Republican state Rep. Geoff Diehl has defeated two other GOP primary candidates in Massachusetts for the chance to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren in November.
Diehl beat back the campaigns of business executive John Kingston and Beth Lindstrom, a Cabinet official under former Massachusetts Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, in Tuesday's primary.
Of the three, Diehl had the closest ties to President Donald Trump. Diehl co-chaired Trump's 2016 Massachusetts campaign. He was quick to note that despite its liberal reputation, Massachusetts gave Trump one of his most lopsided early primary wins.
All three candidates tried to turn Warren's national profile against her, criticizing her for being too politically extreme and spending too much time preparing for a possible presidential run in 2020.
"We're not going to take anything for granted," Diehl said when he stopped by his Braintree campaign headquarters to thank volunteers on Tuesday. "You can see we've got a lot of people working here. I've been traveling around the polls tlaking to people. We feel really good."
Kingston, a businessman, once tried to fund a third-party challenge to Trump but has since become more supportive of the president.
"We're seeing the same response everywhere, just lots of excitement and enthusiasm," he said Tuesday before polls closed. "People are ready to take on Elizabeth Warren."
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Lindstrom was a member of Gov. Mitt Romney's administration.
"I've had a long history of working across the aisle with people from Beacon Hill to be able to create relationships, and that's what it's all about," Lindstrom said Tuesday.
Warren is a favorite target of Trump, who frequently and derisively refers to her as "Pocahontas" to ridicule her claims of Native American heritage. Warren, who has been equally harsh in her criticism of Trump, has said she's focused on winning re-election this year.
"I'm honored to be the Democratic nominee for the Massachusetts Senate seat this November," Warren tweeted after the polls closed Tuesday night. "This campaign has never been just about me - it's been about all of us fighting to level the playing field for working people. I will fight my heart out, and I hope you will too."
