Maine politics this year was dominated by the Lewiston shooting, historic abortion and paid leave legislation that got through the Democratic-led Legislature and the state’s status as the second to remove former President Donald Trump from the ballot.
Next year could see legislation spurred by the shooting as well as a divisive presidential election that will hit home in the 2nd Congressional District. Both major parties will try to map out their futures as high offices get set to turn over in the next few years.
Here are eight Maine politicians you should be watching closely, from obvious folks in high offices to some deeper picks who embody some of the biggest debates of this era.
Gov. Janet Mills
Coming off her 2022 victory over former Gov. Paul LePage, some expected an unshackled and more progressive version of the governor. But at 76 years old, Mills is a fully formed politician who still generally has a restraining effect on fellow Democrats.
There were a few exceptions in 2023. Just after her inauguration, she took a risk by pushing the type of sweeping abortion-rights expansion that she opposed during her campaign. Long skeptical of a progressive push for paid family and medical leave, Mills ended up supporting the final version opposed by a business lobby that she has kept close.
Mills has resisted gun control in the past, but she is signaling openness to it after the Lewiston shooting. One of the main lessons of the five years of Democratic rule in Augusta is that nothing big moves forward without the governor’s approval, and that will remain true in 2024.
U.S. Sen. Angus King
King is not the go-to member of Maine’s delegation, since Sen. Susan Collins sits in the top Republican post on the Senate Appropriations Committee and in the middle of major debates. But even detractors have to tip their cap to him on one front: popularity.
He registered 60 percent approval in Morning Consult polling between August and October, registering as the fifth-most popular senator. Less than a year before Election Day, no Republican has moved to oppose King, who is seeking a third term at age 79.
That’s his form of political power. While King long opposed Democratic bans on so-called assault weapons, the Lewiston shooting prompted him to propose a measure targeting military-style guns and high-capacity magazines. It will not pass a divided Congress, but it is an example of King’s status as a top tastemaker in Maine’s shifting center-left brand of politics.
U.S. Rep. Jared Golden
Golden is an anomaly. The best example is his dramatic reversal a day after the shooting in his city to back a ban on so-called assault weapons. He criticized himself in a way public figures rarely do, saying he once had “a false confidence that our community was above this.”
That is also giving Republicans new hope that they can knock off the third-term Democrat from Maine’s 2nd District, who has benefited from cross-party support to hold his seat in the swing district. Doing so again will be difficult. Former President Donald Trump is likely to be on the ballot again, and he won the 2nd District in 2016 and 2020.
But Golden narrowly outpolled Trump in that latter election, and the two Republicans running against him now are freshman state lawmakers. The congressman has sounded like he is nearing the end of his service in Washington, saying in October he would use the time he had left there to fight for the assault weapons ban. Maybe a gubernatorial run is the post-2024 plan.
State Rep. Austin Theriault
The retired NASCAR driver from Fort Kent is one of the two Republicans looking to oust Golden. He ran an easy campaign to win the seat long held by the legendary Democrat John Martin behind a consensus-oriented message, which included support for keeping Maine’s abortion laws in place aside from public funding.
It makes the 29-year-old an interesting fit for this era of politics. Before he formally ran, he locked down the support of House Republicans’ campaign arm. That and national racing connections are likely to make him a strong fundraiser. Yet he has not explicitly endorsed former Trump’s primary bid. Theriault’s competitor, Rep. Mike Soboleski of Phillips, has.
Maine Republicans have rejected younger candidates like Theriault. But the party needs new standard bearers after repeatedly running LePage and Poliquin since 2010. Theriault may be just the antidote. While he is the one to watch in this primary because of the institutional momentum, he still needs to build a big profile quickly to oust Golden.
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows
Along with Golden and Senate President Troy Jackson of Allagash, Bellows is one of the Maine Democrats most often cited behind the scenes as a future candidate for high office. She ran for U.S. Senate in 2014, though it was as a sacrificial candidate against the highly popular Collins.
Last week, she deemed Trump ineligible for the ballot. Things changed overnight for Bellows, who gained national name recognition and became the target of both threats and a nascent impeachment effort from legislative Republicans. The ruling could be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, and Collins, King and Golden have come out in opposition to it.
Bellows has assured herself a place on the frontlines of the national debate on Trump and voting rights. Down the road, Democratic voters may be looking for a younger and more progressive person to top a statewide ticket. Bellows may be a fit there, but she also could have made herself the most polarizing state officeholder since former Gov. Paul LePage.
House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross
The progressive House speaker from Portland had growing pains in her first year in the role. Earlier this year, she threatened to tank a state budget if Mills didn’t embrace her signature tribal-rights push. Mills didn’t budge, and the threat was empty. She also said supporters should “storm the Capitol” over the state’s implementation of her Black history law.
While Democrats flexed their majorities to get major legislation passed, it is rare for these family fights to spill out into public view. It positions Talbot Ross as the party’s major foil to Mills’ more conventional politics. The governor has resisted gun control bills sponsored often by the House speaker, although the Lewiston shooting has left her open to action on the subject.
Talbot Ross’ background check expansion bill looks to be one of the most likely vehicles for legal changes after the Lewiston shooting. While Mills holds the power, the House speaker embodies the part of the Democratic base that wants rapid change most.
Auburn City Councilor Leroy Walker
Walker holds public office, but tragedy is why he is named here. His son, Joseph Walker, was working at the Lewiston bar targeted in the Oct. 25 shooting. He picked up a knife and charged the shooter, becoming one of the 18 people killed that night.
Since then, Leroy Walker has been one of the most outspoken family members of the Lewiston victims. He gave several interviews remembering his son and is now seeking action, joining other family members in traveling to meet with Maine’s congressional delegation to call for an independent Army probe into the shooting and advocating for gun control measures.
That latter point is interesting, given his status as a conservative Republican in Maine’s top swing city and the state’s history of permissive gun laws. He will be one of the more compelling voices in Maine’s public sphere over the next year.
State Rep. Katrina Smith
There is little power in being a freshman Republican lawmaker in a Democratic-controlled Augusta. But that isn’t all that matters in civic life. Given Maine’s eight-year term limits, 2024 will bring a crop of public officials who rose in politics alongside Trump.
For Republicans, those people may look a lot like Smith, a real estate agent from Palermo who represents a district east of Augusta. She narrowly lost a House race in 2020 and captured the seat in a three-person field last year. She has a penchant for hot-button social conservative issues, recently showing up to a girls cross-country race and calling a transgender runner a “young man.”
Smith recently showed up at a recent hearing to show support for Trump’s in a ballot status battle here. No matter what she does in the State House, she is a window into a new brand of conservative politics in the increasingly rare kind of rural district that is not a Republican lock.