PORTLAND, Maine — After Republicans gathered less than two miles away to portray Gov. Janet Mills as out of touch on rising costs and inflation on Tuesday, she was headlining an abortion-rights rally in Monument Square.
“The decision about reproductive health care belongs to a woman and her doctor,” Mills said. “Not some politician and certainly not Paul LePage.”
The event was one of a number of attempts by Mills and the Democratic Party to frame this year’s election as a referendum on abortion rights less than five months after a conservative majority on the Supreme Court revoked a constitutional right to an abortion.
It was fitting that the last week of the campaign between the Democratic governor and LePage, her Republican predecessor, began with a war for headlines over the two issues that have most defined 2022 campaigns both here and across the country.
Republican hopes were high in the spring, when gas prices soared after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and President Joe Biden saw basement-level approval ratings ahead of a midterm election that looked bad for his fellow Democrats. But they gained momentum in the summer after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal abortion rights.
It is washing out to a November election that looks to be somewhere in the middle of those poles. Republicans have made gains since late September in national polls, although Mills has looked durable in surveys of Mainers and remains the favorite going into Election Day.
LePage’s campaign has tied Mills to the global and national issues driving high costs and inflation, particularly heating oil. She has struck back by pointing to the $850 relief checks given to most Mainers this year and saying the anti-abortion LePage would threaten abortion rights. He has disputed that on the stump, even saying he would veto a 15-week ban.
This week, Republicans seized on comments that Mills made on a stop to Bates College in Lewiston on Sunday, releasing a partial clip of remarks in which she likens inflation to a “distraction.” A spokesperson for the governor said she also noted policy responses to costs, called inflation a real issue and was arguing that Republicans have not proposed real solutions
“It’s not a distraction. It’s a No. 1 issue,” Demi Kouzounas, chair of the Maine Republican Party, said at a Tuesday press conference.
Economic issues and abortion have landed differently with voters. High costs and inflation routinely poll as the biggest issues of 2022, but a September survey from a liberal group found 40 percent of Mainers blamed federal officials most and only 2.6 percent mostly blamed state ones. Abortion has been a secondary issue that overwhelmingly motivates Democrats.
These differences were easy to find while talking to voters in the Portland suburb of Windham on Tuesday. Among the most politically divided communities in the area, voters went for Biden by 4 percentage points in 2020 after backing Republican Shawn Moody by 6 over Mills in 2018.
Democrats there understood concern about inflation, but they were skeptical that Mills or even federal officials could do anything about it. Bill Briggs, 68, of Windham, a former teacher, said people were clearly suffering, but thought the rhetoric was just about hitting Democrats.
“The inflation issue, I think, is a red herring by Republicans,” he said.
His wife, Martha, a 63-year-old former educator, noted Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion on the abortion case where he argued other rights deemed constitutional by the court, including same-sex marriage, should also be overturned.
“The abortion issue is symbolic of what could come next,” she said. “What other rights could be taken away?”
Wendy Downing, 49, who owns a hair salon, said she usually votes Republican. She plans on going for the Republicans this time, with the economy top of her mind. But her views on abortion were complex. She believes women should have the right to choose, but she said she disagreed with it being used as a form of birth control.
Asked if she worries about the ability for Republicans to get swing voters due to the abortion issues, Kouzounas repeated that pocketbook issues like inflation were most people’s top issue and alluded to her party’s closing campaign strategy.
“I think we should be talking about inflation and heating costs — what’s affecting most people in the state of Maine,” she said. “Not other issues.”
BDN writer Michael Shepherd contributed to this report.