Geoff Diehl

Diehl began his campaign for representative of the 7th Plymouth District on February 22, 2010. Diehl received support from previous representatives from the same district including Andrew Card, Michael Sullivan, Ned Kirby, and Ronald Whitney. Diehl also received the endorsement of U.S. Senator Scott Brown.[5]

On November 2, 2010, he upset incumbent Allen McCarthy and was sworn in on January 5, 2011.

He was a member of the Joint Committee on Housing, House Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change, and the House Committee on Technology and Intergovernmental Affairs.[6]

Geoff Diehl was a lead supporter of the successful ballot question campaign to repeal the Massachusetts gas tax indexing law in 2014.[7]

In April 2017, Diehl announced his intent to challenge Elizabeth Warren for her U.S. Senate seat.[8][9] In the Republican primary election held on September 4, 2018, Diehl finished first in a field of three candidates.[10]

Diehl campaigned strongly on his support for President Trump. He endorsed Trump in 2016 and claimed to have been a state co-chair on his 2016 campaign. This claim was disputed or qualified by other Republicans, who noted that Diehl's position was purely honorary and only awarded after Trump had won the Massachusetts primary.[11]

The general election was held on November 6, 2018. The incumbent, Elizabeth Warren, defeated Diehl by 24 percentage points.[12][13]

Following Diehl's 2018 Senate election loss, he was elected to the Massachusetts Republican Party's state committee.[14][15] He was finance committee chairman for the state Republican Party until February 2021, when he stepped down from the role.[15]

Diehl has aligned himself with Donald Trump.[16] He was Massachusetts state co-chair of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, an honorary position that he has touted,[17][18] as well as a Trump delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention.[19] Diehl also supported Jim Lyons, the chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party, who in January 2021 was reelected to the party chairmanship after defeating a challenge from Shawn Dooley.[14]

In December 2020, Diehl publicly began to consider a possible Republican primary challenge to incumbent governor Charlie Baker in 2022.[20] As a candidate, Diehl criticized federal and state restrictions put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.[17] For example, in January 2021, Diehl criticized Baker for retaining a 25% indoor capacity limit on businesses.[21] Diehl criticized Baker for participating in the bipartisan Transportation and Climate Initiative.[17]

On January 25, 2021, Diehl joined with a pro-Trump faction of the Massachusetts Republican Party State Committee who called for Baker to be censured over his comments supporting the impeachment of Trump on charges of incitement of insurrection for his role in the U.S. Capitol attack. The Republican officials demanded that Baker retract his comments.[22]

In February 2021, Diehl attended a maskless fundraiser in West Roxbury with Steve Bannon as the special guest. The event was in violation of state and local COVID-19 rules.[23][24]

On July 4, 2021, Diehl formally announced his candidacy for governor.[25] Trump endorsed Diehl for governor on October 5, 2021.[16][26] After Trump was defeated in the 2020 presidential election, Diehl promoted Trump's false claims that the election was "stolen."[16][26] In August 2021, Diehl called for a "forensic audit" of Massachusetts's 2020 election;[16] and in October 2021, one day before Trump endorsed him, Diehl claimed the entire presidential election was "rigged."[16][26] Diehl also called for Baker to veto a bill that would allow for mail-in voting permanently, citing his belief that absentee ballots lead to or enable voter fraud.[26]