To MAGA or not to MAGA?
Massachusetts Republicans face that question ahead of the 2026 election.
And whether or not to embrace, or even tacitly acknowledge, President Donald Trump is causing major division this year in the local Republican party.
Debates are raging between conservative influencers and pundits on social media while political strategists are weighing whether and how their clients should address a president whose actions generate polarizing reactions all across the United States.
Indeed, Mike Kennealy, a former secretary under Gov. Charlie Baker who is running for governor as a Republican, has faced backlash for telling a local Republican town committee earlier this year that he did not vote for Trump or Kamala Harris in 2024.
But on the flip side, he was quickly labeled “MAGA Mike Kennealy” by the Massachusetts Democratic Party as part of a strategy to tie any Republican running for office in 2026 to the president in the hopes that left-leaning independent voters will walk away from them.
Inside the Massachusetts Republican Party, voters are arguing about just how close they want their candidate to be to Trump. Some say that Republicans running for office must at least acknowledge what they consider to be accomplishments by the Trump administration this year.
Others counter that sidestepping Trump — or ignoring him completely — is the only way to draw in unenrolled voters who are no fans of Trump but are also not happy with Democrats’ iron-clad grip on the Legislature, Congressional seats, and constitutional offices in Massachusetts.
John Deaton, who ran last year as a Republican against U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, said there are many moderate Democrats who feel disenfranchised in Massachusetts because the party is “too far left.”
Republicans, he said, should be working to convince them to vote for their candidates.
Deaton faced pushback during his campaign last year for holding some stances that the right wing of the Republican Party disliked. He also admitted during the course of his run against Warren that he has “never been a Trump voter.”
But he still considers himself a “center-right person.”
“We live in Massachusetts, and are you really going to take the position that because you think I’m not conservative enough, that there’s no difference between me and Ed Markey or me and Elizabeth Warren? That is a foolish, quite frankly idiotic position to take,” Deaton told the Herald in an interview this past week.
Deaton earned 40% of the 3.5 million votes cast in his race against Warren, or 114,137 more than Trump earned in his matchup against former Vice President Kamala Harris, according to certified election data from Secretary of State William Galvin’s office.
Republicans who want candidates to acknowledge or further embrace Trump’s ideology often point to the gains that he made in Massachusetts last year compared to his election in 2020.
He won 87 cities and towns in the state last year, including 33 that had gone for President Joe Biden in 2020.
But conservative candidates in Massachusetts, especially those running for governor or other statewide offices, are expected to face a difficult road.
The Trump factor poses only one hurdle — political hopefuls are also dealing with fundraising and name recognition challenges, according to experts who previously spoke to the Herald.
Wendy Wakeman, a veteran Republican political strategist, said she agrees that the “never Trumpers” and the “MAGA MAGAs” of the Massachusetts Republican Party need to unify.
She also said a candidate does not necessarily need to swear loyalty to Trump, but they must be able to talk about him without fear.
“They tend to pull us apart, and that’s not good,” she said of the two wings of the MassGOP. “… I’m not saying that you have to be a Trump loyalist in order to carry the banner for our party in 2026, but you must be able to acknowledge that the national Republican leader of the party is doing a heck of a job.”
Deaton, who is weighing another challenge to U.S. Sen. Ed Markey in 2026, said a Republican candidate should not run against Trump but should run on the same principles as the president.
“Here in Massachusetts, you have to thread the needle,” he said.
