DEDHAM — Massachusetts Republican Party Chair Amy Carnevale won reelection Saturday to the top post in the state party, beating out a single challenger for a second term with a pledge to continue professionalizing the organization ahead of a state election in 2026.

A former lobbyist and longtime committeewoman, Carnevale took over as the party’s chair in 2023 as the organization was struggling with its finances, vicious infighting, and key electoral losses. But the Marblehead Republican argued she has helped transform the party since then.

In remarks just before her win, Carnevale said she helped the party end five lawsuits against it, put the organization on a path to pay off more than $700,000 in debt incurred under prior chair Jim Lyons, brought in a new compliance firm to settle bills and fines, and boosted its messaging.

“We will never become a force in state or national politics unless we keep the infighting that’s plagued us back in the rearview mirror, which is a theme that we’ve heard a lot about today,” Carnevale said. “The MassGOP has always been an underdog in the fight but if you reelect me here today, I promise that you will never remain out of it. Over the next two years, I will work with all of you to grow our party from within.”

Republican State Committee members voted 47 to 22 to install Carnevale as the chair for the next two years over Jim Davidson, who argued Carnevale’s first term saw fundraising decline and a low turnout of Republican candidates in the 2024 election.

Davidson, who worked on the successful campaign of Rep. Justin Thurber, a Somerset Republican, said the party needed new leadership after a net zero gain in the Massachusetts House and a single pickup in the Senate.

“You have two choices before you on how you want to spend the next two years of your life. Do you want to spend it in the same room listening to the same people saying,
if only Massachusetts wasn’t so blue things would be different’ or do you want to spend it fighting and taking back our state and winning every competitive district against the Democrats?” he said.

Jo-Anne Hodgson, a state committeewoman and the wife of former Bristol County Sheriff Tom Hodgson, said the Massachusetts Republican Party is experiencing an “interesting time” after working through “hard feelings.”

She said the MassGOP is in a “different place at this moment in time.”

“We are not lemmings like the opposition party, where everybody has to be in lockstep, everybody has to believe absolutely every piece of the philosophies right down to the nickel. We have an opportunity to be a big tent and under Amy, we have become that,” she said.

The party is not completely clear of its financial troubles, including cleaning up $74,000 in potential illegal contributions it received during the 2022 election cycle.

The MassGOP is working towards a settlement with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance that would likely see the organization pay “significantly less” than the alleged illegal donations, Carnevale said.

“Instead of either refunding or repaying or disgorging dollar-for-dollar contributions, you’re basically just offering a lower amount,” she told reporters.

Carnevale’s second term will see her guide the party through the 2026 election when residents will vote for their next governor and U.S. Sen. Ed Markey is up for reelection.

Mike Kennealy, a former secretary under Gov. Charlie Baker, said he is “seriously considering” a gubernatorial bid as a Republican in 2026. Gov. Maura Healey has not said whether she plans to run for a second term.

Kennealy, who was present at Saturday’s Republican state committee meeting, did not provide a timeline for a potential announcement nor did he give any insight into what will tip him one way or the other.

“I’m seriously considering it. That’s about all I have to say today. I want to really keep the focus on Amy and her leadership. She’s done a terrific job for us. But we’ll have more to say about that,” Kennealy told the Herald. “I can confirm I am seriously considering at this point.”

The race for the top elected post at the MassGOP came the same week Healey found herself under fire for her handling of security at state-run emergency shelters housing migrants and local residents.

Healey acknowledged Friday that her administration was not conducting widespread criminal background checks for everyone in the shelter system despite an order in the spring to do so.

The first-term Democrat reordered state officials to look into the potential criminal histories of all state-run shelter residents, said she would commission an independent review of security at shelter sites, and signaled an openness to residency requirements for the emergency assistance program.

Carnevale said Healey is “backed into a corner and failing in the polls every day” and the party would try to put forward “a challenge in nearly every legislative race in 2026.”

“We have tremendous opportunities in 2026,” Carnevale said. “I feel like 2024 was really laying the groundwork for this next election cycle. We have so much to do to bring back accountability, transparency, and Republican principles here in Massachusetts, and the opportunity is ours.”