GOP Delegate Really, Truly Believes Massachusetts Could Vote Trump

Photo via AP

Massachusetts has turned red just four times since 1928, voting for Republican presidential candidates Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Regan twice each. Otherwise, the Bay State has been a Democratic stronghold.

That, according to state Rep. Geoff Diehl, could change with the advent of presumptive 2016 nominee Donald Trump, a man who, unlike Eisenhower and Regan, claimed “bone spurs” to duck out of military service.

In a recent interview with Fox News, the Whitman Republican and co-chair of the Trump campaign in Massachusetts said it isn’t all that unthinkable that working class voters could reject former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in favor of the failed steak salesman.

“Look, I think Massachusetts is in play. We had 20,000 Democrats actually unenroll before the primary to vote for Donald Trump,” Diehl said. “I think Massachusetts can go strongly towards Donald Trump because I think this is a year where we’re going to see him win nationwide in possibly a landslide. I think he’s really tapping into the middle class, the union workers, and in Massachusetts that’s a big vote and those folks are actually out there working for Donald Trump right now.”

Many of those departing Dems Diehl mentioned, as Secretary of State William Galvin explained to the State House News Service, became independent voters, while more than 3,400 joined the Republican Party.

Still, Trump faces a steep climb in a state whose Republican governor is an avowed #NeverTrumper. A Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll in May found Clinton leading Trump by 24 percentage points, while statewide polling conducted by MassINC between 2010 and 2016 place Trump at rock bottom levels of unfavorability.

Worth recalling this @skoczela chart if Trump indeed picks Newt for VP. The 2 at the bottom are… Trump and Newt: pic.twitter.com/WpFuHQyKRM

— Ben Swasey (@benswasey) July 7, 2016

But hey, whatever you say, Mr. Diehl.