Former Maine Gov. Paul LePage cut his Florida retirement short to move back home and mount a campaign to win his old job back.
The Republican, constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term in 2018, did as many seniors in the northeast do and moved to Florida for lower taxes and sunnier climes. Now, LePage is back in Maine and gunning for Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who rode a blue wave into the executive mansion nearly three years ago.
“Maine faces several challenges and we must work toward building a better future based on individual liberty, fiscal responsibility, and an economy which empowers everyone including our rural communities,” LePage, 72, said in a statement reported by the Portland Press Herald.
“We simply cannot continue to look to Washington, D.C., for bailouts, subsidies, or leadership. We must ensure Maine is a great place to raise a family for generations to come, for all Mainers regardless of background,” he added.
Despite the prepackaged statement LePage used to harken his return to the political arena, he was something of a precursor to former President Donald Trump when first elected governor with 38% of the vote in 2010, a Republican wave year. He was a wealthy businessman before running for office whose rhetorical style was plain-spoken. Supporters found LePage refreshingly politically incorrect, while opponents thought him offensive and belligerent.
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LePage running gives Republicans a gubernatorial candidate with immediate name recognition, although he also has a long record for Democrats to mine for issues to use against him. And the former governor is no longer the political outsider he was when he emerged in 2010 as a dark horse contender.
“I served in the Legislature while Paul LePage was Governor, and I watched him veto efforts to expand health care, weaken our public health infrastructure, and take money away from towns and municipalities, driving up property taxes and making it harder for Maine people to get by,” Maine Democratic Party Chairman Drew Gattine said in a statement.
“I saw him treat decent, hard-working people with disrespect, calling them names and saying things like teachers are ‘a dime a dozen,’” Gattine added. “He threatened people, he talked down about our state, and he brought embarrassment upon himself and Maine over and over again.”
Maine can be deceptively competitive in statewide contests.
Republicans have not won a presidential contest in the state since 1988.
But the state awards Electoral College votes according to congressional district, and Trump earned a single electoral vote in Maine in both 2016 and 2020 after topping Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and President Joe Biden, respectively, in the 2nd Congressional District. Additionally, even as Biden won Maine statewide by 9.1 percentage points last year, Collins was reelected to a fifth term by an 8.6-point margin.
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Meanwhile, in congressional contests, the coastal 1st District typically prefers Democrats, while the rural 2nd District in western Maine is often hospitable to Republicans, although it was captured by Democratic Rep. Jared Golden in 2018.
