There was Bill Weld and Paul Cellucci back in the early 90s. Then Cellucci and Jane Swift, Mitt Romney and Kerry Healey, and more recently Charlie Baker and Karyn Polito.
Unlike the Democrats, Republican candidates for governor have built a tradition of teaming up early with running mates and then successfully selling themselves to voters as a ticket.
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And while there's still time for more candidates to get in the race, former Rep. Geoff Diehl has been running for governor since July and he's apparently in the market for his own running mate.
"We're finishing up a team right now, should be looking at a lieutenant governor candidate the next month or two," Diehl, a Whitman Republican, told Bloomberg Baystate Business on Thursday. "So I think people will be very pleased when they see the team we've assembled, the plans that we're putting together, and the message that we're going to be putting out to the voters."
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In addition to losing to Sen. Mike Brady of Brockton in a 2015 special election, Diehl lost to Sen. Elizabeth Warren in the 2018 election for U.S. Senate. During his radio appearance, Diehl noted that Republican Scott Brown won a U.S. Senate seat for the Republicans in 2010 and that both Weld (1996) and Romney (1994) also lost to Massachusetts Democrats in U.S. Senate elections.
"I think one of the things the state always has a history of is putting a Republican governor in to be the counterbalance to the very Democratically controlled House and Senate," Diehl said. "National politics, you know, sometimes plays a role in state politics. I think in '22 it may play a big role because, you know, the federal government has a lot of things going on that affect Massachusetts. So I think the mood may be in Massachusetts such that they're looking for a continuation of a Republican governorship where fiscal accountability, support of law enforcement - I mean things that you wouldn't even think you'd have to ask about - may be part of the issues."
Diehl reiterated his support for former President Donald Trump's policies on energy, jobs and "useless foreign wars" and said, "Oh, sure," when asked if he would support Trump if he launched another campaign for president.
"I'm really not afraid to be associated with the policy success," Diehl said. "Am I Trump in the way I handled myself when I was in office for eight years? No. But I am someone who believes that his policies I think are good for Massachusetts going forward."
Diehl also predicted voters will experience "buyer's remorse" about President Joe Biden.
"I think every interview I have starts and ends with Trump in this state because I think a lot of the media tends to fall a little bit left, to be honest with you," he said. "And I think there's always an attempt to try to paint me as sort of irrational or something because I supported Trump."
