Maura Healey to face Geoff Diehl in November governor’s race

Attorney General Maura Healey, who rocketed to prominence as the state’s litigator-in-chief against Donald Trump before clearing the Democratic field for governor this year, officially captured the party’s nomination Tuesday, setting up an acrid general election fight with Geoff Diehl, a Trump acolyte whom GOP voters embraced as their gubernatorial nominee.

The results, projected by the Associated Press Tuesday night, cement the general election race to succeed Governor Charlie Baker, the state’s second-term Republican who is not seeking reelection.

The matchup will top a ballot of potentially history-making races. Healey’s endorsed successor, Andrea Campbell, emerged victorious in a primary for attorney general to become the first Black woman ever to win a Democratic nomination for a statewide office.

Diehl, a former state lawmaker and past US Senate nominee, won the Republican nomination over Chris Doughty, a first-time, largely self-funded candidate, after promising a conservative vision that hews far closer to that of Trump and the national GOP than Baker, the state party’s longtime moderate standard-bearer.