Baker blanked race for president

BOSTON – He “blanked” it.

Gov. Charlie Baker, who had already ruled out voting for four more years of President Donald Trump, opted against making any choice for president this year.

At an Election Day press conference to unveil his latest Supreme Judicial Court nominee, Baker was asked if he voted for former Vice President Joe Biden instead. “I blanked it,” the Bay State’s top Republican replied.

Baker indicated last month that his mind wasn’t yet made up. Asked Oct. 14 if he would again pass on voting for any presidential candidate, Baker said, “We’ll see.”

Baker left the ballot blank in 2016 when his options included Trump, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and a Libertarian ticket that included Baker’s former boss Gov. Bill Weld as a vice presidential nominee.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, an ideological neighbor of Baker’s, reportedly didn’t fill in any of the candidates’ bubbles this year, either, but wrote in the name of former President Ronald Reagan, who died in 2004.

Back in April 2019, when Hogan was considering jumping into the race himself and Weld was a non-Trump option for Republican primary voters, Baker complimented both Republican governors for working across the aisle to “find common ground and compromise.” He said that the Hogan/Weld “playbook” is one that “most people in this country appreciate and would like to see more of.”

Baker disclosed last week that he mailed in his 2020 ballot, joining the more than 1.3 million Massachusetts voters who have opted to take advantage of the 2020 vote-by-mail law.