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Governor Charlie Baker is expected to meet with Vice President Mike Pence this weekend on Nantucket, where Pence is traveling to attend a fund-raiser for President Trumps reelection campaign, according to the governors aides.

Baker, who said he didnt vote for Trump in 2016 and wouldnt in 2020, is not attending the 30-person lunch fund-raiser on Saturday, according to Bakers office.

But the Swampscott Republican is planning to huddle privately with Pence on the island to discuss the pandemic and how the federal government can support Massachusetts response efforts, a Baker spokeswoman said.

Baker has enjoyed lofty approval ratings for his handling of the novel coronarivus pandemic among Massachusetts residents, who have been deeply critical of Trumps handling of the crisis. The president, sliding in public polling against the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, has repeatedly downplayed the viruss threat, claiming as recently as Tuesday that it will simply disappear.

A Republican National Committee official told the Globe that the Saturday fund-raiser is expected to raise about $1 million. Tickets for the lunch are $25,000, Politico reported.

Long diplomatic in his critiques of Trump, Baker has in recent months sharply criticized the presidents handling of the multiple crises buffeting the country. After Trump last month derided the nations governors as weak and demanded tougher crackdowns on protesters, Baker gave an unprompted rebuke of what he called the bitterness, combativeness, and self-interest emanating from the White House.

At so many times during these last several weeks, when the country needed compassion and leadership the most, it simply was nowhere to be found, Baker said.

He also criticized Trumps threat to cut federal funding from school districts that dont reopen this fall, calling it inappropriate for the feds to think about this as a one-size-fits-all. And early in the pandemic, Baker repeatedly vented when the Trump administration undercut the states efforts to track down badly needed personal protective equipment, including to Trump directly on a conference call.

Were a lot more interested in the work than in the noise, Baker said at a mid-April press conference after Trump claimed governors were staging a mutiny by forming pacts to coordinate reopenings, as Baker and six others had done.

Baker, however, has had a seemingly warmer connection with Pence, a former Indiana governor whose time in Indianapolis overlapped with Bakers first term in office.

The two had a joking exchange during a National Governors Association meeting last year, and Baker in August greeted Pence at the airport on Nantucket, when the vice president attended a similar fund-raiser for the Republican National Committee and Trumps campaign.

Baker did not attend last years fund-raiser, either, the governors aides said at the time. But the two met to discuss the stalled Vineyard Wind project and the trade deal the Trump administration had negotiated with Mexico and Canada.

Matt Stout can be reached at matt.stout@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mattpstout

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Baker, Pence to meet on Nantucket this weekend - The Boston Globe