HALLOWELL, Maine — U.S. Sen. Angus King likes The Rolling Stones. While standing near the Kennebec River, he showed a reporter a picture of him and his wife at a recent cover band concert, noting he is still younger than 81-year-old frontman Mick Jagger.
If King, 80, wins a third term in November and serves until at least next March, he would become Maine’s oldest-ever senator. By the end of 2030, he would be nearly 87.
While concerns over age and fitness forced President Joe Biden, 81, to make way for Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket after a disastrous June debate against ex-President Donald Trump, similar worries have not dogged Maine’s independent senator who caucuses with Democrats and faces three opponents this fall.
“If I didn’t think I could do it, if I felt tired or worn out or bored or whatever, I wouldn’t be doing this,” King said Wednesday in Hallowell, where he was attending a fundraiser.
Voters don’t seem too worried about King’s age, although Republicans have begun to make it an issue in the campaign. Friends and staffers alike note the man who fought off a malignant melanoma diagnosis at age 29 while serving as an aide to the late U.S. Sen. Bill Hathaway continues to work and move like someone younger than an octogenarian.
“He’s always been that way: pretty spry and just with it,” Dennis Bailey, King’s former spokesperson, said. “He’s still got it. He’s still Angus.”
In April, a University of New Hampshire poll found 65 percent of Mainers “definitely” or “probably” view King as mentally and physically capable of serving another term. He is a heavy favorite against three competitors in the Nov. 5 election, with Decision Desk HQ, the Bangor Daily News’ national election results partner, giving him a 92 percent chance to win.
King’s Republican critics, including Demi Kouzounas, the former state party chair running against him, argue his legislative record is weak since he easily won election to the Senate in 2012 after the retirement of Sen. Olympia Snowe. He has never lost an election going back to 1994, when he won his first of two terms as governor.
King, a Virginia native who has long lived in Brunswick, is the sixth-oldest member of the upper chamber. The senator is older than the 78-year-old Trump. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a 71-year-old Republican, is up for reelection in 2026 and first won in 1996.
King previously said his 2018 campaign was likely his last race. But he signaled another run in December. Since then, he has noted concern about “the loss of the middle” in the Senate, mentioning retiring members such as Joe Manchin, I-West Virginia, Kyrsten Sinema, I-Arizona, and Mitt Romney, R-Utah.
“What worries me is I don’t want to see the Senate become so polarized that nobody talks to one another,” said King, who has gathered senators from both parties for meals over the years.
When discussing the job, King focuses more on housing, workforce development and inflation as top issues for him should he win reelection and how he spoke with constituents about those matters in northern Maine and the midcoast in recent days. He also described Capitol Hill hearings as his favorite part of the job.
“We build houses pretty much the same way we did 400 years ago, and I think we need to be thinking about more automation,” King said.
While lamenting corporate consolidation, King was cut off and greeted by a man walking over to relax in a rainbow chair along Hallowell’s riverfront.
“Stay on this side of the water, now,” King told Travis Lopes, a Benton resident retired from a restaurant management career who said he likes King’s “commonsense approach to politics.”
“Keep your independence,” Lopes encouraged King. “Keep ‘em guessing.”
That sentiment goes against what Kouzounas and Republican critics are trying to attack King on, noting that votes most often with Democrats despite his independent brand. He is generally one of the most conservative members of his caucus on economic issues, though he votes more like a rank-and-file Democrat on most other issues, according to VoteView.
Kouzounas, 68, a retired dentist and Army veteran from Saco, called King a “career politician” in a statement calling out his votes against conservative border security bills and for “irresponsible spending.”
Maine Republican Party Executive Director Jason Savage repeated a talking point that King has never passed a bill in the Senate. King has introduced eight pieces of legislation that became law through other vehicles and cosponsored dozens that did as well.
“Demi will serve all the people of Maine,” Savage said. “Angus would continue to only show up when it benefits Angus.”
David Costello, King’s Democratic challenger whose career has included time working overseas for the U.S. government and as an aide to a former Maryland governor, said his concern is not so much with age but how King is “unlikely to alter his overly cautious approach” to climate change, housing, health care and other issues.
Jason Cherry, 54, an attorney and retired FBI agent from Unity running as an independent, said voters he’s heard from have brought up age as a concern. Cherry has proposed age limits of 80 years for elected officials and said King could “put the issue to rest” by participating in debates.
King did not mention his opponents on Wednesday. They want him to commit to at least five debates this fall, something King has not yet accepted.
Instead, King highlighted his committee assignments that cover energy and natural resources, veterans’ affairs, intelligence and armed services, along with how he chairs two subcommittees dealing with national parks and strategic forces.
“I don’t know how to quite say this without sounding arrogant, but I’m getting to a place where I can really do stuff,” King said. “Seniority counts in the U.S. Senate, and I feel like I’m in a place where I can make a significant contribution.”
