By Christopher Gavin and Zipporah Osei

The MassGOP’s endorsed candidate for governor has a portrait of one of the most prominent Democrats of the last century — and to ever hail from Massachusetts — on his wall.

The portrait of John F. Kennedy was a gift, says Geoff Diehl, the former state representative from Whitman now seeking the Republican nomination for governor in the Sept. 6 primary.

The painting, an artifact of the 1960s, is more of a statement on his general interest in politics than anything else, he says.

Still, when Diehl is playfully confronted with the irony of the symbolism, he quickly rebuffs: “I used to be a Democrat!”

If successful in his primary bid, Diehl will, however, have to deftly bridge the divide between the party of the icon over his shoulder — still the dominating political party in Bay State politics — and his own politics.

Massachusetts voters indeed have a clear record of affection for Republican governors while they also elect to pack the Legislature with Democrats.

But those governors as of late, Gov. Charlie Baker and former governor turned U.S. Sen. for Utah Mitt Romney are also two of the most notable critics of their party’s current leadership, namely former President Donald Trump.

And Diehl, a self-described “libertarian Republican” who took on an unsuccessful U.S. Senate bid against Elizabeth Warren in 2018, has proudly worn Trump’s endorsement in the race.

He’s also perpetuated Trump’s false claims the 2020 presidential election was rigged. In a press release Thursday, Diehl’s campaign touted Trump will appear at a “tele-rally” supporting Diehl on the eve of next week’s election.

If Diehl bests Republican businessman Chris Doughty in the primary and advances to take on the expected Democratic nominee, Attorney General Maura Healey, he believes both of them will have their work cut out for them.

“I’m going to be challenged with things I think that are happening with our current (presidential) administration that aren’t helping economically the people of Massachusetts,” Diehl said, noting Healey will have to defend Biden-era policies. “So, it’ll be a mixed bag.”

Affordability has become a fixture issue on the trail for Diehl, 53, who owns a performing arts school with his wife and is also director of business development at TRQ Auto Parts.

He wants to see state government take advantage of its hefty coffers and roll back taxes where it can, and also re-examine its private-public partnerships. Where can the state do more, and where, exactly, should it do less?

Speaking with Boston.com, Diehl placed an emphasis on allowing individuals to make their own decisions as part of his approach to handling the sought after corner office — chiefly around health care and especially for COVID-19 vaccines.

He and running mate, former state Rep. Leah Cole Allen, have campaigned on the pledge to bring back state employees who were let go from not adhering to a COVID vaccine mandate, as Allen has said she was when she opted against being vaccinated during her time as a nurse.

“I didn’t grow up in politics. I was 40 years old when I ran for office the first time,” Diehl said over a recent Zoom call. “I just look at it more as a calling than a career, and so whether I’m successful or not, I’m just really blessed to be able to go out there and have an opportunity to make my case.”

In the interview, Diehl, among other issues, talked about lowering taxes, fixing the MBTA, his pro-life stance on abortion, and what he wants to pick up from where Baker left off:

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Boston.com: In your July radio debate with Chris Doughty you mentioned lowering taxes, as did Mr. Doughty. Can you get into the specifics of that a little bit, like what exactly would you do as governor to lower taxes for the middle class? And I guess the flip side of that question is, how do you balance any deficit from the loss of that state revenue?

Diehl: I’d say that the fact that this is not just the first year that we’ve had excess tax revenue in the state shows I think we are able to bring in enough revenue to cover what the state needs to operate.

A lot of times, I think it’s decision making that creates some of the problems. I think, at the T, for example, it’s not a revenue issue. I think it’s management. There’s been deferred maintenance for quite a long time that should have been … addressed a long time ago.

I also think that again, the decision on the vaccine mandate may have caused people to leave and have service issues.

So I don’t think it’s always fiscal issues that cause our state to have problems. Boston Public Schools — they have the highest per pupil spending, and yet, right now, we’re seeing a real drop, a decline in the population of students in Boston Public Schools. Sometimes more money doesn’t equal the quality that people expect from it.

So when it comes to taxes, one of the things that I’d like to see right off the bat is to get rid of our state excise tax for vehicles. It’s a Korean War-era tax that’s never gone away. It’s money that gets reimbursed to the towns, so I think that the state could, you know, help the towns with increased local aid to make up for the gap.

But I think the reason I’m targeting the excise tax, for example, is we’re trying to get people into more efficient vehicles for the long haul — for trying to reduce carbon emissions, trying to get people into more energy-efficient vehicles.

