Politics
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick will not run for Presidency in 2016
Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts. PHOTO/File
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick said Tuesday he won’t be a candidate for president in 2016, even as speculation about his political future soared after the chairman of the state Democratic party announced he was stepping down to head up Patrick’s political action committee (PAC).
John Walsh was named party head in 2007 after helping Patrick win the governor’s office a year earlier. Walsh said Tuesday he will resign this fall to become executive director of Patrick’s Together PAC.
Patrick formed the PAC in 2011 to help pay for his travels around the country campaigning on behalf of President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign and supporting the national Democratic Party.
Patrick said he now wants to “repurpose” his PAC for the next 18 months and beyond to focus on supporting what he called “grassroots, conviction-based politics here in the commonwealth and elsewhere.”
Instead of supporting individual candidates, Patrick said he envisions using the PAC to help pay for political organizing efforts by like-minded Democrats.
“I am interested in people who are willing to run, willing to lose, meaning that they actually believe in something and are willing to put it on the line so we want to support that both here in the commonwealth and elsewhere in the country,” Patrick told reporters.
Patrick’s decision to move Walsh over to his PAC comes as donations to the political committee have accelerated in recent months.
