AUGUSTA, Maine — Ads funded by a Republican megadonor are giving an early boost to lobbyist and former Maine Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason’s fledgling gubernatorial run.
A Maine offshoot of the conservative network Restoration of America spent at least $437,000 on ads that began running Tuesday and will continue through March, according to data from AdImpact, an ad monitoring platform. The first spot criticizes Gov. Janet Mills while pitching Mason as a candidate who “is ready to be governor on day one.”
The ad buy is large and early for a state-level campaign in Maine and underscores Mason’s connections to national donors who look poised to effectively fund his run, although outside groups are barred by state law from coordinating with him. The ads could raise his profile among a 10-person Republican primary field mostly made up of little-known outsiders.
Restoration of America is the predominant political network funded by Republican megadonor Richard Uihlein, an Illinois billionaire and founder of ULINE, a business supply company based in Wisconsin. He gave the network’s main political committee $125 million between 2020 and 2024, according to ProPublica.
Some of this funding is getting passed down to Maine for the pro-Mason effort. The group registered a political action committee in Maine in October, less than a month before the former lawmaker formed an exploratory committee. It reported no activity through December, but a disclosure mandated by state law names Uihlein as a main funding source.
Uihlein recently emerged in state politics as the sole funder of a referendum seeking to overturn Maine’s law allowing transgender girls to participate in sports under their gender identity. He gave the effort $800,000 in October, and organizers submitted signatures to the state on Monday in their effort to make the November ballot.
Mason, who was 25 when he was elected to the Maine Senate in a 2010 upset, comes from the party’s evangelical wing. He was the runner-up in the 2018 gubernatorial primary and has consulted for GOP megadonor Thomas Klingenstein, an ally of President Donald Trump who has also given heavily to Restoration for America’s efforts.
His campaign manager is Luke Thompson, who has worked for Vice President JD Vance and helmed an outside group that skirted federal campaign finance laws by publishing research on a secret website to pass it to Vance’s bare-bones Ohio Senate campaign in 2022. The strategy is credited with helping Vance win and chart a path to the vice presidency.