The Diehl campaign is hitting back after a recent New York Times piece seemed to indicate the Republican nominee would not commit to accepting the results of the general election in November.
“Liberal news organizations are obsessed with trying to get Republican politicians to commit to accepting the results of the 2022 election before it happens. These ‘gotcha’ questions from liberal outlets are not worth engaging in because all they are trying to do is weave a false narrative,” Republican gubernatorial candidate Geoff Diehl told the Herald in an emailed statement.
A Sunday New York Times story about Republican refusal to accept the results of legitimate elections headlined “Echoing Trump, These Republicans Won’t Promise to Accept 2022 Results” indicated a spokesperson for Diehl replied “no comment” when asked if the former state representative would accept the results of the upcoming election.
Diehl’s Democratic rival, Attorney General Maura Healey, is also quoted in the article, and her campaign on Sunday attacked the “no comment” answer given by Diehl spokesperson Peggy Rose as a sign Diehl would not accept the results of the election.
“The choice in this election could not be more clear. Geoff Diehl is endorsed by Donald Trump and has fully embraced the Trump playbook of lies and division. He repeats Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged and is already laying the groundwork to cast doubt on the results of our election because he knows that voters will reject his efforts to bring Trumpism to Massachusetts,” Healey campaign manager Jason Burrell said.
Diehl told the Herald he isn’t going to put the cart before the horse.
“It is ridiculous and preposterous to ask any candidate — Democrat or Republican — for any public office to blindly accept the results of an election that hasn’t even happened yet and to thereby waive their legal right and responsibility to raise questions and assert challenges if appropriate,” he said.
However, the Whitman Republican said that if he saw no reason not to accept the results, he would.
“If I see problems with the voting process that I believe in good faith cast doubt on its outcome, I intend to call out those problems and seek resolution by means of accepted legal process. Once those means are exhausted, or if there are no such irregularities in the first place, the election is over and its results must be respected according to our democratic tradition,” Diehl said.
“Any insinuation that I would resort to any methods to protest any election outside of legally accepted means and consistent with the rule of law is demeaning, offensive and most of all categorically false,” he said.
Still, according to Diehl, he may have good reason to be concerned about the results of future elections held in Massachusetts.
“I think every American — Democrat and Republican alike — should be concerned about any insufficiency, error or external force that could influence the outcome of an upcoming election. I also have concerns about the future integrity of our election process here in Massachusetts, given Governor Baker’s past statement that issuing driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants in this state ‘significantly increases the risk that noncitizens will be registered to vote,’” he said.
The Legislature, in June, passed the Work and Family Mobility Act over Gov. Charlie Baker’s veto. It will allow those who cannot demonstrate lawful presence in the U.S. to use home country documents to establish their identity and receive driver’s licenses. The state also automatically registers eligible voters upon issuance of a license, which opponents of the law maintain will inevitably result in unauthorized voter registrations and ballot casting.
