The sister of Republican Bobby Charles won’t be voting for him in November.
Anita Charles said in a Wednesday morning opinion piece in the Portland Press Herald that she will be voting for Democrat Hannah Pingree instead for governor.
“Maine deserves leadership rooted in empathy, dignity, intellectual honesty and respect for every person who calls this state home. That person is not Bobby. That is why I cannot, in good conscience, support my brother’s campaign for governor,” she wrote.
In that opinion piece, Anita Charles wrote that her brother’s campaign fails to live up to the values their mother instilled in them: compassion, kindness and respect. While she and her brother have never agreed on politics, Charles said the centrality of “divisive rhetoric” to her brother’s campaign pushed her to break her silence.
“We do not all look alike, worship alike, love alike or experience the world in the same way. That diversity is part of what makes Maine strong. Unfortunately, Bobby campaigns against groups that include members of our own extended family,” she wrote.
Bobby Charles, a former lobbyist who worked in the George W. Bush administration, won the Republican nomination for governor in a heated eight-way race. His primary opponents took issue with his grand promises and rhetoric. One Republican critic said that Charles was “willing to jump on any hand grenade to win” the primary, even if it might cost him the general election. Earlier this year, Charles promoted a plan to prevent the “Islamification” of Maine, one of the whitest states in the nation.
Anita Charles, a longtime educator and sexual assault survivor, also took issue with her brother’s friendship with disgraced former Republican U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who pleaded guilty in 2016 to paying hush money to cover up accusations that he sexually abused teenage boys while working as an educator and coach in Illinois.
She wrote that Bobby Charles’ stance on abortion meant that she wouldn’t have been able to make a choice about whether to terminate a pregnancy after a rape.
“This isn’t a debate I’m observing from a distance; it’s about my childhood. And it’s about my ongoing health and well-being as a woman,” Anita Charles wrote.
Bobby Charles called abortion “abhorrent” and supported the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade during a March interview with News Center Maine, but he didn’t advance any specific policy proposals. His campaign website doesn’t list any proposals about abortion on its “Issues” page.
On Wednesday afternoon, Bobby Charles responded describing his upbringing in a “broken home,” including physical abuse and instability. He expressed compassion for what his sister had been through and called the political disagreements she raised “fair game.”
“I’m running for Governor because Maine is in decline and our hardworking citizens are struggling. If elected Governor, we will reduce crime and improve public safety, cut income taxes to grow our economy, cut property taxes by increasing the homestead exemption to $100,000, directly take on our addiction crisis, and protect children. This is my agenda. This is what I am committing to do in office,” he said.
A July poll commissioned by the Portland Press Herald and The New York Times showed Pingree leading in the three-way race for governor, with 50% of likely voters supporting her, compared with 36% for Charles and 8% for independent Rick Bennett.