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Republican gubernatorial candidate Geoff Diehl (right) announces former state Rep. Leah Allen (left) as his running mate during a press conference outside the State House Monday, March 21, 2022. Photo by Chris Van Buskirk | State House News Service
Republican gubernatorial candidate Geoff Diehl will run as a team with former state representative Leah Allen, a North Shore Republican who spent a brief stint on Beacon Hill before leaving the House to focus on her nursing career.
Diehl, a Whitman Republican who served in the House with Allen, announced her Monday morning as his running mate for lieutenant governor, rounding out what he hopes will be the GOP ticket for governor in November. Allen said she was happy to join Diehl’s campaign because of his stances of “personal freedoms.”
Allen said she has been at risk of losing her nursing job for not being in compliance with a vaccine mandate. She said she was pregnant during the pandemic and was not comfortable receiving a shot out of concerns for what she said were potential long-term effects.
While working as a registered nurse and treating COVID-19 patients, Allen said she witnessed decisions being made from “the top down without a lot of input and, frankly, without consent a lot of times, from the people it was affecting” and the situation made her want to get involved in politics again.
“That’s one of the things that’s very important to me. It’s one of the things that drew me to Geoff’s campaign, was his stance of personal freedoms, autonomy, standing against the vaccine mandates,” she said at a press conference outside the State House. “I was proud to join him on that, as well as just the fact that in Massachusetts prices are rising fast, inflation is going up quickly. We have to think of creative ways to help people in Massachusetts cope with that and make life more affordable here in the state.”
Candidates for governor and lieutenant governor don’t technically run as a ticket in the primaries, but both Diehl and his Republican rival for the nomination Chris Doughty have teamed up with former House lawmakers to run together this year. Doughty has announced Kate Campanale, a Spencer Republican, as his running mate.
Diehl said the new duo – Allen and himself – plan to focus on getting past the pandemic as “effectively as possible” and provide the leadership that is expected from politicians on Beacon Hill.
“Both of us have served in the Legislature, we have that experience. We’re both parents. Leah has an even more, I think, relevant experience serving as a nurse, most recently during the pandemic,” Diehl said.
