Standing in front of a crowd of 50 gathered in the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Caribou Thursday evening, Bobby Charles confidently asserted that he’s still in Maine’s gubernatorial race.
“There is no reason in the world that we cannot win this,” Charles, wearing both a Navy-branded hat and jacket, said to a veteran-heavy group of supporters at the town hall event.
The Republican gubernatorial nominee has trailed Democrat Hannah Pingree by double digits in every poll conducted since the June primary, including polls from CNN and YouGov released Wednesday that showed Pingree leading by 13% and 11%, respectively.
But Charles, a lawyer who served in the administrations of former presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, adamantly pushed that if more Republicans turn out at the polls, his party can take back the Blaine House.
“91,000, that’s the number of Republicans that are registered that did not vote in the last cycle,” Charles said. “Of those 91,000, we probably only need about 20,000 to show up.”
Talking with the Bangor Daily News after the town hall, Charles brushed aside the polling numbers and cited a poll he said came out Thursday that showed him trailing by single digits.
Neither Charles nor his campaign staff could provide the name of the pollster and the BDN could not find any record of it online.
“I am of the view that we’re gaining on her every day,” Charles said. He then pivoted to attacking Pingree by connecting her to Gov. Janet Mills, in whose administration the Democratic nominee and former state Speaker of the House worked.
“There is a very strong idea that change needs to happen,” he said. “Hannah Pingree is an extension of Janet Mills. Are we getting change? We’re not getting change. We need to look at where’s the change going to come from? And I really just think of myself as a reflection of the popular desire to get some of this common sense back.”
Charles highlighted his political bona fides, referencing his experience in Washington working under President Ronald Reagan and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has endorsed him.
Charles pointed to Gingrich’s “Contract with America,” the legislative platform masterminded by the Georgian congressman in the 1994 midterm elections that helped the GOP retake control of both houses for the first time in 40 years, an election referred to as the “Republican Revolution.”
“We picked up 52 net seats that year. We blew them out of the water,” Charles said. “That is exactly what we need to do this year.”
The national landscape is very different in 2026, with congress controlled by Republicans and voter approval of President Donald Trump slipping amid an affordability crisis and the ongoing war in Iran. The GOP has for months been bracing for midterm losses that a Republican strategist described last week as “historic.”
But Charles, a first-time candidate, is marching ahead with his campaign. He focused much of his time behind the microphone Thursday on familiar issues, from affordability to immigration, to what he sees as a lack of accountability in the current state government.
“Can we win? I’m getting independents coming to me, I’m getting Democrats coming to me, but what do I most need? All of us to make sure that we get our best friends out to vote. Austin knows this painfully well,” Charles said, looking at Austin Theriault, the former NASCAR driver and state representative who narrowly lost a bid to oust 2nd District U.S. Rep. Jared Golden in 2024.
Theriault spoke alongside Charles at the town hall. He’s running to regain his seat in the Maine House of Representatives this November against Democrat Jennifer Levesque.
“We have to get Republicans out to vote,” Charles continued. “You cannot drink the Kool-Aid that says you can’t win, go ahead and stay home. Do you know who’s serving that Kool-Aid? The Democrats are serving that Kool Aid. We don’t believe that. We can’t believe that. We have to believe that we are in charge of our own destiny.”