In choosing Jay McMahon of Bourne, Republican primary voters on Tuesday nominated a self-described "constitutional conservative" for attorney general, a veteran trial attorney who has corporate, law enforcement and military experience and has vowed to revoke Attorney General Maura Healey's ban on copycat assault weapons.
McMahon defeated Hingham attorney Dan Shores, with representatives from both campaigns saying Shores had conceded the race. With 52 percent of results in, McMahon led Shores 63 percent to 37 percent.
Healey, a popular incumbent running unopposed in Tuesday's Democratic primary after bursting onto the political scene in 2014, has sued President Trump's administration repeatedly, asserting the illegality of federal policies that she says are also out of step with the values of Massachusetts voters.
In turn, Healey's Republican critics have accused her of overstepping her authority and using the attorney general's office to advance her own political views. At the Republican Party convention in April, McMahon opened his speech by calling Healey a "left wing loony liberal political activist" and touted his more than 30 years of legal experience before judges and government boards throughout the Commonwealth.
McMahon launched his campaign in the summer of 2017 at a chowder cookoff contest at the Westport home of Mary Lou Daxland, leader of the conservative Massachusetts Republican Assembly. At the Republican Party convention in April, he channeled his support for President Trump and Second Amendment rights.
In addition to pledging cooperation with the federal government to end illegal immigration and sanctuary cities in Massachusetts, McMahon, a father of four who lost a son to opioid addiction, has called for better cooperation with federal law enforcement to stop the illegal trafficking of opiates and fentanyl, to "be brutal" with street-level sellers of narcotics and for better treatment programs for addicts, including "involuntary commitment."
"Needle exchange
