How Geoff Diehl’s Conservative Crusade Will Lead to the U.S. Senate

He seems nearly uninterested, certainly unmoved, by the potential link to a lineage of rich Massachusetts political history. He would be the first sitting state representative to win election to the U.S. Senate since Republican Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. upset popular Democrat governor James M. Curley in 1936. He would also be the first Republican to beat an incumbent Democrat senator in a general election since Lodge defeated David I. Walsh (after Lodge returned from serving in WWII) in 1946. And he would be the first Republican to claim victory in a general election for the Senate since Edward W. Brooke III (the first African-American elected by popular vote to the chamber, in 1966) was reelected in 1972. Geoff Diehl, however improbably, would simply be content to "represent all the people" of Massachusetts after the 2018 senate race. He is undaunted being underestimated.

Dressed in summer khakis with blue Oxford shirt, and seated in a booth at the Fireside Grille in Middleborough, Diehl appeared disarmingly comfortable during the interview for this column. Relaxed, in fact.