Massachusetts governor hopefuls Healey, Diehl spar in debate

BOSTON — Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey and pro-Trump Republican Geoff Diehl clashed on everything from energy and education to abortion and whether those in the country illegally should have access to drivers license in Massachusetts during their first debate for governor Wednesday. Healey said every child “regardless of their race, their ethnicity, their zip code should have access to a high quality education.” She said Diehl would limit student access to books. “As governor I’m going to continue to work on efforts to diversify our portfolio, to rein in costs, to modernize the grid.” Diehl said Healey and other Democrats are painting a too-rosy picture of the ability of the state to replace fossil fuels with renewable sources of energy like solar and wind. Healey said she would actively work to protect access to abortion, Diehl who hailed the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, said as governor his job would be “to protect people’s health care choices.” He said that sometimes that might require putting his personal views to one side. Healey repeatedly tried to tie Diehl to the former president, saying he would “bring Trumpism to Massachusetts.” Diehl in turn tried to steer the debate away from the former president and said that unlike some Trump supporters, he believes President Joe Biden won the election.