Massachusetts
Massachusetts Has Not Been Kind to Donald Trump — Yet
It’s a fool’s errand to guess how well a political candidate is doing in an election season by counting campaign signs posted on the lawns of potential voters.
If an outsider were dropped from space into southeastern Massachusetts and taken for a drive through Dartmouth, Acushnet, Freetown and the like, they might think they’ve arrived deep in Trump country.
From my observation, based solely upon where I’ve driven, it would appear former President Donald J. Trump has a significant advantage over Democratic challenger Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump’s signs appear to outnumber Harris’s signs by a significant amount but as usual, perception is not always reality.
A recent Trump rally sponsored by the Mattapoisett Republican Town Committee attracted over 600 supporters. Trump merch sells like hotcakes.
Massachusetts Has Never Been Kind To Donald Trump
Massachusetts has come a long way since 2016, when Trump faced off and eventually defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton to become the 45th President of the United States. Massachusetts Trump supporters were too intimidated then to display their support for their candidate for fear of being canceled – or worse.
Though support for Trump appears to be stronger in Massachusetts than during previous runs in 2016 and 2020, don’t kid yourself as this is a Democrat stronghold, and Trump has never done well here.
Clinton collected 60.8 percent of the Massachusetts vote in 2016 to Trump’s 33.5 percent. Trump fared even worse against Joe Biden in 2022, collecting 32.1 percent of the vote to Biden’s 65.6 percent.
Trump has never had the support of statewide officeholders in Massachusetts, even though Republicans held the governor’s office in both elections. The entire delegation to Washington, D.C. is controlled by Democrats.
Massachusetts Has Not Been Kind To Donald Trump – Yet
One loyal Trump supporter from the start, former Bristol County Sheriff Tom Hodgson, runs the Trump campaign in Massachusetts.
“We are hearing from Democrats that they are voting for Trump, and doing so with real emotion and enthusiasm,” he said.
“We have Democrats asking neighbors, who are displaying Trump yard signs where they can get one,” Hodgson said. “Of course, we are happy to accommodate.”
Trump is unlikely to carry Massachusetts in November; no Republican presidential candidate has won Massachusetts since Ronald Reagan beat Walter Mondale here in 1984.
Don’t tell that to Hodgson, who says, “We have a real shot!”
LOOK: President Trump Through the Lens
Quite possibly one of the most famous icons in conservative American history, Donald Trump is a caricature we’ve been watching change the world of politics through business-minded outlooks and prioritizing protecting the American worker.
Gallery Credit: Aaron Flint
PEEK INSIDE: A Trump Tower Luxury Condo
Gallery Credit: Josh Lipton – Compass
Massachusetts
Swimmer pulled from Houghton’s Pond after search
A teenager was pulled from a pond in Milton, Massachusetts, after he went missing while swimming Saturday night.
The Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office said the teenaged male was taken to a Boston area hospital following the incident at Houghton’s Pond. It’s unclear how long the teen was under water, and there was no immediate word on his condition.
State police had said earlier that they responded to the pond shortly after 7 p.m. for a person who entered the water and didn’t resurface. State police divers, detectives, troopers, and the Milton Fire Department were all on scene involved in the search.
The DA’s office is conducting an investigation with state police that remains ongoing. Further information is not being released at this time.
This story will be updated when we learn more
Massachusetts
Mass. man charged with posing as teen, exposing himself to 12-, 13-year-old girls
A Massachusetts man is facing multiple charges for allegedly engaging in inappropriate communications and exposing himself to children.
Orate Kyle Graham, 20, of Bridgewater, was arrested this week on two counts of disseminating obscene material to a minor and one count of accosting or annoying another person.
Bridgewater police said they were made aware Tuesday of allegations involving interactions between several girls age 12 and 13 and an individual known to them only as “Jay.” The individual said he was 17 years old during conversations with the girls through FaceTime and in person.
Through an investigation, police identified “Jay” as Graham, and also found that he had regularly engaged in interactions with the minor victims. During those interactions, he allegedly exposed himself and asked the girls to expose themselves to him.
He was arrested Thursday and taken to the Plymouth County House of Correction, where he was held on $25,000 bail. The case remains under investigation by Bridgewater police and the Plymouth District Attorney’s Office.
Massachusetts
Fisherman reels in white shark off Massachusetts, then snags the hook from its toothy mouth
BILLERICA, Mass. (AP) — Elliot Sudal didn’t need a bigger boat, but he did need to find a way to get a hook out of a shark’s mouth.
Sudal, a veteran angler and boat captain, reeled in the nearly nine-foot shark — also commonly known as a great white shark or a great white — on June 7 on Nantucket. White sharks are a protected species in the U.S. and must be released immediately when accidentally caught.
That presents a nasty problem for a fisherman because the white shark is a formidable apex predator best known for the 1975 movie Jaws, in which Roy Scheider utters the famous line “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” upon seeing the big fish. Sudal, who caught the shark while fishing from shore, decided to use his encounter to demonstrate how to respond to such a situation.
Sudal posted a video of himself removing the hook to his social media accounts. In the video, Sudal climbs onto the back of the shark, secures the fish in the surf, and removes the hook from its mouth. By the end of the short video, the shark is back in the water.
White sharks typically have about 300 teeth arranged into five rows, so speed was key.
“Hooks out and back on her way in 15 seconds, not sure how to do it better,” Sudal wrote in an Instagram post that included a video of the shark release.
Sudal is no stranger to sharks, and has caught and tagged hundreds of them over the years. He said in a social media post that this month’s encounter with a white shark was the first time he has ever caught one of them in more than a decade of the work.
Sudal’s practices have sometimes attracted the attention of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, such as in 2017, when the agency investigated his handling of a smalltooth sawfish, an endangered species, in Florida. The agency said in 2018 that it sent Sudal a letter “informing him of the Endangered Species Act issues and the safe handling protocol for sawfish.”
White sharks are not listed under the federal Endangered Species Act, but are subject to special federal protections. The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers them vulnerable globally.
Sightings of white sharks off New England have ticked up in recent years, and some scientists have pinned that to the greater availability of the seals that they prey on. Dangerous encounters between white sharks and humans are extremely rare, and only a few dozen fatal white shark bites on people have ever been recorded.
___
Whittle reported from Portland, Maine.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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