Will Baker run again? Former president has skin in that game

Donald Trump just might keep Charlie Baker in the race.

That is because if the governor declines to seek a third term in 2022, it will be seen as a victory for Trump. He will have forced Baker into retirement — at least the way Trumpers will spin it.

Because of that possibility, Baker may run for re-election to “beat” Trump as well as Trump’s candidate for governor.

Trump has targeted Baker, a longtime critic, for supporting his impeachment, and for being a RINO.

The former president, who never lets a slight go unanswered, stormed into Massachusetts GOP politics when he endorsed fellow Republican Geoff Diehl for governor.

Diehl, a former state representative and Trump supporter, is challenging Baker for the Republican nomination for governor in the 2022 GOP primary. Diehl was defeated for the U.S. Senate by Democrat Elizabeth Warren in 2018.

While he’s generally given little chance to unseat Baker, the Republican State Committee is controlled by pro-Trumpers who support Diehl.

Baker has been at war with the state committee after former state Rep. Jim Lyons of Andover, the chairman and a strong Trump supporter, wrested control of it away from Baker.

The challenge for Baker, who is still popular with independent voters and Democrats, is not in the general election, where he would be favored to win over any of the three relatively unknown Democrats running, but in the GOP primary. There are only 469,000 registered Republican voters in Massachusetts.

If Baker decides, for personal and professional reasons, not to seek a third term, you can bet that Trump and his supporters will paint it as a huge Trump victory.

On the contrary, should Baker run and defeat Diehl, it will be framed as a Trump defeat, which is something Baker and the anti-Trumpers would relish.

Baker is seriously weighing his decision. He told he State House News service Monday that he had to answer three questions.

“The first one is do you believe you have something productive and helpful to say? Do you have the desire and commitment to serve the people of the constituency that you represent? And do you believe that this is something you want to spend the next few years of your life working on if you’re fortunate enough to succeed?”

Another challenge figuring into his decision is what to do about Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, his faithful two-term political sidekick.

Should Baker run again and be re-elected, there is the possibility he could resign after a year or two and make Polito acting governor, thereby giving her an important advantage should she run for governor in 2026.

While Republican Glenn Youngkin kept Trump at arm’s length in his campaign against Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia, Diehl welcomes Trump’s support and is already working to get Trump to actively campaign for him in Massachusetts.

Despite the state’s reputation as a liberal bastion, Trump does have strength in Massachusetts, and that strength is growing as Joe Biden continues to sink in the polls.

Biden has been so bad that people are looking back at the wild Trump presidency as the good old days.

You just know that Trump, a strong believer in payback, has an enemies list. And he…