Affordability and concerns about the Trump administration were major themes for Democratic candidates and voters in eastern Maine on Labor Day.
Democrats Troy Jackson, Matt Dunlap and Hannah Pingree, who are all running in high-profile races, focused on those themes at a Monday event at Food AND Medicine, a Brewer organization that endorses slates of progressive candidates in local elections.
“I think right now, Labor Day … gives us an opportunity to come together and talk about how we can take this country back, because that’s the discussions I’ve been having, you know, all weekend,” said Jackson, who is running for Sen. Susan Collins’ seat. “But even before this, I mean, people are upset, they’re frustrated, they’re angry, and they know that this government is not working.”
2nd District candidate Dunlap and Pingree, who is running for governor, agreed voters appear notably galvanized this year by wages failing to keep up with prices and resistance to Trump, particularly around immigration enforcement.
Dunlap said recent decades have seen a shift from “an aspirational form of government” trying to make things better to one that tries to divide, particularly around immigration and minorities under the Trump administration.
“And that, I think people are pushing back against, because they realize that all these people are part of our community, and that all of us are paying the price for these failed policies, and that’s why they’re looking for a change,” he said.
Pingree said the two things she’s heard the most on the campaign trail are a need to “stand up to” Trump and that people are struggling to make ends meet in Maine, with housing and health care emerging as major issues.
“It feels like a dark time. You know, families are struggling, they’re worried about the democracy, they’re worried about their neighbors, and so you know, you can either give up or you can fight back,” she said. “I think this [involvement] is a sign that people are very fired up to change what’s happening in our country, to try to make good things happen here in Maine.”
Earlier that afternoon, about 100 people gathered in a scattered crowd around Ellsworth City Hall at noon for a rally organized by progressive group Hancock County Activists with a program of speakers and musicians followed by a veteran-led sidewalk march down Main Street.
The Ellsworth rally was originally set to be headlined by Graham Platner, former Democratic nominee for Senate who dropped out of the race in July following a rape allegation by an ex-girlfriend, which he denied. It would have been his first public appearance since dropping out of the race.
Organizers later said Platner was no longer set to speak, citing a “media frenzy,” and instead would lead the closing march. But he did not attend Monday’s event.
