Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker is giving a wrap-up of the midterms, saying the elections prove voters are no longer interested in extremists.
In an interview with CNN, Baker said the Republican Party needs to move on from former President Donald Trump after voters in the midterm elections heartily rejected extremism.
"One of the big lessons that the Republican Party nationally needs to take away from it is voters want collaborative elected officials. They don't want extremes," he said. "Voters, generally speaking, especially in battleground states, aren’t interested in extremism. They just aren't."
Baker added that Trump "hurt the party’s chances on Election Day," especially in swing states where the former president endorsed candidates who embraced his lies about widespread election fraud. Most of those candidates lost, CNN noted.
"We need, as a party, to move past President Trump and to move on to an agenda that represents the voices of all those in the party and the people of the country," Baker said. "The big message coming out of Tuesday – and I would argue the big message voters are going to send going forward – is you need to demonstrate in word and deed that you believe this is more, that this is always going to be about more, than just your party and your partisans."
Baker, who did not seek a third term and is slated to leave office in early January, said he thinks voters "want people who they believe are going be reasonable, who are going to be collaborative and who represents sort of the fundamental tenet of democracy -- that it's supposed to be a distributed decision-making model and you're supposed to be OK with that."
Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey will take over the reigns when Baker leaves office. Not only is Healey the first woman to be elected governor of Massachusetts, she's also the nation's first openly lesbian governor. Healey overwhelmed Republican challenger Geoff Diehl, a former state representative who was endorsed by Trump, taking more than 63% of the vote, according to the Associated Press.
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