Massachusetts Republican Party | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chairwoman | Amy Carnevale |
| Senate Leader | Bruce Tarr |
| House Leader | Bradley Jones |
| Founded | 1854 |
| Headquarters | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Membership(2024) |  434,887[1] |
| Ideology | Conservatism |
| National affiliation | Republican Party |
| Colors | Red |
| U.S. Senate Seats | 0 / 2 |
| U.S. House Seats | 0 / 9 |
| Statewide Executive Offices | 0 / 6 |
| Seats in theMassachusetts Senate | 5 / 40 |
| Seats in theMassachusetts House of Representatives | 25 / 160 |
| Election symbol | |
.svg) | |
| Website | |
| massgop | |
TheMassachusetts Republican Party (MassGOP) is theMassachusetts branch of theU.S. Republican Party.
Originally, the party was formed in 1854. Soon after its founding, the party quickly became the dominant party in the state with Massachusetts remaining a staunchly Republican state until well into the 20th century. In fact, every single Massachusetts state and federal office was held by a party member until 1876, and it was only until 1874 that the state had anyDemocratic mayors again (namelyWilliam Gaston ofBoston).
By the 1920s, however, the Massachusetts Republican Party was in decline. Immigrants to Massachusetts made the state increasingly Democratic, as well as theGreat Depression and theNew Deal. The state began producing a streak of victories for Democratic presidential candidates beginning in 1928, and by the 1950s, the Massachusetts Republican Party's strongholds were reduced to ruralWestern Massachusetts andCape Cod. Since then, however, the party has still had control over the governor's office from 1991 to 2007, and 2015 to 2023.
The party currently has very weak electoral power in Massachusetts. It controls none of Massachusetts' statewide or federal elected offices, and holds just 14% of the seats in theMassachusetts General Court. As of 2024, the Massachusetts Republican Party's members in office include four members of theMassachusetts Senate, 25 members of theMassachusetts House of Representatives, and four mayors. The last time the party had nominees for all state congressional races was1956.[2][3]
In accordance with Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 52,[4] the party is governed by a state committee which consists of one man and one woman from each of the 40 State Senate districts. The state committee elects party officers including a chair.
The Massachusetts Republican Party was founded in 1854. Drawing together abolitionist andnativist anti-Catholic elements, it quickly became the dominant political force in the state and a powerful arm of the national Republican Party. Significant founding figures include SenatorCharles Sumner, formerly of theFree Soil Party, and Speaker of the HouseNathaniel Prentiss Banks, formerly of theAmerican Party.
At the time of the Republican Party's founding in 1854, all of Massachusetts's congressional representatives but Sumner were members of the nativistKnow-Nothing Party. However, Banks's role as chairman of the 1856 Republican National Convention, his active support for the Republican presidential nomineeJohn C. Frémont in1856 and his focus on anti-slavery legislation as Speaker put him at odds with his party. Following the Democratic victory in the 1856 elections and theDred Scott case in 1857, the nationalAmerican Party organization collapsed, and most Northern members joined the nascent Republicans. In 1857, Banks ran as a Republican against incumbent Know-Nothing GovernorHenry J. Gardner and won a decisive victory.
From 1856 until 1876, Massachusetts was among the most Republican states in the nation in presidential elections.[citation needed] During a sixteen-year period from the onset of theAmerican Civil War in 1861 until 1876, every statewide and federal elected office in Massachusetts was held by a Republican.
While the party held a monopoly on power in the state, there were internal divisions between the radical abolitionist faction, represented by Sumner, and the moderate faction, represented by Banks. As Governor, Banks had a difficult time appeasing the more radical Sumner faction. Banks's stated opposition to the militant abolitionistJohn Brown and support for a state constitutional amendment requiring newly naturalized citizens to wait two years before becoming eligible to vote[5] each drew support from the more conservative members of the party.
