Maine’s junior Senator Angus King (I) is up for his second term in 2018 and may be up against a libertarian-leaning millennial Republican who already has experience running a statewide campaign.
State Senator Eric Brakey (R) is apparently considering a run against King in the midterm election, reported Roll Call.
Brakey is just 28-years-old, but he’s no novice to politics. Aside from his own accomplishments of winning a swing state senate district by unseating an incumbent Democrat in 2014 and winning a landslide victory in 2016, he was the Maine political director for Ron Paul in 2012.
In 2012, Maine was one of Paul’s best states, losing it by only 117 votes to Mitt Romney. Brakey was also the state chair of Rand Paul’s campaign in 2016, but the Kentucky Senator didn’t make it to the state’s primary.
The 28-year old state senator has one of the most libertarian voting records in Maine’s upper chamber. He supported a bill to allow gun owners to conceal carry in public without a permit, welfare reform, and the “right to try” which allows terminally ill patients the right to use experimental drugs and medical treatments that haven’t been approved by the FDA.
If he can raise the money, he may be able to make the state competitive given Trump’s strong showing statewide in 2016. Maine isn’t the deep blue state it once was.
