Marblehead's Amy Carnevale Elected MA Republican State Chair

MARBLEHEAD, MA — A shift from staunch conservative outrage at state Democratic leadership to a more pragmatic outreach approach aimed at increasing and expanding the minority Republican party in the state helped fuel Marblehead lobbyist Amy Carnevale to victory in the race to be the party's next chairperson on Tuesday night.

Carnevale beat out Chair Jim Lyons, who sought to firmly align the party with the right-wing policies and often-bombastic attacking political style of former President Donald Trump but suffered punishing losses statewide in the 2022 election, in a Republican State Committee vote Tuesday night in Marlborough.

Carnevale edged Lyons, 37-34, on a second ballot of the Committee.

She is a three-time delegate to the Republican National Committee and lobbyist for K&L Gates, and twice backed Trump for president. But she also supported moderate former Gov. Charlie Baker at a time when Lyons sided with Trump in a fierce public feud between the two.

Lyons said on the day Baker announced he was not seeking a third term as governor that it was "clear to me that Charlie Baker was shaken by President Trump's endorsement of another candidate."

"No, not shaken," Baker responded during his news conference with Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito on their collective decision not to seek re-election in 2022. "No. Not at all. Nope. Not at all."

Carnevale's campaign against Lyons focused on the beating the party took in November in which the party was left with just over two dozen seats out of a 200-person state legislature and wiped out of statewide constitutional leadership offices.

"Our team would work hard to build stronger ties with our counterparts on Beacon Hill," she said in her campaign launch. "With a clear objective, our party can be doing so much more to help our legislators and local elected officials.

"We need to rebuild from the bottom up."

The Democratic ticket of Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll beat the Republican ticket of former State Rep. Geoff Diehl and former State Rep. Leah Allen by 29 points.

Carnevale pledged a push for support from more independent-minded and swing voters in the state in an effort to increase the party's influence by winning more elections.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)