Scott Lively, Former Independent Candidate, Is Running For The Republican Nomination

Four years ago he ran as an Independent for governor of Massachusetts, now Scott Lively, a controversial anti-gay pastor and activist, announced Friday that he will run as a Republican in Massachusetts' 2018 gubernatorial race, running in the primary against incumbent Gov. Charlie Baker.

Lively is "Calling all present, former and future Republicans to band together to rescue the Mass[achusetts] GOP from Swamp Rino Charlie Baker and his Democrat Cronies."

In the following weeks after announcing his campaign, Lively has criticized Baker for defending the legalization of marijuana in Massachusetts stating "How did we ever arrive at a place here in Massachusetts where the drug culture became normalized by the government, and the governor is more concerned about protecting the new drug trade than he is about the vast numbers of kids already hooked on pot, headed for crack or heroin"

His education policy involves "streamlin[ing] our vastly bloated educational bureaucracy to free up funding for more teachers to reduce class sizes and increase personal attention to students" and "assist[ing] inner-city welfare-dependant families to home school their children, allowing parents currently under government dependency to use funding available from educational vouchers to teach their own children."

Lively has also proposed an economic policy "based on Biblical principles as I understand them" that "encourage entrepreneurialism, innovation, and the right to contract, with minimal government interference" and "abolish[ing] public-employee unions and return to the earlier model in which public service was a civic duty and privilege shared by the citizens."