For the past couple of months, Richard Tisei and I have been working our way around Massachusetts – 7 days a week – meeting with voters, collecting signatures, talking to Republican Convention delegates, and raising money.

We have a very long way to go, but right now, it’s all good. This past week-end, we received an overwhelming endorsement from delegates attending the Republican Convention in Worcester. Among the 3,000+ attendees, we racked up 89% of the vote for Governor, and 100% of the vote for Lieutenant Governor (Richard was running unopposed). Since candidates need to receive at least 15% of the vote at the Convention to make the primary ballot in the fall, Christy Mihos, my opponent for the Republican nomination heading into the Convention, won’t be on the ballot in the fall.

By the way, Christy was very gracious afterward, endorsed Richard and me, and bought me a beer the other night. He made clear he thinks we’re the right choice for Massachusetts.

While the Convention had many, many highlights – including a big-time shout-out from U.S. Senator Scott Brown during his keynote address – my favorite moment was standing before the delegates and delivering my nomination speech. Those who’ve heard me before would have heard some familiar themes – state government is broken, our fiscal house is out of order, our business climate is a disaster, and to get Massachusetts working again, we need to cut spending, cut taxes and reform state government. It’s also a message that resonates with voters. A recent poll indicated that 75% of Massachusetts voters think the November elections should be about jobs, taxes and spending.

If you’d like to watch my speech, here’s the link. It’s 20 minutes long – but really really good(!).

Here is Richard’s speech, too. He also hit the ball out of the park.

The other highlight was the size and enthusiasm of the crowd. I’ve been to several state party conventions, and this was, by far, the biggest and rowdiest one I’ve ever been to. Traveling from one event to another on Friday night, and then working the floor and the stands on Saturday, I realized just how many people were in town for the show. I also couldn’t help noticing how many young people turned out. It was great.

We’re also making major progress on our signature collection efforts. As I’ve said before, “no signatures, no campaign.” On this one, there are no second chances. Richard and I each need 10,000 signatures certified by town clerks to make the ballot. And thanks to our team of volunteers, we are making terrific progress. Don’t let up, though. We need far more than 10,000 raw signatures to end up with 10,000 that can/will be certified.

Many thanks to those of you who are part of our efforts on this. It’s been amazing to watch it unfold across the Commonwealth. And keep going!

This race has a very, very long way to go – but if someone had told me when I jumped in last summer that by the end of April, I’d have a terrific running mate, we’d have locked up the Republican nomination, built a terrific statewide organization, outraised both of our remaining opponents, and were more or less even with two Constitutional Officers in the latest polls, I would have said, “Yee-Haw!”

Like I said, long way to go – but thank you for your help and support.

Charlie Baker