LINCOLN, Maine — Some of the lines from former Gov. Paul LePage felt familiar as he spoke to a room of about 40 people inside a technical school at a local Republican meet-and-greet event last week in this reliably red Penobscot County town.
He touched on his years as a homeless teenager while advocating for welfare reform and said no candidate in Maine “or probably even in the United States” understands poverty like he does.
And if he wins next year’s 2nd District election to represent Maine in the U.S. House of Representatives, he declared one of his top priorities would be to “stop the woke insanity” and block transgender athletes from competing in sports aligned with their gender identity.
“I’m not a great athlete, but I will tell you, when I was a teenager, there were very few gals that I couldn’t take down,” LePage said in his nearly 15-minute speech. “And that’s just biological.”
Though LePage and his rhetoric may not feel new to those who followed him as governor between 2010 and 2018, other things are now much different as the 77-year-old seeks a return to politics after Gov. Janet Mills decisively beat him in 2022 and as he tries to become one of the oldest freshman House members ever. Namely, LePage is no longer facing an incumbent.
LePage, who filed to run in May and moved back from Florida to an Augusta apartment, initially looked set for a 2026 matchup against U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, the moderate Democrat who since 2018 has held the vast, rural district that backed President Donald Trump in each election.
Then Golden, 43, made a shocking announcement earlier this month that he would not seek another term, citing increasing political incivility and threats against his family. It instantly upended the race. State Auditor Matt Dunlap was Golden’s lone primary challenger, but U.S. Senate candidate Jordan Wood switched races after Golden’s announcement, while national Democrats have sought to recruit a new candidate.
Golden’s decision has made LePage and Republicans more confident about winning back a seat both parties view as important for determining control of the House that currently has a 219-214 advantage for the GOP. Election forecasters shifted the 2nd District seat towards Republicans after Golden opted against seeking reelection.
LePage and the several state and local GOP candidates who joined him at Tuesday’s event in Lincoln were projecting confidence but also warning attendees against not voting. Wearing a blue quarter-zip vest featuring a “Paul LePage Congress” logo, LePage said “if you stay home, we lose.”
“We have more Republicans than Democrats in this district, and we should win this district. It should be headed up by a Republican,” LePage said to a round of applause.
The work is cut out for Dunlap, a 60-year-old former state lawmaker, Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine leader and secretary of state from Old Town, and Wood, a 36-year-old former Capitol Hill operative. The latter is planning to move from his 1st District residence in Bristol back to his hometown of Lewiston after he had been struggling in the U.S. Senate primary race against Mills and Sullivan oysterman Graham Platner.
Dunlap pointed in an interview to his bipartisan work over the years and how 2nd District voters have elected both Democrats and Republicans. He alluded to LePage’s efforts as governor to block a Medicaid expansion that Maine voters approved in 2017 and to support Medicaid work requirements that Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress included in the president’s “big, beautiful bill” over the summer.
Dunlap also questioned LePage’s focus on transgender athletes when health insurance rates are spiking and Affordable Care Act tax credits are set to expire without congressional action.
“It really is a district that belongs to the working people,” Dunlap added.
Wood pitched progressive positions during his Senate primary bid, including caps on child care payments and support of universal gun background checks that 2nd District voters rejected in 2016. He noted Friday that former President Barack Obama also carried the district.
Wood said its voters are not looking for “a yes person” for Trump, especially amid worries about Maine’s rural hospitals closing as a result of GOP policies.
LePage supporters attending the recent forum in Lincoln focused more on Golden. Tim Wright, 62, who works for the town of Lincoln, said he and his family moved from Massachusetts in part because of liking what LePage was doing as governor. He liked what Golden said at times but felt he “kept flipping sides to the wrong side.”
Paula Hutton, a 75-year-old retiree from Howland who previously worked for the state, said she appreciated what Golden did more recently in bucking his party but feels the region “would really like a Republican back in office.”
LePage deflected any concern about how old he would be if elected to the House, saying his experiences as a mayor and governor are unique among members of Congress. In the meantime, Maine Republican Party Executive Director Jason Savage emphasized in a Thursday radio interview that LePage and the GOP cannot assume victory is a given next year.
“Complacency is our biggest enemy,” Savage said.