With the Republican state convention in Massachusetts barely two weeks away, all signs point to its resounding endorsement of conservative State Rep. Geoff Diehl to oppose Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
Accordingly, political observers almost universally agree, the Bay State is about to host something unique and even rare in terms of statewide elections: a contest between a hard-charging, Trump-supporting conservative and a far-left Democratic incumbent.
Along with winning over most of the delegates who will attend the convention, Diehl has picked up the endorsements of onetime Boston Red Sox great Curt Schilling, former New England Patriots Fred Smerlas, Steve Grogan, and Matt Light, and former White House press secretary Sean Spicer.
Moreover, the GOP hopeful has raised more than $1.3 million — impressive in a state which has only elected one Republican senator (2010 special election winner Scott Brown, who lost to Warren two years later) in the past four decades.
"And that figure is important," Diehl told Newsmax. "We're talking about 17,000 unique donors. The overwhelming majority of them are small donors, a lot making their first-time donation to a candidate. Something's happening out there."
The "something happening" referred to by Diehl might be the movement the lawmaker himself helped quarterback back in 2014. When the overwhelming Democratic state legislature approved a $500 million tax package, it buried within it a three cents per gallon tax increase. But this was a unique kind of increase, since that language stated the gas tax would be linked to inflation.
Put another way, the tax package could have spelled a future in which gasoline taxes went up without a vote by legislators.
Diehl went to war. Mobilizing fellow ax-the-tax activists, the conservative lawmaker led the charge in a statewide initiative that year. The campaign ended with the successful repeal of automatic gas tax hikes — despite the fact proponents outspent opponents by a margin of 31-1.
In 2016, Diehl became co-chairman of Trump's campaign in Massachusetts. Although the outsider candidate lost the state in the fall, he nevertheless won the Republican primary in part by attracting tens of thousands of blue-collar Democrats who re-registered to vote for him.
Coupled with the anti-gas tax movement, Diehl feels, he will have enough of a grassroots movement to give Warren a spirited contest.
"And there aren't a lot of Democrats who wanted to do heavy-lifting for [Warren]," noted Diehl.
He was referring to the primary challenge to Democratic Rep. Michael Capuano from Boston City Councillor Ayanna Pressley. To the surprise of just about everyone, Warren has yet to endorse or do anything for 10-termer Capuano in the September primary.
The same scenario applies to Rep. Stephen Lynch, who faces a primary challenge from far-left Democrat Brianna Wu. Again, the state's senior senator has refused to weigh in for the veteran incumbent — attacked by Wu for voting against "reproductive rights" and parts of the LGBT agenda.
"You dance with who brung you," said Diehl, recalling how both Capuano and Lynch endorsed and supported Warren in her winning 2012 Senate bid.
It is rare a U.S. Senate race in increasingly Democratic Massachusetts attracts national press attention or even the top dollars from the National Republican Senatorial Committee and Republican National Committee. But in 2018, this might change because of the candidacy of Geoff Diehl.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.