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Republican Senate Hopeful Gomez Runs, From Scituate To Cohasset

"All the good dreams come true," Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Gabriel Gomez told a supporter by the side of the road in Scituate on Thursday where Gomez met about 20 supporters in front of the town's Veterans of Foreign Wars post. Scituate still has a small struggling fishing community, and Gomez promised to help fishermen.

"The fishing industry here has been under attack for the last three years," Gomez said. "We need to reform these catch limits, and also the burdens and the permits that are just excessive on the fishing industry here, both in the South Coast as well as up in Gloucester."

Among the supporters gathered to see Gomez off on a three-mile run to Cohasset was 21-year-old Pete Roffo, of Marshfield. He's a Republican and said Gomez could help lead the party in a new direction that won't turn women away out of fear that Republicans would overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case that legalized abortion.

"[The party] needs to change in a serious way and I think that he's not with his party 100 percent on some of these issues, that it's going to change the Republican Party and change the way younger people feel about it," Roffo said. "And we're not scaring women into voting just because they're trying to overturn a Supreme Court case that can't be done."

Roffo was there with his mother, Laura Roffo, who was holding a Gomez sign. She is also a Republican.

"I feel like the Republican Party needs to change," Laura Roffo said. "It needs to go to a more moderate base. It needs to come into this century with the social issues."

Waiting for Gomez on the other end of his run in front of the VFW post in his hometown of Cohasset were a dozen supporters.

"Should have run with me," Gomez told one.

The Cohasset VFW, across the street from the town's war memorial, is where Gomez has met many of the town's veterans.

"This is always great coming in here," Gomez said. "You meet a lot of police officers, a lot of firefighters, and they got the same concerns the rest of the state has, the rest of the country has, and that is they've lost faith in D.C. because D.C. is so broken, and they want somebody to go down there and represent them. And not some special interest group or some party. They just want to be represented like everybody else, and that's why our candidacy is really taking off."

Gomez lingered with family and neighbors before heading home to prepare for a fundraiser in Boston with former Gov. Bill Weld.

This program aired on June 21, 2013. The audio for this program is not available.

Headshot of Fred Thys

Fred Thys Reporter
Fred Thys reported on politics and higher education for WBUR.

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