Background

The GOP has had an uphill battle in Massachusetts in recent memory; notably, not a single Massachusetts district voted Republican in the 2024 election. Conservatives who have held office in the past, such as Mitt Romney and Charlie Baker, have typically garnered favor with policy which focuses on fiscal conservatism over social conservatism. It’s sometimes forgotten in the national conversation over healthcare that Obamacare started in Massachusetts as Romneycare.

This post briefly dissects the modern day strategy of a party pulled to the right on a national level, and to the left on a local one.

Complain

Perusing state GOP media, it’s hard to find content touting Republican success at any level of government in the state. While it can’t be ignored that such stories would logically be smaller in number for the minority party, it also can’t be discounted that major MA Republican milestones—such as Romneycare—had fallen out of favor among conservatives just six years after its conception on fiscal grounds. The state GOP cannot even stand on its own accomplishments, and as such, turns to endless, sometimes senseless attacks on Gov. Maura Healey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. For example, in this post-interview “fact check”, the author writes:

Healey Claim: “The T is running on time, no slow zones.”   FACT: Slow zones emerged on the Red Line just one week after Healey declared the entire T slow zone free.

Whatever valid criticisms of our current politicians exist are buried by their chief political opponents with content such as this.

Comply

As noted earlier, the state GOP is torn between an aggressively regressive national platform and a steadfastly progressive local constituency. They fail in large part because they adhere to the national strategy that Massachusetts has largely prospered by rejecting.

As an example, a local Democratic state representative unfortunately recently was charged with an OUI; an action that is horrid and easy for anyone to condemn on basic apolitical grounds. MassGOP released this statement in response:

This comes one day after House GOP members blocked the release of the Epstein files which the 34-times convicted president’s attorney general claimed was “sitting on her desk” just earlier this year. There’s a lot more that could be packed into that statement, but these posts have a character limit.

I asked the Political Director of MassGOP if he agreed with my juxtaposition; he replied to my email, but not to my question.

The MassGOP cannot for even one news item step out of lockstep with the corrupt Epstein defenders in the executive and legislative branches of the federal government.

Concede

And thus, the GOP will continue to concede in Massachusetts—though to their credit, actually conceding peacefully sets them apart from their federal counterparts. Democrats currently control the governorship, the state capital’s mayorship, all statewide elected offices, and supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature. If Massachusetts Democrats can tackle housing, transit, and sustain their clashes with the federal government, they will likely continue to hold onto them.