Diehl lands GOP nod; Lindstrom, Kingston make ballot
Conservative Republican Geoff Diehl won the U.S. Senate endorsement of Republican Party activists yesterday, but all three main GOP candidates vying to take on U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren found strong support among the party faithful as they look to notch what would be a historic upset.
Beth Lindstrom, who served in the Cabinet of former Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, and John Kingston, a business executive who in 2016 led an unsuccessful effort to recruit an independent candidate to run against Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, both got enough votes to set up a three-way primary. The winner will face Warren in November.
Diehl, who came to the state Legislature in 2010 amid the Tea Party wave and played a prominent role on President Trump’s campaign in Massachusetts two years ago, cashed in on his popularity at yesterday’s convention, as many still remember the work he did to repeal a law indexing the gas tax to inflation.
“It’s not enough to just talk about values . ... Taking action is what really counts,” Diehl said.
It took two ballots for Diehl to win the endorsement outright. On the first ballot, Diehl secured 47.7 percent of the delegates voting, followed by Lindstrom with 28.8 percent and Kingston with 19.8 percent. Diehl won 55.4 percent of the vote on the second ballot after about 600 delegates had gone home for the evening.
Collectively, the GOP candidates painted Warren as a noshow senator more interested in building her resume for president than representing the people of Massachusetts. They also cast the Democrat as a divisively partisan figure.
Lindstrom called Warren an “extremist” who is out of step with Massachusetts residents. She said she supports legal immigration, but opposes the idea of sanctuary cities and backs the president’s call to build a wall on the southern border.
“This is my first time as a candidate. But I will say the same thing to you that I said to Ray Shamie, chairman of the party, when he first hired me three decades ago: ‘Give me a chance. You won’t be disappointed,’ ” Lindstrom said.
Kingston, a wealthy Winchester businessman, has argued for months that he is best positioned to have the resources to take on Warren, and repeated that message Saturday. Warren is a fundraising powerhouse who has more than $15 million in her campaign account, but Kingston has already put $4 million of his own money into the race.
“This race requires a leader with the vision, the resources and the will to win. My vision will unite Massachusetts behind our shared values,” Kingston said.