Mass. GOP chairwoman believes next election will be start of Republican resurgence

BOSTON – Recent years have been tough sledding for Massachusetts Republicans, who've seen their numbers in the Legislature dwindle while losing county seats and the governor's office.

But in an interview on WBZ-TV's Sunday morning "Keller At Large" segment, state GOP Chair Amy Carnevale expressed optimism that the November elections will be the start of a Republican resurgence.

"[The party is] laser-focused on our legislative seats in November, building upon the win that we had last year in a special election with Representative Peter Durant, who's now State Senator Peter Durant," Carnevale said. "So we're looking to add to our seats in the legislature all the while doing what we can to support our federal candidates as well."

Uncontested races

While the GOP will have a candidate to run against Sen. Elizabeth Warren for the U.S. Senate, most of the all-Democratic congressional delegation seems headed to unopposed re-election.

"Presidential years are tough in Massachusetts for Republicans," Carnevale conceded. "We're coming off an election cycle where we had losses really across the board. So as party chair, you know, we need to make small gains and walk before we can run."

Migrant crisis in Massachusetts

Carnevale said she sees the migrant crisis as a prime issue for Republicans.

"We do see over a billion dollars being spent towards migrants right now as the state continues to roll out the red carpet to welcome in migrants," she said. "We take no issue with the individual migrants. We don't fault them for wanting to better their lives. But we need to have reasonable policies in Massachusetts and we've seen that the policies as currently drafted are not reasonable."

How Massachusetts views Trump policies

But Carnevale was notably unenthused about the push from the GOP's Christian Nationalist wing to limit access to some types of birth control, an issue former President Donald Trump last week said he was "looking at" before backing away from the topic later in the day.

"I don't see that in Massachusetts, I think the right to contraception is well established here, and I frankly don't see that changing," said Carnevale.

Watch the entire interview on-demand here at cbsboston.com, and watch Jon Keller's feature interviews every Sunday morning at 8:30am on WBZ News.