Richard Tisei

Richard R. Tisei is an American politician and realtor from Massachusetts. A Republican, he served in the Massachusetts General Court for 26 years, first in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, rising to become the Minority Leader of the Massachusetts Senate. He was the Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts in 2010 and the nominee for U.S. Congress from Massachusetts's 6th district in 2012 and 2014 but lost all of these races.

A graduate of American University, Tisei was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1984. He was the youngest Republican ever elected to the Massachusetts General Court. Tisei served in the House until 1990, when he was elected to the Massachusetts Senate. He was elected Assistant Minority Leader in 1997 and Senate Minority Leader in January 2007. He was not able to run for re-election in 2010 after he was selected as Republican gubernatorial nominee Charlie Baker's running mate and his last Senate term ended in January 2011. Baker and Tisei and lost to Democratic incumbents Deval Patrick and Tim Murray by 6.41%.

Tisei ran for the United States House of Representatives in 2012, narrowly losing to seven-term Democratic incumbent John F. Tierney by 1.2%. He ran again in 2014 and faced former U.S. Marine Seth Moulton in the general election after Moulton defeated Tierney in the Democratic primary. Tisei was defeated again, this time by almost 14%. Tisei has received attention as one of the few openly gay Republican politicians.