So if you want to help somebody get into a more expensive vehicle right now — and hopefully, the cost of those vehicles comes down, but right now it’s expensive to get them into it — you not only have to pay for that vehicle and the sales tax in that first year, but then next year you get hit with a very large excise tax because based on the value of that vehicle, it could be six, seven, eight hundred dollars.

Why are we disincentivizing people to move into a more fuel-efficient vehicle? And, by the way, when I was leading the repeal of the indexing of our state’s gas tax to inflation, I talked about the fact that it was middle- to low-income families that that increase of the gas tax would hurt the most because they’re the ones … (that tend not to be able to) afford more fuel-efficient vehicles. Not just also the fact that the cost of goods would go up and property taxes would be affected, going up, because no state, no town, or city is exempt from the gas tax, and so it would be passed through to the taxpayer. So it really is a regressive tax, the gas tax.

But again, putting that aside for a second. The excise tax, for me, is an immediate way where we can help the environment, help the economy, and help people get into those efficient vehicles, and I think the state has the revenue in place right now to make — and especially with the Green New Deal funding that’s going to be coming through. That would be a perfect opportunity to help people get into more efficient cars.

That’s one thing. I think generally speaking, too, when the state went from 5 percent sales tax to 6-and-a-quarter back in 2009, there was an effect on businesses.

Our neighboring states have a lower sales tax. You’ve seen people move to New Hampshire. I mean right now, there’s been an exodus of people leaving our state to go to states that are more affordable. I just think that when that sales tax went up, obviously the cost gets passed on to the consumer, and that hurts them as well.

So if we’re on track at some point to continue to be able to bring in record tax revenue each year, or more taxes than we anticipate or need, then I’d like to see an opportunity to help reduce some of the burden on our citizens. … When you start to add up the cost of everything, there are areas where I think we can help reduce that overall cost to the individual in the state.

You mentioned the T. And our first reader question has to do with the MBTA. So this question is from Laura, who’s from Littleton. The question is, “The MBTA is obviously a mess. Would you support an increased tax to fix it? If so, how would you convince the state Legislature to approve it? And if not, how would you find the money to fix it?“

I appreciate the question. Like I said, in 2014, I made the case that the state was bringing in enough revenue already to be able to handle transportation needs across the state and the fact that we spend over $672,000 per road mile per year to fix our roads — it’s the second highest in the nation; it’s four times higher than New Hampshire, our border state which has, I think some might make the case, more pristine roads than we have here in Massachusetts.

So I think that where the money is being spent in other areas of transportation can be put towards the MBTA.

The other thing about the MBTA is, you know, we made a contract with that Chinese company that is based out in Springfield, and we really haven’t gotten the quality of product that we expected from them. The fact is, the Orange and Red line cars that they’ve been producing have been delayed or have had faulty elements to them that have caused them to not work as well on our track. So we’ve had to pull them from service to time and again, even though they should have been in place sooner. So (we need) better decisions on the contract making.

The other thing I’d say, too, is a lot of times, you have political appointees that are hired, or consultants that are brought in to oversee the T. And I really feel like it’s the workers that have been working for the MBTA, honestly, you know, and talking to them, I think they know where we can do a better job. But a lot of times in government service you’re afraid to raise your hand and say, ‘Here’s what I think we could do better,’ because again, there’s a mentality sometimes that you have to do things the way that they’ve always been done, or if you raise your hand and you have a better idea, you might make somebody look bad. I just think that frustrates the average worker. I want more state employees in general to feel like as governor, they can come and talk to me without any repercussions. …

I’d like to dig down first before we ask taxpayers to further subsidize what’s currently going on with the T.

And by the way, if I can just add, my wife and I met in New York City … and we didn’t have a car for the first, I don’t know, couple of years that we were married. I don’t think we got a car until we moved out of New York. We were loyal public transportation riders, the subway, the buses, trains out of the city.

I love public transportation. I certainly want to continue to make sure it’s efficient, and I think it’s the way that our state is going to be able to grow, whether, again, it’s South Coast Rail or East-West Rail. I think we can bring people in from out of our state for more tourism but also provide more affordable commuting across the state with less congestion and less demand on our current fuel sources.

Speaking of affordability, housing in Massachusetts has long been expensive, but as of late, rising rents and a sky-high real estate market have made affordable housing even harder to come by for some. How will you approach this issue as governor, especially for renters, who are more likely to struggle financially than homeowners?

