'Forgery' scandal eliminates two more Republicans as party struggles to field candidates

U.S. President Donald Trump attends a press briefing at the White House, in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 20, 2026. (REUTERS)

The Boston Globe reports Two Republican candidates for statewide office, including the state party’s de facto nominee for attorney general, won’t appear on the September primary ballot after the commission that oversees ballots took issue with hundreds of nomination signatures they submitted.

The result comes as a shock considering President Donald Trump and his Republican Party’s purported war on voter fraud in what critics say is actually a ploy to remove Democratic voters from rolls.

Despite the party’s crusade, however, Anne Manning Martin, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, and Michael Walsh, the party’s endorsed candidate for attorney general, were both knocked off after the commission found problems with enough of the signatures they had collected.

“In accordance with the Ballot Law Commission’s decisions, the names of Anne Manning Martin for Lieutenant Governor and Michael C. Walsh for Attorney General will not be printed on the September 1, 2026, state primary ballots,” said Deb O’Malley, a spokesperson for Secretary of State William Galvin’s office.

The commission invalidated 1,021 signatures of the 10,677 Walsh turned in to the secretary of state’s office, leaving him hundreds of signatures short of the 10,000 required to make the ballot.

For Manning Martin, the commission invalidated 1,279 signatures her campaign submitted, leaving her with only 9,413 “valid signatures.”

“A general review of the certified signatures on the nomination papers also demonstrates they are likely fraudulent,” the commission wrote in the decision.

The Globe reports this decision is “the latest development in the signature fraud controversy that has now decimated the Republican ticket, knocking off two candidates for lieutenant governor and eliminating the party’s sole challenger to Attorney General Andrea Campbell.”

“The state Republican party, already struggling to field candidates down-ballot, is now only officially challenging for three of the six statewide constitutional offices, all of which are currently held by Democrats,” The Globe reports.

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