What's Next for Mass. GOP After Disappointing Midterm Elections?

The Massachusetts Republican Party had a rough election last week, with losses in every statewide office and on Beacon Hill. Now, it's back to the drawing board for the MassGOP in a very blue state.

After five terms as a State Representative from Norfolk, Republican Shawn Dooley lost his bid for state senate. He says the outcome might have been different if he’d had a healthy republican party behind him. Not the far right wing party he says, led by chair Jim Lyons.

“Jim has his private little favorites you know and if you still genuflect at his altar and kiss his ring you know he had a certain people that he was willing to help,” Dooley said.

According to Dooley, that only includes pro-life, Donald Trump supporting candidates.

“When you kind of tow that far right line there’s really no pathway to victory,” Republican State Committeewoman Janet Leombruno said.

Massachusetts has a history of electing moderate republicans like Charlie Baker.

“He was in a sense kind of forced out… of the party because the MassGOP felt they wanted to go in a different direction,” Leombruno said.

Many believe Baker and/or his lieutenant governor Karyn Polito may well have run for re-election had they not had to battle their own party that had already gotten behind former Trump state campaign chair, Geoff Diehl -- who lost to Democrat Maura Healey by almost 30 points.

“If the coach is losing games, you’ve gotta change up the coach. I mean that’s just the way life is,” Leombruno said.

Alex Veras disagrees.

“You don’t give up on these things,” said Veras, who became a Republican at age 18 and has been an activist ever since.

“I think because of Ronald Reagan,” he added.

After this election, Veras says he’s ready to move to Florida.

“I think the Civil War between the establishment, the Baker wing of the party and my wing of the party, which is the grass roots. I fought for years to make this party look like the state it wants to represent,” said Veras.

Veras believes working class voters and immigrants flock to the Democratic Party because of the arrogance and corporate culture of the Republican establishment. Even though he believes many of those voters would be a better fit in the Jim Lyons Republican Party.

Virginia Buckingham, who is a former chief of staff to governors William Weld and Paul Cellucci, both moderate republicans, says, “Our party does not win when it’s extreme."

"I think the Republican Party in Massachusetts is going to be in the wilderness for quite some time now. And I think that’s well deserved," Buckingham added. "The party leadership is completely out of step where most people are in the state.”

And Dooley says nothing will change until the party returns to its core beliefs.

“Small government, personal responsibility, fiscal independence, you know basic human compassion,” he said.

Dooley, who lost to Lyons for party chair in 2021, says the MassGOP actually worked against his candidacy, even as it stubbornly stood by Diehl through election night as the race was called for Healey in a landslide.

Some MassGOP leaders have said they don’t care about losing if it means electing a “RINO” -- a “Republican in Name Only.” So where is all of this headed?

“We’re still going to be in a Civil War. We’re still going to go after each other’s throats,” Veras said.

And neither side has a list of young future leaders waiting in the wings to run.

“And that’s a problem," Buckingham said. "I think Charlie Baker was the last of the bench.”

And Baker, for now, has a little to add to the conversation. At a press conference he would only say, “Elections are about the people on the tickets… And the voters have spoken.”

Jim Lyons did not respond to NBC10 Boston's request for an interview Monday.