Geoffrey G. Diehl (born April 23, 1969) is an American politician from the

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with " republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from th ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. A Republican, he represented the 7th Plymouth district in the

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into single-member ...

from 2011 to 2019. Diehl was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

and for governor of Massachusetts in

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeyp ...

, losing both elections in landslides to Democrats

Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Ann Warren (née Herring; born June 22, 1949) is an American politician and former law professor who is the senior United States senator from Massachusetts, serving since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party and regarded as a p ...

and

Maura Healey Maura Tracy Healey (born February 8, 1971) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the Massachusetts Attorney General since January 2015. She is the governor-elect of Massachusetts, having won the 2022 Massachusetts gubernatorial electi ...

respectively.

Early life and education

Geoff Diehl was born in Austin, Texas. At the age of 3, his family moved to

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Bethlehem is a city in Northampton and Lehigh Counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, Bethlehem had a total population of 75,781. Of this, 55,639 were in Northampton County and 19,3 ...

. He attended

Lake Forest Academy Lake Forest Academy (also known as LFA) is a co-educational college preparatory school for boarding and day students in grades 9 through 12. The school is located on the North Shore (Chicago), North Shore in Lake Forest, Illinois, United States, ...

and graduated from

Lehigh University Lehigh University (LU) is a private research university in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The university was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer and was originally affiliated with the Ep ...

in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in government and urban studies.

Career

After graduating, Diehl moved to New York City and worked in advertising. He later worked in television production in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wo ...

. In 2001, he moved to his wife's hometown of

Whitman, Massachusetts Whitman is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 15,121 at the 2020 census. It is notable as being the place where the chocolate chip cookie was invented. History Whitman was first settled by Europeans i ...

, where he worked as a business development executive in the sign industry. He also supported his wife in successfully starting and running a performing arts school, Boss Academy.

Massachusetts House of Representatives

2010 election

Diehl began his campaign to represent the 7th Plymouth District on February 22, 2010. Diehl received support from previous representatives from the same district, including

Andrew Card Andrew Hill Card Jr. (born May 10, 1947) is an American politician and academic administrator who was White House Chief of Staff under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2006, as well as head of Bush's White House Iraq Group. Card served as ...

, Michael Sullivan, Ned Kirby, and Ronald Whitney. Diehl also received the endorsement of U.S. Senator Scott Brown. On November 2, 2010, he upset incumbent Allen McCarthy and was sworn in on January 5, 2011. He was a member of the Joint Committee on Housing, House Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change, and the House Committee on Technology and Intergovernmental Affairs.

Tank the Gas Tax Movement

Geoff Diehl was a lead supporter of the successful ballot question campaign to repeal the Massachusetts gas tax indexing law in 2014.

2018 U.S. Senate election

In April 2017, Diehl announced his intent to challenge

for her U.S. Senate seat. In the Republican

primary election Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...

held on September 4, 2018, Diehl finished first in a field of three candidates. The incumbent,

, defeated Diehl by 24 percentage points.

2022 gubernatorial campaign

On July 4, 2021, Geoff Diehl announced he was running for

governor of Massachusetts The governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the chief executive officer of the government of Massachusetts. The governor is the head of the state cabinet and the commander-in-chief of the commonwealth's military forces. Massachuse ...

. In October 2021, Donald Trump endorsed Geoff Diehl for Governor. He was Massachusetts state co-chair of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and a Trump delegate to the

2016 Republican National Convention The 2016 Republican National Convention, in which delegates of the United States Republican Party chose the party's nominees for president and vice president in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, was held July 18–21, 2016, at Quicken Loa ...

. Diehl also supported Jim Lyons, the chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party, who in January 2021 was reelected to the party chairmanship after defeating a challenge from Shawn Dooley. As a candidate, Diehl criticized federal and state mandates put in place during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

and continuously supported workers and first responders being fired for not taking the vaccine. He is a proponent of parents who want to decide for their children whether or not they would like a vaccine. At the state party convention on May 21, Diehl was officially endorsed by the Massachusetts Republican Party with 71% of the delegates' votes. He won the Republican nomination on September 6. On November 8,

Attorney General of Massachusetts The Massachusetts Attorney General is an elected constitutionally defined executive officer of the Massachusetts Government. The officeholder is the chief lawyer and law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The officeholder ...

and Democratic nominee

handily defeated Diehl in the general election.https://www.sec.state.ma.us/ovr/

Electoral history

Personal life

Before he entered politics, Diehl was a member of the Whitman Finance Committee. He remains a member of the MetroSouth Chamber of Commerce and South Shore Chamber of Commerce. Diehl is also an

Eagle Scout Eagle Scout is the highest achievement or rank attainable in the Scouts BSA program of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Since its inception in 1911, only four percent of Scouts have earned this rank after a lengthy review process. The Eagle Sc ...

. Diehl and his wife, KathyJo, have two daughters. They live in

References

External links

* , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Diehl, Geoff 21st-century American politicians Candidates in the 2018 United States Senate elections Lake Forest Academy alumni Lehigh University alumni Living people Republican Party members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Politicians from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania People from Whitman, Massachusetts 1969 births