As national tensions over slavery grew more fraught, the state Republican Party became more radical. Banks briefly attempted to launch a presidential campaign in1860 but failed to win support from the anti-slavery majority of the Massachusetts delegation. He chose not to attend the national convention and retired as Governor. Republicans nominatedJohn Albion Andrew, a radical supporter of John Brown, as Banks's successor over Banks's preferred candidate,Henry L. Dawes.[6]
At the 1861 state Republican convention in Worcester, Senator Sumner delivered a speech claiming that the Civil War's sole cause was slavery and the primary objective of the Union government was to destroy slavery. Sumner stated that the Union government had the power to invokemartial law and emancipate the slaves. This speech drew harsh criticism from the conservative Boston establishment but cheers from the party's abolitionists.[7]
During and after the Civil War, Democrats and anti-war Republicans became increasingly unpopular in Massachusetts.Radical Republicans, who were most aggressively supportive of the war, consolidated power and passed a wave of reforms. To aid the war effort, Andrew rescinded a ban on immigrant militias. During his governorship, Republicans repealed the constitutional restriction on immigrant voting Banks had supported[8] and passed the nation's first comprehensive integration laws.[9]
The end of Reconstruction also signaled the end of one-party rule in Massachusetts. As the national Democratic Party gained support in the urban North, Boston became competitive in statewide elections.
In 1874, Boston mayorWilliam Gaston became the first Democratic governor since 1851. In the1876 elections, Republicans lost six congressional seats andRutherford Hayes became the first Republican to loseSuffolk County. Liberal RepublicansCharles Francis Adams Sr. andBenjamin Franklin Butler left the party and staged competitive bids for Governor on the Democratic ticket.
However, Republicans were still the dominant force in the state through the end of the century, and Massachusetts continued to be a base for the national Republican Party. One national figure to emerge wasHenry Cabot Lodge, a scion of wealthy and powerful Cabot and Lodge families. Lodge represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate for thirty years from 1893 to his death in 1924. Lodge was a prominent advocate for restrictions on immigration and an antagonist of Democratic President Woodrow Wilson on matters of foreign policy. When Republicans won control of the Senate in 1918, Lodge was named Senate Majority Leader and Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee and served in both positions until his death.
Following the death of PresidentHarding, Vice PresidentCalvin Coolidge became the 30th President of the United States. Coolidge was previously the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts.
The Republican dominance of Massachusetts slowly died in the 1920s and 1930s as predominantly Democratic immigrant groups changed the traditionally RepublicanWhite Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) Massachusetts into theCatholic Democratic majority state that it remains today. The Democratic take-over of Massachusetts was aided by the highunionization of workers in the state, coupled with the onset of theGreat Depression and the rise of theNew Deal Democrats. In 1928, CatholicAl Smith became the first Democrat to win a majority of the vote in Massachusetts in a presidential election since the party's foundation a century prior.
With the emergence of Franklin Roosevelt'sNew Deal coalition and the growing power of the urban and Catholic vote, Massachusetts produced victories for Democratic presidential candidates in every election from 1928 to 1948. By the 1950s, most of the urban and suburban areas of Massachusetts were largely Democratic, leaving just a few pockets of strongly Republican rural areas in theCape and Islands region andWestern Massachusetts.
Under control by theKennedy family andJohn F. Kennedy in particular, the state Democratic Party gained massive popularity with suburban business interests as well as its traditional Catholic and immigrant base. Kennedy's victory over incumbentHenry Cabot Lodge Jr. in 1952 is symbolic of the long-term transition of power from Republican to Democratic in the commonwealth.
As the successful 1960 Democratic candidate for president, Kennedy won a landslide victory in Massachusetts. His brotherTed Kennedy was appointed to the vacant Senate seat in 1962 and would hold that seat until his death in 2009. Since Kennedy's victory in 1960, only one Republican presidential candidate,Ronald Reagan, has carried Massachusetts.
Liberal and moderate Republicans still experienced some success at the state level. In 1966,Edward Brooke won a landslide victory to become the first popularly-elected black United States Senator. RepublicansJohn Volpe andElliot Richardson also won landslide victories in the governor's race and attorney general's races, respectively. Brooke was re-elected by a large margin again in 1972.
In 1978, Republicans lost their remaining Senate seat whenPaul Tsongas unseated Brooke. On the state level, Democrats would take super-majorities in both houses of the state legislature, and would dominate the governorship for 22 years out of the 34-year period from 1957 to 1990.
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In 1980, Republican presidential nomineeRonald Reagan carried Massachusetts, being the first Republican to do so since 1956. Massachusetts Republicans hoped his victory ushered in what appeared to be a new era for Republicans in the state.
In 1990, due to the unpopularity of then GovernorMichael Dukakis at the end of his last term in office, Republicans led by gubernatorial candidateWilliam Weld erased the Democratic super-majorities in the state legislature. However, the death ofSilvio Conte in 1991 (and his succession by DemocratJohn Olver) also meant that for the first time, every federal elected official in Massachusetts was a Democrat.
