans are expected to have a difficult path to holding the governorship. Their gubernatorial primary is shaping up to be another in a long succession of intraparty contests this year featuring a candidate backed by the 45th president. The contenders include Geoff Diehl, a former state legislator who has echoed Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was “rigged” after initially acknowledging that Biden won.

Diehl has the support of Trump, who joined a tele-rally for him Monday night.

“Geoff is a proven fighter who successfully pushes back on the ultraliberal extremists,” Trump said on behalf of Diehl during the tele-rally. “He’ll rule your state with an iron fist, and he’ll do what has to be done.”

As the GOP Senate nominee in 2018, Diehl lost to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) by 24 percentage points. Trump lost Massachusetts to Biden by more than 33 percentage points.

On Tuesday, Diehl is squaring off against businessman Chris Doughty, a Harvard Business School graduate who is trying to appeal to what he calls the state’s “exhausted middle.” His backing comes from more traditional Republicans such as New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who is arguing that Doughty has the best chance in November.

With none of the state’s all-Democratic congressional delegation facing primary challengers, much of the focus Tuesday is on state races. Another closely watched contest is the Democratic primary for state attorney general, a position that frequently produces candidates for higher office.

In that contest, Warren, along with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and former Boston acting mayor Kim Janey endorsed labor lawyer Shannon Liss-Riordan. She’s running on a long legal career that includes pushing for gig workers to have access to employee protections.

Liss-Riordan — once dubbed “Sledgehammer Shannon” by a party she beat in a legal battle and “an avenging angel for workers” by the Boston Globe — helped advise Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign on labor issues and is a longtime donor to the senator.

She has represented workers in legal battles against Uber, American Airlines and Amazon, and she has also waged local fights on behalf of waitstaff. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

She’s vying against Andrea Campbell, who was the first Black woman to be president of the Boston City Council. Campbell has other prominent names in her corner, including Sen. Edward J. Markey (D) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D), who served with her on the council, and Healey, who appears with her frequently on the campaign trail.

Campbell is emphasizing her personal story on the stump, saying she knows how to turn “pain into purpose.” She grew up in public housing, and her twin brother died while incarcerated.

Longtime Democratic Secretary of State William Galvin faces a primary challenge from Boston NAACP President Tanisha Sullivan. The winner will face Rayla Campbell, who calls herself a “rule-of-law Republican.”

In the race for lieutenant governor, three Democratic candidates are facing off, including Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll, who is favored among many state elected officials and activists. State Rep. Tami Gouveia, the co-leader of the Massachusetts Chapter of the Women’s March, is running on a more liberal platform. Rounding out the ballot is state Sen. Eric Lesser, a onetime low-level aide to President Barack Obama.

On the Republican side for lieutenant governor, the candidates are paired off as ticket-mates with the gubernatorial candidates, even though the offices are elected independently.

Trump-backed Diehl is running with former state representative Leah Cole Allen, who initially left politics to focus on her nursing career. She worked on a covid-19 floor in a hospital during the pandemic and then lost her position because she decided not to get a coronavirus vaccine, which prompted her to turn back to politics. Doughty is teaming up with former state representative Kate Campanale, who became a history teacher after leaving the State House.