In their first-ever joint interview, conducted Monday on GBH’s Boston Public Radio, Massachusetts GOP chair Amy Carnevale and Massachusetts Democratic Party chair Steve Kerrigan made it clear that they see abortion, and the ongoing battle over abortion rights, in starkly different terms.
After Carnevale asserted that the GOP stands for freedom, cohost Margery Eagan asked her to square that characterization with the national Republican Party’s efforts to curtail abortion and LGBTQ rights.
“If we’re talking about the issue of abortion specifically, I can talk about our party platform, which actually I wrote going back 12 years now,” Carnevale said. “And it does talk about how the issue of abortion is tragic — that a woman experiencing an abortion is a tragedy, and that the Republican Party believes in programs to care for women in that situation.”
At that point, Eagan interjected, saying poverty is the biggest driver of abortions in the United States and that the Republican Party has opposed attempts to improve the economic situation of lower-income women.
“Here in Massachusetts, abortion is legal,” Carnevale replied. “And, you know, I have no doubt that will continue to be the case. But as a party, we can express the belief that the abortion itself and a woman undergoing that procedure, making the decision for that procedure, is a tragic situation.
“I think that’s actually a position that even [former Republican] Gov. [Charlie] Baker, who is pro-choice, he even agreed with that party position,” she added.
When Kerrigan spoke a few moments later, he seemed to relish the opportunity to draw a distinction between Massachusetts’ Democrats and Republicans on this issue.
“Your point on ‘it’s legal here in Massachusetts’ — there is a Republican effort, nationally, to have a national ban on abortion,” Kerrigan said.
He noted that former President Donald Trump paved the way for the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade by successfully putting three conservative justices on the court.
“When abortion is on the ballot, as it was in 2018 after Brett Kavanaugh [was confirmed] — we saw big wins. As it was in ’22 after the Dobbs decision [overturned Roe v. Wade],” Kerrigan added. “When abortion is on the ballot, Democrats are going to win — and they should win, because we are fighting for women’s equality and reproductive freedom.”
Carnevale, who ousted former state Rep. Jim Lyons as the Mass. GOP chair in January, has pledged to mend a deep rift between the state’s moderate and conservative Republicans and to refocus the party on fiscal issues.
Under Lyons’ leadership, the party tacked hard to the right and suffered at the ballot box. Republican influence reached a low point after the 2022 elections, in which Republicans lost the governorship and saw their already meager legislative ranks dwindle even further.
Kerrigan became chair of the Mass. Dems last month. He replaced outgoing chair Gus Bickford, who stepped down at a moment when Massachusetts has become a de facto one-party state.
If Massachusetts Republicans enjoy a glimmer of hope right now, it lies in Democratic Gov. Maura Healey’s ongoing embrace of the fiscally moderate approach espoused by her predecessor Baker — a dynamic that Carnevale emphasized Monday.
“I do think [Healey] has started out in a more moderate track than many Republicans, frankly, expected,” Carnevale said.
“On her tax proposals, she did borrow a lot of the tax reductions that have been proposed by Gov. Baker and rejected by the Legislature,” Carnevale added. “So, I was pleased to see that she adopted many of those proposals.”
Healey’s tax-cut plan has prompted criticism on the left. It would introduce a child and family tax credit while also raising the threshold for the estate tax and cutting the tax on short-term capital gains. Meanwhile, last year, voters approved a new “millionaires tax” on Massachusetts’ highest-earning residents.
But when cohost Jim Braude asked Kerrigan if there’s a tension between Healey’s proposals and the Democrat-driven surtax, Kerrigan insisted there isn’t.
“Look, the governor has, I think, been very clear from the beginning that she’s going to do what she needs to do to find ways to make Massachusetts more competitive,” Kerrigan said.
Kerrigan, who was the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in 2022, got his new gig thanks largely to Healey, who suggested him for the role when Bickford announced his impending departure in February.
Asked by Braude why Healey picked him for the job, Kerrigan’s reply was succinct.
“I’m lucky,” he said.
