Politics
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Vice President JD Vance cast the 2026 midterm elections as a fight against socialism during a Monday rally in Brewer, a message aimed at helping Maine Republicans defend a shaky Senate seat and reclaim a seat in Congress in very different November races.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, locked in a heated bid for a sixth term with Democrat Troy Jackson, skipped the event, citing a “personal schedule” conflict. Bobby Charles, a steep underdog against Democrat Hannah Pingree in the governor’s race, stayed away too. But former Gov. Paul LePage, the favorite to flip the 2nd District, got direct appeals from Vance.
“We’re going to defeat socialism by giving you a stake in the American dream, and that’s how we’re going to win the future,” Vance told a crowd of roughly 200 at Compotech, a defense technology company.
Vance’s remarks showed the balancing act that national Republicans face in a state that has drifted from Trump even as the 2nd District’s manufacturing history and record of support for Republicans remains fertile ground for Vance’s own ambitions. His visit doubled as a stop on a midterm circuit widely seen as groundwork for a 2028 presidential campaign.
Even as Collins stayed away, Vance praised her at length, framing her willingness to break from the administration as an asset rather than a liability heading into a race Democrats see as their best pickup opportunity in the Senate this cycle.
“Susan is the most independent member of the United States Senate, and as the president of the United States Senate, she sometimes makes my job just a little bit harder,” Vance said. “But she makes it harder because she is coming to work every single day and fighting not for a political party or not for any abstraction.”
The Maine Democratic Party pushed back on Vance’s praise for Collins, whom he called a “dear friend” who he said has been to his official residence roughly a half-dozen times. A party spokesperson said the two share a “failing agenda” that “has made life harder for Mainers.”
LePage is running in a seat Trump has carried three times, while Collins faces a statewide electorate that has trended away from the president. The University of New Hampshire Pine Tree State Poll, released in late July, found 59% of Mainers disapprove of Trump’s job performance and 61% disapprove of his handling of the economy.
That same poll found Mainers roughly split on socialism itself, with 39% holding a positive view and 45% a negative one, including about half of those under 50. Vance’s socialism line echoed House Speaker Mike Johnson, who warned of a “dark, dangerous, deadly road to communism” while campaigning with LePage in Auburn last week.
Vance saved his sharpest attacks for State Auditor Matt Dunlap, the Democrat running against LePage, accusing him of failing to protect taxpayer money from fraud. He pointed to Dunlap’s 2021 removal from the auditor’s office for failing to earn required certification in time. Dunlap was reinstated after passing the exams the following year, and his office has since produced reports criticizing Gov. Janet Mills’ management of Medicaid funding.
In a statement before the event, Dunlap cast the visit as a bailout for a struggling campaign, saying Trump’s policies have brought “higher prices, a trade war with Canada raising prices, Medicaid cuts, closed maternity wards, and sending our shipbuilding jobs overseas.”
In response to a reporter’s question, Vance also addressed an immigration agent’s fatal shooting of Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero in Biddeford last month, disputing Democrats’ claims that the administration isn’t investigating and saying they show more concern “about a shooting involving an illegal alien” than fentanyl deaths.
Durán Guerrero, 25, had a pending asylum case, a valid work permit and no final removal order, according to his family. The shooting remains under investigation by a federal watchdog as well as Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey’s office.
Vance’s Brewer stop followed a Friday rally in his hometown of Middletown, Ohio, where he leaned on similar manufacturing and trade themes at a Cleveland-Cliffs steel plant where his grandfather once worked.
“The future is right here in Maine, so long as we’re willing to fight for it,” he said.
BDN writer Annie Rupertus contributed to this report.