Trump allies, moderates light up Massachusetts GOP primary

The battle for control of the Republican Party has reached deep-blue Massachusetts.

On one side of the GOP contest for governor is Donald Trump-endorsed Geoff Diehl, a conservative former state representative and failed U.S. Senate candidate who’s being advised by former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. On the other is Chris Doughty, a more moderate wealthy businessman and political neophyte who’s poured more than $2 million of his own money into his first campaign.

It’s a low-stakes race where the winner of the Sept. 6 primary is likely to lose to presumptive Democratic nominee Maura Healey, the state’s attorney general, in November. Yet the GOP contest is attracting attention from a growing cast of Republican characters with potential presidential ambitions — and turning a local face-off into a proxy war between the Trump wing of the party and more moderate New England Republicans fighting to keep their way of politicking alive.