Former president Donald Trump is happy to see that Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker won’t seek a third term next year.
The two Republicans have serious political disagreements, with Baker being a socially liberal Republican who says he didn’t vote for Trump in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.
Trump released a statement on Baker not seeking re-election on Wednesday afternoon, taking the opportunity to criticize his political foe.
“RINO Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker has announced that, because I didn’t endorse him and he is incapable of getting the Republican nomination, he will not be running for reelection,” Trump wrote. “He’s been very selfish, and is bad news for the Republican Party — actually, he shouldn’t even be considered a Republican. We wish him well!”
Trump endorsed former state representative Geoff Diehl (R-Whitman) in the 2022 Massachusetts race for governor in October.
Baker and the state’s lieutenant governor, Karyn Polito, made a reference to the likely trials of a campaign when announcing that they won’t run, though they didn’t mention Trump or the coming Republican primary.
“If we were to run, it would be a distraction that would potentially get in the way of many of the things we should be working on for everyone in Massachusetts. We want to focus on recovery, not on the grudge matches political campaigns can devolve into,” Baker and Polito said in a written statement Wednesday, December 1.
While Trump was highly critical of Baker in his statement, Diehl took a different approach, thanking both Baker and lieutenant governor Karyn Polito, who also won’t run for office next year, for their service in politics. Diehl said:
I thank Governor Baker and Lt. Gov. Polito for their eight years of service as Governor and Lt. Gov. of Massachusetts. While I have often differed on policy with this administration, I have always liked Charlie Baker and Karyn Polito personally and I wish them the best in their future endeavors.
I am honored and gratified to have been endorsed by former President Donald Trump to be the next Governor of Massachusetts, and I look forward to a spirited campaign presenting my vision for the future of Massachusetts. My campaign is providing Bay Staters with a hopeful choice for fresh leadership and a bold new direction for our state.
I have a message to Massachusetts residents who are tired of the status quo: I will work hard every day to make our state a better place to live, work, and raise a family. I believe that starts by placing more emphasis on individual freedom and initiative. I will fight for people who need help. I’ll support struggling working families. I will oppose new taxes. I will support parents who don’t want government taking away their freedom to make choices about their child’s health care and curriculum. And, I’ll always have the back of first responders working to keep our streets safe, as well as the men and women of the armed forces who hail from Massachusetts and serve overseas protecting our freedoms.
We can do better for Massachusetts. Over the next year, the Diehl campaign will discuss the important issues facing our state and present the best alternative for leading Massachusetts into the future.
Diehl is one of three Republicans in the race for governor right now. The others are former Lowell city council candidate Darius Mitchell and Quincy resident Kim Duffy.
On the Democratic side, former state senator Ben Downing (previously of Pittsfield, now of East Boston), current state senator Sonia Chang-Diaz (D-Jamaica Plain), and Harvard professor Danielle Allen are candidates.
Additionally, many people’s names have been floated since Baker and Polito announced they wouldn’t run again, most notably the state’s attorney general Maura Healey, a Democrat, and former Boston mayor Marty Walsh, also a Democrat, who is currently U.S. secretary of labor.
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