Politics
Our political journalists are based in the Maine State House and have deep source networks across the partisan spectrum in communities all over the state. Their coverage aims to cut through major debates and probe how officials make decisions. Read more Politics coverage here.
Maine Democrats held the Legislature in Tuesday’s election, but the party was wiped out in Aroostook County. Republicans lost in suburban areas that would have been key to winning their first House majority since 2010.
This year’s election results embody the stark north-south swing in Maine politics that looks poised to continue for the near future. The theory of “two Maines” was on display as former President Donald Trump once again won the rural 2nd District while Vice President Kamala Harris carried the southern 1st District and statewide vote.
In a bright spot for rural Democrats, U.S. Rep. Jared Golden narrowly survived a challenge from state Rep. Austin Theriault, who has requested a recount. But the party receded in some of its ancestral areas, including Aroostook County. The County supported Democratic presidential candidates from 1992 to 2012 but has backed Trump in each election since 2016.
That trend trickled down to State House elections this year. Former House Speaker John Martin, D-Eagle Lake, a legendary figure in Maine politics, lost by 30 points to Republican Lucien Daigle. Rep. Roger Albert, R-Madawaska, held off former Rep. Danny Martin, D-Sinclair, who said he felt that many in his community “just voted Republican down the line.”
“Clearly, we underestimated Trump’s influence, and quite frankly, I’m not so sure it was about the Democratic candidates themselves,” he said.
Daigle, a Fort Kent dentist, said the “red wave that swept the nation certainly had an effect up here.”
“People are tired of the status quo,” Daigle added.
The northernmost Democrat in the Legislature is no longer the termed-out Senate President Troy Jackson of Allagash but rather someone a 200-mile drive south: Rep. Jim Dill of Old Town, who has also served in the Senate and echoed Martin on Friday in not attributing northern Maine defeats to candidate quality.
“There’s just more folks who are conservative who are living out in rural areas,” said Dill, who has voted against his party at times on issues such as abortion and gun control. “I think it’s going to be slow making inroads. It’s just the way it is.”
Maintaining control of the State House, albeit with smaller majorities, as Democratic Gov. Janet Mills serves her final two years is a reminder that Democrats have reasons for optimism. Republicans were also defeated in rural and suburban districts that they hoped to recapture after former Gov. Paul LePage lost them badly to Mills two years ago.
Former Rep. Sue Austin, R-Gray, lost to Rep. Anne Graham, D-North Yarmouth, in a race that led all other House races in receiving more than $100,000 in outside spending, two-thirds of which came from Republicans trying to make inroads in the Portland suburbs. Austin declined comment Friday due to needing “time to think things over to be truly thoughtful for the future.”
Several current and former lawmakers examples of the major parties winning or losing power every two to four years at the state and federal levels, such as Democrats taking the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2018 midterms after Trump’s first victory and then Republicans taking the House in 2022 after President Joe Biden beat Trump in 2020.
“It’s very dangerous to make assumptions that a sweeping change is happening,” said State Auditor Matt Dunlap, a Democrat who represented Old Town in the Maine House from 1996 to 2004. “Things do change, but they don’t change all at once.”
Dunlap recalled how his family moved from Chicago to Bar Harbor in the 1950s, when “there were no Democrats in Bar Harbor.” Today, the tourist hub is firmly Democratic. Going forward, Dunlap said Democrats should focus on listening to voters and not implementing “blanket policies” that may work for the Portland area but not for rural Maine.
Assistant Senate Majority Leader Mattie Daughtry, D-Brunswick, who was picked by her caucus Thursday to succeed Jackson as president, said she has family from Down East and other rural parts of the country and is aware “our party can’t just be a blue dot around Portland.” Yet the other two Senate leaders alongside her were from Cumberland County as well.
“Mainers need to know we’re not talking at them,” Daughtry said. “We’re talking with them.”