In 1993,Peter Blute andPeter Torkildsen became the first freshman Republicans elected to Congress from Massachusetts since 1973. The hope of a Republican renaissance in Massachusetts largely dissipated in 1996, when Weld failed in his attempt to unseat SenatorJohn Kerry and most of the Republicans gains in the State Legislature were erased. Both Torkildsen and Blute were defeated.
Despite heavy losses at all levels of government and a steady decrease in support for the national party,[10][better source needed] the Massachusetts Republican Party has been able to maintain control over the governor's office. From 1990 until 2023, the governor's office had been consistently held by a number of Republicans, only interrupted by the governorship ofDeval Patrick from 2007 to 2015.
In 2010, Republicans won a shock victory whenScott Brown defeated Democratic candidateMartha Coakley ina special election to succeed SenatorTed Kennedy. Brown became the first Republican to represent Massachusetts in the Senate since 1979 and the first in Congress since 1997. However, Brown lost his bid for a full six-year term to Democratic challengerElizabeth Warren in 2012.
In 2014,moderate RepublicanCharlie Baker was elected Governor, defeating Democratic nominee Martha Coakley and returning the office to Republican control after eight years. Throughout his first term, Baker consistently polled as the most popular governor in the nation. He was re-elected by a large margin in 2018. However, Republicans also lost three seats in the state legislature.
In 2020, Republicans lost three state legislative special elections.[11]
Since 2016, much of the Massachusetts party has shifted toward thepolitical positions and policies ofDonald Trump.[12] Shortly after the2020 presidential election, the party endorsed Trump'sfalse claims of election fraud, despite criticism from Governor Charlie Baker.[13] The leadership's embrace of Trump's positions has led to infighting among moderate andpro-Trump Republicans in the post-Trump era.[14][15]
In 2023,James J. Lyons Jr. lost reelection as the party's chair to Amy Carnevale by a vote of 37 to 34.[16] Lyons sued Pat Crowley, the party's treasurer, in 2022 after Crowley froze the party's bank account as a budget was not passed by a quorum,[17] but Carnevale dropped the lawsuit after taking office. Lyons and twenty-one members of the state committee members filed a revive the lawsuit against Crowley.[18]
Jennifer Nassour, a former chair of the party, stated that the party was "an absolute disaster" in 2021.[19]
In 2023, Crowley stated that the party had a net account of $35,000 with $117,000 in debt.[20] However, Carnevale later stated that the party had $602,152 in unpaid invoices, but that a large amount was not "the responsibility of the party" such as the advertising campaign costs forGeoff Diehl's gubernatorial campaign. The party spent $55,415 on investigatingMaura Healey's romantic relationships.[21]
In the2024 Republican Primary, Donald Trump won approximately 60% of the vote, whileNikki Haley took 37%.[22] FormerBristol County SheriffTom Hodgson chairedTrump's campaign in the state,[23] while former Party chairJennifer Nassour ledHaley's Massachusetts campaign.[24]
The2024 Presidential election was Trump's best showing in the state by both percentage and popular vote.[25] In the2024 House election, the party nominated candidates for only two of ninecongressional races.[26] The party gained one seat in the2024 State Senate election.[27] While the party lost seats in the State House, there was no net change in seats.[28] U.S. Senate nominee John Deaton had the best popular vote showing of a Republican Senate candidate in over a decade.[29][30][31]
Both of Massachusetts'sU.S. Senate seats have been held byDemocrats since2013.Scott Brown was the last Republican to represent Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate. First elected in a2010 special election, Brown lost his bid for a full term in2012 toElizabeth Warren who has held the seat since.Edward Brooke was the last Republican to be elected to a full term in Massachusetts. First elected in1966, Brooke lost his bid for a third term in1978 toPaul Tsongas.
Massachusetts’ U.S. House delegation has been entirely Democratic since 1997. The last Republicans to serve Massachusetts in the House of Representatives werePeter I. Blute andPeter G. Torkildsen. Both were elected in1992 and subsequently defeated in the 1996 elections.
| Position | Officeholder |
|---|---|
| Chairman | Amy Carnevale |
| National Committeeman | Brad Wyatt |
| National Committeewoman | Janet Fogarty |
| Vice Chairman | Judy Crocker |
| Treasurer | Mindy McKenzie |
| Secretary | Amanda Peterson |
| Assistant Treasurer | Anthony Ventresca |
| Assistant Secretary | Dr. Elizabeth Hinds-Ferrick |
Source:[32]
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