Diehl and Healey hit the trail following big primary wins

Republican Geoff Diehl hit the campaign trail Wednesday after clinching his party's nomination for Massachusetts governor.

The former state representative, who's endorsed by former President Trump, beat moderate businessman Chris Doughty in Tuesday's primary by double digits.

Diehl's first stop was an Elks Lodge in West Roxbury, where he showed no signs of moderating his views now that he's facing Democrat Maura Healey in the general election.

"Day one, I'm going to return every state worker back to their job that lost their job because of the vaccine mandate," he said, standing in front of a row of American flags. "Day two, anybody in the administration who thought that was good policy, we're going to replace those folks."

Diehl also railed against a new state law allowing undocumented people to obtain drivers licenses.

"I think what is extreme is policies like rewarding people who have come here illegally with a document," he said.

Massachusetts Republican Party chairman Jim Lyons, speaking alongside Diehl, lamented the fact local libraries are hosting "drag queen story hours," where drag performers read children's books to kids.

White supremacist groups have recently targeted such events in Boston around the country.

Meanwhile, in Worcester, Healey appeared with her new running mate, Salem mayor and lieutenant governor candidate Kim Driscoll, and promised they would work to keep Diehl's — and by extension Trump's — ideology from taking hold in Massachusetts.

Healey and Driscoll are the state's first all-female ticket and both play basketball. They say they're both committed to working as a team to expand housing, improve transportation, bring down the cost of living and protect abortion rights.

Healey said the fall matchup between her and Diehl offers voters a clear choice between visions of governance.

"We want to bring people together, not tear people apart. Geoff Diehl is about tearing people apart," she said. "We are about delivering for people."

And on the first day of the general election campaign, the two sides started squabbling over debates. Diehl said he'd challenge Healey to three meetings. Healey, for her part, said she would debate Diehl, but would not commit to a number of events.