My wife and I for years were renters, and you have to make it over that hump to become an owner, which provides you some of the financial benefits … that help you out for the long haul.

My wife and I, you know, lived with my in-laws for a couple of years to be able to save up the money it took to make our first down payment. But again, no matter where you are in the state right now, it feels like costs are just through the roof. And in Boston, I mean it’s so exacerbated. Those triple-deckers in Southie where all the police officers used to live because it was affordable, each one of those floors in Southie is like a million dollars right now, right? So that’s not going to help anybody trying to get into Boston or stay in Boston.

So for the people who are either trying to downsize across the state to a smaller home that’s more manageable, they have a tough time, because that same home is also being the target of a first-time buyer, and they’re having a tough time getting those at affordable prices.

So the Holy Grail is to find that affordable housing, whether it’s renting, or a low-cost unit, to be able to buy it at some point. And so again, I think transportation ultimately is part of the solution. I think remote working … is going to give us an opportunity to take advantage of regions of our state that are currently in their own sort of economic decline, like Fitchburg right now can certainly use an infusion of more people. I think they’ve got buildings and either rental or purchased housing that’s more affordable, and they’ve got an infrastructure that’s in good shape because they’ve got a state college there. …

There’s cities like that all across Massachusetts that are sort of underutilized right now, and I think we could unlock them by creating those better transportation investments.

One thing specifically, (too): veterans’ housing, for example. I know there’s a place called Home Base out in Central Massachusetts that, they’ve done a unique thing where they help veterans get into a property where they purchase it, but they purchase it with some of the V.A. money that they’re given. It gives them that investment so they can stay in there for a while and then take what equity they built up in that V.A. property, that’s on V.A. land, and they use that to invest in purchasing a home off campus once they’re ready.

So there are ways to jump start property ownership, too, for people who are returning from active duty in the military. There’s a lot of voices out there that want to help people.

You know, the mortgage rates right now are going up so that’s going to be harder, too.

When I first got into the state Legislature in 2011, the state was still suffering from a lot of the foreclosure issues from 2008 and 2009. … I was calling banks trying to just argue that they should keep people in their homes. There was illegal robo-signing on foreclosures for people. I want to make sure our courts protect people when it comes to keeping them in their properties as long as possible.

There’s programs other states have done. Pennsylvania has a really interesting program that allows the state to make payments for the homeowner … during the temporary job loss time or economic hardship time. Then what they do is they take their portion of what they helped out with on the back end, when the home is ultimately sold.

So there’s just unique ways to help keep people in that home right then and there when they need it most.

We are coming up on the start of the next school year, and so we have a reader question related to schools and education. This question is from Sean McMahon, from Hudson: “Teachers feel disrespected by their students, parents, and administrators. What steps would you take to retain these these teachers and attract new teachers to Massachusetts?”

Great question. So my wife is a performing arts school owner, but she’s also a teacher — not in the public schools — so she understands the interaction obviously with parents and kids. My sister-in-law, my brother-in-law on my wife’s side both are teachers here in Massachusetts and their spouses are teachers, so I have a whole family full of teachers that can tell me all the pluses and minuses of that job.

It’s one of the greatest jobs to have when you connect with kids, and it’s one of the hardest jobs when kids or parents feel like you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing for them. Ultimately, I think teachers, they’re asked to do quite a bit, and a lot of times what they’re given as resources is difficult or support is difficult.

One of the things I think that’s angering parents right now and causing them to get so worked up about teachers is not what teachers are doing, but necessarily more about interactions with school boards, for example.

I know in some towns, school boards really were not open to listening to parents’ feedback on curriculum or the masking policies. They were very upset about kids continuing to have to wear masks late into last year. … People in the workforce weren’t wearing masks anymore, (but) kids were still wearing masks.

So it was frustrating for parents that their kids were having to wear them, and that anger was poured out onto teachers at the classroom level. And parents were trying to have at least discussion with school boards, and school boards seemed to be very reluctant to parents. We saw in Newburyport, down in Cohasset, Worcester — a lot of areas where parents created groups to really challenge what was going on with schools and try to win some seats on school boards to have more of a voice about what’s going on with their kids.

The other thing that we’ve seen, I believe it’s at least a doubling of homeschooling in the last two years here in Massachusetts, and we’re seeing a real rapid increase in people going to private schools, leaving the public schools and going to private schools.

So I think we have to have a much better open dialogue about what parents are expecting from the schools, and just at least be that release valve during those meetings to feel like parents and kids are being heard.

