Charlie Baker isn’t just handing out endorsements this year — even if it’s a candidate he endorsed in the past.
The Republican governor of Massachusetts would not commit to picking between the two candidates running in a U.S. House race in Massachusetts’s Fourth Congressional District this upcoming November. The winner will succeed U.S. Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III (D-Newton), who unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in the September 1 state primary against incumbent Senator Ed Markey.
This year, the Fourth District race features Republican Julie Hall and Democrat Jake Auchincloss. Hall is a U.S. Air Force veteran and former Attleboro city councilor. She ran for state representative twice in 2018. Auchincloss is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and current Newton city councilor. Hall won her primary against David Rosa this year 63 percent to 37 percent while Auchincloss won a nine-way race with 22.4 percent of the vote.
When asked about who he wants to see win the race during a press conference last week, Baker wouldn’t commit to either the Democrat or to his fellow Republican.
“I certainly know Julie Hall and I know Jake and I would call them both friends,” Baker said Wednesday, September 9. “That’s something we can certainly talk about at some point in time.”
Baker has connections to both candidates.
When Hall ran for state representative in the Second Bristol District in 2018, Baker endorsed her twice: in the special election and the general election. In March 2018, he attended a campaign event in Attleboro and gave a speech to about 75 people on her behalf, according to the Sun Chronicle.
The race came up after Attleboro elected Democrat Paul Heroux as their mayor. Hall lost the special election race to Rep. Jim Hawkins 52 percent to 48 percent and the November election 58.3 percent to 41.6 percent.
And while Auchincloss is a Democrat now, he was a registered Republican for part of 2013 and 2014 — and worked with both the Massachusetts Republican Party and a private consulting firm to help elect Baker as governor of Massachusetts. Auchincloss has described himself as an “Obama-Baker” voter to Boston.com.
While Baker likes both candidates, they have many disagreements on core issues.
On immigration, Hall opposes sanctuary cities while Auchincloss co-docketed an ordinance that made Newton a sanctuary city. Hall’s platform calls for barriers to protect the border and for zero tax dollars to be spent on people in the country illegally.
When it comes to abortion, Hall is pro-life, according to her campaign’s robocalls. Auchincloss wants to codify the proposed state ROE Act bill into federal law. The ROE Act bill would not only eliminate most restrictions surrounding third-trimester abortions, it would eliminate language that requires doctors to save a baby’s life if born during an attempted abortion.
Auchincloss supports the Green New Deal, which aims to eliminate carbon energy dependency in 10 years and includes policies that some say would cost between $51 trillion and $93 trillion, according to FactCheck.org.
Hall does not. She also wants to reduce the country’s carbon footprint. Her platform says that she wants the United States to reduce its oil dependency over time, “but market forces must drive that change.”
Auchincloss is the favorite to win the general election this November. The last time a Republican won a U.S. House race in Massachusetts was 1994.
So far this year, Baker has only made one endorsement in a U.S. House race: he backed U.S. Representative Richard Neal (D-Springfield) over Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse in the state’s First District. Neal, the top recipient of corporate political action committee money in the U.S. House of Representatives, won that race.
Baker also revealed last week that he voted for Dover Attorney Kevin O’Connor in the Republican U.S. Senate primary. Baker has contributed $2,000 to O’Connor’s campaign, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
