Keller: Republican shift in Massachusetts shows voters are tired of ‘wokeness’

The opinions expressed below are those of Jon Keller, not those of WBZ-TV, CBS News or Paramount Global.

BOSTON – Massachusetts has long been known as a Democratic state, but the 2024 elections showed a Republican shift.

Presidential election

Vice President Kamala Harris won the state gained 11 electoral votes on Tuesday, but former President Donald Trump improved his vote totals from 2020. Trump won in 75 cities and towns in Massachusetts. Eleven of those communities voted for Democrat Joe Biden four years ago.

So what’s behind the shift?

Saugus, one of those cities that voted for Trump, is great example of a longstanding reality here in Massachusetts. We may be a reliably Democratic state in federal elections, but independents are the dominant voters, and many of them, as well as a significant number of Democrats, are to the right of our liberal elected officials.

“In this two-year cycle, we will have won two seats in the Senate. We did that in a presidential election year that is often very difficult for the Republican Party,” MassGOP Chairwoman Amy Carnevale told WBZ-TV.

Trump voters in Massachusetts

It is no coincidence that Massachusetts voters have elected Republican governors in seven of the last 10 elections. Voters of all types have been hurt by inflation lately. And this year, controversial issues like the influx of migrants into Saugus’ public schools certainly led some local voters to vote for Trump, who made immigration his signature issue.

One thing is certain: voters here and elsewhere are fed up with external so-called “wokeness,” policies that may be well-intentioned but often strike people as unnecessary political correctness. Real or imagined and exaggerated, that sort of thing is catnip for politicians like Trump, who bill themselves as the antidote to wokeness.