On abortion, you have said that you are pro-life and that the issue should be left to the states. Do you think abortion should be banned or further restricted in Massachusetts, as has happened in some other states since Roe v. Wade was overturned?

Yeah, no, I mean, my wife and I have personal reasons why we’re both very protective of trying to protect life when we can.

But we also understand, and I fully understand having served in the Legislature, that the governor really executes law and it’s the Legislature that makes the law, you know, the House and the Senate make the law.

Until we have a Legislature that feels that they want to protect life, or that the Roe Act is wrong, abortion will be protected in Massachusetts.

And so you know, my goal is to make sure that people’s health care choices are respected and that includes the vaccine mandate as well. I think that a lot of people argue about “my body, my choice,” and yet when it comes to people’s health care choices about the vaccine, that was out the window. It’s a two-way street.

As governor, I want to make sure that people do get their health care choices protected and at the same time, even Gov. Baker and I, I think, agreed that there were certain elements of the Roe Act that went beyond what I think people consider reasonable as far as current abortion law. …

So again, I understand I am subject to a Legislature that feels differently about that, and you know, again, we have to respect the legislative process. So my personal view is maybe not as aligned, but that’s all about (what) government is: trying to find that compromise or that middle ground on different laws that govern our state.

I’m asking this with full understanding that the Legislature is heavily Democrat-controlled, but as governor, is there anything that you would want to seek to change in existing abortion statute right now? Like just finding inroads with Democrats on — it’s a complex issue, I’m sure there are some (areas).

It is complex. Again, I think that where there’s elements of the current abortion law that I think are questionable as far as late-term abortion. I’d still like to see if we can have a discussion on middle ground.

But the other thing is too, I also feel like we’ve got to protect services out there like pregnancy counseling centers. Right now, I think Sen. Warren has talked about trying to close down Massachusetts pregnancy counseling centers. (Warren has called on Congress to address deceptive and misleading advertising allegedly used by such centers.)

It’s a private group. People aren’t forced to go there. They can go in and … talk about all different options that maybe are different than abortion. So the fact that there’s an effort to try to shut down that extra voice, to me, is troubling.

I’d like to make sure that we protect groups that want to at least give people counseling at no charge, and it’s, again, at those people’s will to come in and talk to these folks. So that’s an area where I think we can also do better about protecting people’s ability to get more information about pregnancy choices.

Obviously the Supreme Court’s decision in overturning Roe v. Wade has opened the door for the court to potentially consider other cases that rest on the same legal theory and precedent, including the right to same-sex marriage.

I know it’s now 2022, but in 2014, a decade after Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage, the MassGOP did pass a platform praising what it called “traditional marriage.” Do you believe same-sex marriage is settled law in Massachusetts? If so, do you think the state should be taking steps to protect same-sex marriage right now, given the Roe decision?

I tend to lean more as a libertarian Republican, which means that I think government should stay out of a lot of personal decisions. Again, health care choices, personal relationship decisions to me are best left up to the individual.

And so, I think the Legislature has taken steps to ensure that people, wherever they find love, they can find that love, right? My goal is to respect those personal individual decisions as governor.

With the continuing evolution of COVID-19 variants we’re seeing now, what should Massachusetts be doing now at this stage in the pandemic?

I think what we’re finding from the (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) is there’s some updates to their guidelines, whether it’s on masking, vaccines, or boosters.

I think at this point we’ve gotten past the pandemic portion of the COVID-related crisis. The governor lifted, in 2021, the emergency measures for the state.

What I’d like to see now is, again, people to be able to make their own choices in regards to masking, in regards to vaccinations or boosters. I don’t think that the state should be requiring it, so I’d like to eliminate any requirements at this point.

I also think the private sector, the nurses, the hospitals, for example, I think they should be looking at recent — I think there was a recent case that showed that private employers can’t require those vaccines as a mandate as well. (Private employers are allowed to impose mandates; however, there are restrictions.)

I think we’re going to see now, hopefully, a rolling back of requirements and allowing people to have those conversations with their doctors and decide what’s the best health care choice for them. And again, for people who feel comfortable wearing a mask and feel it protects them, absolutely, keep doing that. If people feel like they need to work remotely at home, I think that businesses have been able to make that accommodation and can continue to do so.

So again, I think everybody knows we do not want to see the days of COVID come back again. It was a crisis. We all did our part to stay home and then follow guidelines to protect ourselves. But the good news is it does feel like at this point, the variants that may be coming from COVID are less severe, and let’s hope that it continues on that path.

