Stephen Carey vows to “audit the books in Augusta,” lower energy and other costs and “protect biological girls’ sports, scholarships and spaces” on his campaign website.
In that way, the Maine Senate candidate from Bangor fits right in with Republicans running for office at all levels across the country. But his material is clear that he’s not in a party.
The Senate Republican campaign arm has spent nearly $40,000 to help the independent win an open Bangor Senate seat with no Republican on the ballot against Rep. Amy Roeder, D-Bangor. The Republican money behind him is nearly 60% of all outside spending to help independents this year, according to Maine Ethics Commission filings.
It’s one of 24 legislative races where an independent will face only one major party candidate, more than twice as many as in any election since at least 2010. Six independents are getting help from partisan groups. Others are raising money from notable partisans ranging from sitting Democrats to a Republican megadonor who lives in Maine seasonally.
Many of these districts follow the lines of Maine’s political realignment. Democrats have lost ground across much of rural Maine, while Republicans have lost support along the coast and in cities and suburbs. In a growing number of districts, parties that can’t win under their own label are getting behind people who reject them.
The most closely watched of these races may be in the Belgrade area, where first-term Rep. Sharon Frost, an independent who ousted a Republican incumbent in 2024 by just 43 votes, is defending a swing seat against Republican Dexter “Buzz” Bridges Jr. of New Sharon.
Groups aligned with Democrats have spent more than $10,000 to help Frost keep the seat, but more than twice as much has been spent against her by Republicans. Democrats hold the House by a razor-thin margin and may need help from Frost and other independents to govern next year.
Most of their allies’ help for House independents has come from the Planned Parenthood Maine Action Fund PAC, with smaller amounts from Rebuild Maine, the Maine Democratic Party and a political group led by Rep. Marc Malon, D-Biddeford. Two other independent House candidates — Shawn Saindon of Warren and Sam Pfeifle of Gray — are seeing outside money as well.
In a House district spanning part of Mount Desert Island, Deer Isle and Vinalhaven and Swan’s Island, independent Clifford Noyes of Southwest Harbor is aiming to unseat Rep. Holly Eaton, D-Deer Isle. His campaign is quiet, but he did raise hundreds from a conservative foundation and the conservative legal architect Leonard Leo, who has a home in Northeast Harbor.
Some Democratic lawmakers have also given money directly. In a Pittsfield-area district Republican Rep. Amanda Collamore won easily in 2024, independent Zachary Lejonhud got seed money as part of Maine’s taxpayer-funded Clean Election program from Reps. Scott Harriman of Lewiston and Mike Ray of Lincolnville, both Democrats.
Lejonhud, a union electrician, has also been endorsed by the Maine AFL-CIO, which usually backs Democrats. He said he is “not a secret Democrat.”
“I don’t want to position myself in a way that closes off anybody who’s right-leaning from wanting to work with me, or anybody who’s really left-leaning from wanting to work with me,” he said. “People just get a little too defensive, a little too tribal about their party.”
While Democratic support is flowing to independents in the House, Republicans are focusing on the Senate. The party has struggled in the Bangor district vacated by Democratic Sen. Joe Baldacci, who defeated their nominee by more than 15 points in 2022 and 2024. Both Carey and Roeder are running as Clean Election candidates.
Will Parmacek, who directs the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, said he thought Senate Republican leadership was “playing a game of smoke and mirrors.” But he declined to comment on his party’s strategy in the House, where party-aligned groups have spent more than $20,000 to help independents where no Democrat is running.
The House Democratic campaign arm did not respond to a request for comment. Zach Lingley, a Republican strategist working on races in both chambers, would not discuss strategy. Carey and Frost did not respond to requests for comment.
In the Biddeford area, lawyer Jason Litalien is running as an independent against Sen. Henry Ingwersen, D-Arundel, who won by 17 points in 2024. Litalien has gotten $5,200 in outside help from the conservative group Common Sense for Maine. Donors to his campaign include Rep. Wayne Parry, R-Arundel, and former Maine Republican Party Chair Demi Kouzounas.
“I don’t really think that a party makes all that much of a difference,” Litalien said. “I think, regardless of what is next to my name, I think I’d win Biddeford anyway, simply because I know the people in Biddeford.”
Daniel O’Connor is a Report for America corps member who covers rural government as part of the partnership between the Bangor Daily News and The Maine Monitor, with additional support from BDN and Monitor readers.