With their primaries past them, Republican gubernatorial nominee Geoff Diehl and Democratic nominee Maura Healey pushed into the general election fray Wednesday, making their opening pitches to the wider public responsible for picking the successor to Governor Charlie Baker.
They sounded a lot like their old ones.
Diehl, a Donald Trump-backed former lawmaker, stayed focused on his staunch conservative appeal, vowing to protect “individual freedom.” And Healey, the state’s attorney general, doubled down on filtering her candidacy through pocketbook issues like affordability and job creation, investing in infrastructure, and pursuing tax relief.
The sprint to November usually draws new themes from candidates who, no longer beholden to appealing solely to their party bases, seek to broaden their appeal or at least moderate for an electorate in which 60 percent of registered voters now don’t subscribe to any party.
“It’s more important today for candidates to come to the middle in a general election than ever before,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center. “The middle is a bigger story this time around.”
Healey, in overt tones, suggested she’s already there. On Wednesday, the progressive prosecutor launched the next phase of her campaign in the literal middle of the state, appearing alongside her new running mate, Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll, in Worcester.
They made their way through the central Massachusetts city’s public market, sampling gelato, shaking hands, and taking pictures. They were greeted with a prosecco toast, where they clinked mini flutes to celebrate a successful primary night. Healey did not face an active opponent; Driscoll emerged from a three-way primary.
“We made the intentional decision to start our campaign in the heart of the Commonwealth,” Healey told supporters Wednesday. “It’s a region that represents the kind of economic development that we are so looking to champion.”
They also emphasized protecting reproductive health care and rejecting what she called the “Trumpism” of Diehl.
“Together we can earn the support of voters across this state — Democrats, unenrolled, Republicans,” said Healey, adding that she is “very, very confident” that those who may not have supported Healey or Driscoll in their primary races “will come around.”
“We want to bring everybody in,” she said.
Speaking outside an Elks lodge in West Roxbury hours earlier, Diehl opened with similar vows he made while topping Chris Doughty, a largely self-funded Wrentham businessman, in their GOP primary. If elected, he said one of his first acts would be to rehire state workers fired for refusing to get a COVID vaccine and replace those who agreed with Baker’s decision to enact the mandate.
Diehl promised to be a check on a “very extreme, liberal Legislature” and warned of an expanding government should Democrats, under Healey, retake the governor’s office in November. “This is a campaign about two different choices: Bigger government under Maura Healey or more individual freedom under the Diehl-Allen administration,” he said, referencing his running mate and lieutenant gubernatorial nominee, Leah Allen.
Jim Lyons, the state party chairman, introduced Diehl by condemning who he called “radical” Democrats.
He accused Healey — and “people on the left” — of seeking to dull “parental rights” and believing that “parents can no longer raise their children.” He criticized a law allowing undocumented residents to apply for driver’s licenses, a measure Republicans are seeking to repeal on the November ballot and believe can help animate voters behind Diehl.
“When we get up and we see libraries using our tax dollars promoting drag queens, that should make every single one of us scratch our head,” Lyons said, referencing so-called drag story hours that have increasingly become conservative targets. “Is that what we’re becoming? It really is outrageous.”
To understate it: This is a distinctly different pitch from Republicans’ last nominee, the twice-elected Baker.
The day after easily dispatching a primary foe in 2018, Baker introduced Jack Connors, a major philanthropist and registered Democrat, as his campaign chairman in an overt play to display his aisle-crossing appeal.
Four years earlier, Baker entered his general election fight against Martha Coakley bemoaning — like Diehl — “this one-party stuff” on Beacon Hill. But he wrapped it in a promise to bring an “independent brand of bipartisan leadership.” He later released television ads with Democrats saying they are voting for him and tying him closely to former governor William F. Weld, his political mentor.
Diehl can expect no such coattails. Baker does not intend to get involved or endorse in the race to succeed him, and an aide declined to say Wednesday whether Baker will even vote for his party’s ticket in November.
“Since he’s not intending to endorse in the gubernatorial contest, he thinks it’s appropriate to keep the vote to himself,” said Jim Conroy, a Baker adviser.
While Diehl has been openly critical of Baker’s decision, Healey has been far more deferential, even thanking the Republican for his service during her speech accepting the opposing party’s nomination, saying he “refused to engage in the politics of division and destruction.”
Such appeals make sense, said David Hopkins, Boston College political scientist. Despite his party affiliation, Baker has regularly polled more favorably among Democrats than Republicans during his nearly eight years in office — an unusual dynamic given the partisan proliferation that’s engulfed politics.
“She’s presenting herself in some respects as the true heir,” Hopkins said. “‘If you like Charlie Baker, you’re welcome in my campaign.’”
Following a sleepy gubernatorial primary, voters are likely to, at least, see more of their choices over the next nine weeks. Healey, who did not have a primary opponent for the last two months, has yet to appear in a debate; Diehl and Doughty did one on a conservative radio show. Diehl had refused a slate of others, calling it a strategic decision to better reach conservative voters.
On Wednesday, he said he would push to hold at least three debates with Healey; the South End Democrat said she’s “happy to debate Geoff Diehl anytime.”
And if Wednesday is an indication, Diehl signaled he would search out new different media opportunities after joining “Boston Public Radio” on GBH, an outlet whose debate invitation he had declined just weeks earlier.
“I love coming in here,” Diehl told hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan.
“You do?!” Eagan said.
It started an, at times, uncomfortable half-hour in which they pressed Diehl, who has called the 2020 election “rigged,” on whether he believes President Biden was legitimately elected. (”He was certified,” Diehl said.)
They also asked whether he, as a self-identified “pro-life” Republican, would file legislation to change the state’s abortion rights law if elected. Diehl indicated he wouldn’t. “There’s no reason for me to file legislation like that knowing that the Legislature will never make a change to that,” he said.
And they wanted his assessment of Trump’s action during the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol. Diehl, at one point, said he thought Trump had been proactive by asking for the “Capitol guard to come in before Jan. 6 but he was rejected.”
“I think that’s been disputed, as untrue,” Eagan said. (A version of that claim is false, according to Politifact.)
Diehl didn’t relent. “I understand there’s going to be differences,” Diehl said. “And on this station, I’m sure it’s going to be heavy differences.”
Matt Stout can be reached at matt.stout@globe.com. Follow him @mattpstout. Samantha J. Gross can be reached at samantha.gross@globe.com. Follow her @samanthajgross.