Last year, you gained an endorsement from former President Donald Trump. I know this has been talked about several times over the campaign, but in a debate earlier this month, your running mate, Leah Cole Allen, said your campaign is running under policies of the Trump Administration.

I’m sure it’s no news to you Trump is also unpopular in Massachusetts. If you advance to the general election, how will you seek to appeal to a broader base of voters?

What I felt in 2016 was that candidate Trump at the time was speaking to the American people about things that were finally being addressed and important, at least on the Republican side. He was obviously successful against, was it 16 opponents in that primary?

What he talked about was putting American manufacturing first, trying to make sure that we have a secure border for immigration policy, and, as a quick side note, when I was in the Legislature, I filed legislation to try to speed up immigration in our state. I think one of the things we have to do is let people become American citizens sooner than what the current budget or policy allows for. So I’d like to see federal and state partners, including myself, be part of the discussion to help people become American citizens faster. That can alleviate some of the other side effects.

But anyway, he also talked about, I think, bringing troops home from foreign engagements that were no longer serving our national interest. These were things that were unique, I think, as a Republican candidate that attracted me to him, and he ultimately ended up making his case and winning in 2016 and the presidency.

But I agree, right now, I think what I’m going to be challenged with is talking about how the current economy, the fact that under our current administration, we’ve seen oil independence go away. We’re now having to beg other countries for oil. That’s causing a big problem in our state as far as affordability of fuel. I think that Maura Healey being proud of shutting down two natural gas pipelines, that’s going to affect home heating costs in the fall.

So I’m going to be challenged with things I think that are happening with our current administration that aren’t helping economically the people of Massachusetts. So, it’ll be a mixed bag.

Federally, the choices that we made, Maura Healey, I think she’ll have to defend a lot of the polices that (Biden) has done that really have set us back a bit economically for our country and state.

We’ve got our last reader question for you. This one is from Hans Boerma, from Marblehead, and the question is: “Given the great job Baker has done, how would you differ from his policy approaches?”

You know, it’s funny, I supported Gov. Baker in 2010, 2014, and 2018, and I know that he came from a health care background of trying to make sure that we provide health care to all the people of Massachusetts in an affordable way.

I think one of the things he talked about was more transparency for health care products and services, and I don’t think we’ve achieved that fully, yet. (It’s) almost like trying to create an Amazon for health care.

I think people need to have more of a choice in what they do. A lot of times, they go to their primary care physician to be recommended to the doctor or the medicine that they need, or a service that they need, maybe a new hip replacement, for example. It’d be great if they actually had the ability to go online in Massachusetts and find providers and see if there’s cost differences so that they can actually make sort of that free market decision that allows for more competition and helps drive down costs.

I think that was the transparency Gov. Baker was talking about, and I don’t think we’ve been able to achieve that quite yet. That’s something I’d like to get to.

I know that Gov. Baker was faced with the MBTA crisis immediately in February of 2015, and it gave him an opportunity to make changes at the T. I think that we still obviously clearly need to turn our attention to making sure that the MBTA is more functional and prepared for the long haul.

So I think those are two areas that he’s worked on, but I think there’s more work to be done.

What do you want voters to know about you most of all before Sept. 6?

I think that people just need to know that both my wife and I really care about the state.

We have two daughters that, you know, we selfishly want to see come back to Massachusetts after they do whatever they’re going to do. One of my daughters is in college. The other one is thinking about medical school, but you know whatever they want to do, I hope they stay here in Massachusetts and again, selfishly, get to see our grandkids here and help raise them here.

So everything that we do is based on that instinct but also trying to help our neighbors. We’re both very community-oriented. Of course I’ve served as a state representative. I’ve served on the Finance Committee in my town. My wife has been on the Cultural Council in the town. My wife serves as the head for the town youth cheerleading program.

We just care very much about the people around us, and for us, we’ve been able to expand that circle statewide to a lot of great people that we met since we’ve been able to volunteer and get involved in more things.

That’s the greatest thing about Massachusetts: When you’re in office, you get to meet people that just rise above their daily lives and give back in so many ways. So to harness all the energy and effort from those people, it would be the greatest honor for me.

I’m doing this purely out of a desire. I mean, I’m an Eagle Scout, and you’re supposed to leave the campground better than you found it. This is my one time in life to do something very significant to a state that has been very good to me and my family, and I’m hoping people get to know me more in the campaign process.

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