Paul LePage’s decision to trade the quiet of retirement for a return to politics in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District has set off alarm bells across the state. LePage governed Maine from 2011 to 2019 with a brand of populism that veered into outright bigotry. In a 2016 town hall on the heroin crisis, he described out‑of‑state dealers as “guys with the name D‑Money, Smoothie, Shifty”. He claimed that “half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave,” invoking a centuries‑old racist trope that reduced human beings to caricatures and mothers to mere statistics. Weeks later he boasted of carrying a “three‑ringed binder” full of mugshots and asserted that over 90 percent of those arrested were Black or Hispanic, effectively endorsing racial profiling by law enforcement.
It was not merely LePage’s rhetoric that divided Maine. His use of the veto pen was historic in its severity. By July 2018, he had vetoed 652 bills, more than all Maine governors combined over the previous century, often thwarting measures that commanded strong bipartisan support in the legislature. He cut prescription drug assistance that many low-income seniors relied on and slashed reimbursements to hospitals, imperiling rural healthcare. He proposed lifetime welfare limits and work requirements that threatened to push vulnerable Mainers further into poverty. LePage defended these policies as fiscal discipline. Yet, Maine’s watchdogs warned that the cuts disproportionately hurt older adults, people with disabilities, and families already struggling to make ends meet.
Having failed in a comeback bid for governor in 2022, LePage now wants to unseat Representative Jared Golden, a Marine Corps veteran who has served the District since 2019. LePage’s campaign pledges reveal an agenda that echoes his governorship. In announcing his candidacy on May 5, 2025, he vowed to fight “extreme woke policies that defy common sense,” to defend the Second Amendment without any new safeguards, and to promote job creation through broad tax cuts and deregulation. These phrases mask what voters lived through under his administration: stalled broadband expansion that left rural communities isolated, underfunded schools in struggling towns, and an austerity‑driven economic plan that favored the wealthy few at the expense of working Mainers.
By contrast, Jared Golden has built his reputation on delivering tangible results and working across the aisle. A corporal in the United States Marine Corps who served tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan, he returned to Maine. He won election to the state legislature in 2014 before toppling a two‑term incumbent in 2018 by mastering Maine’s newly adopted ranked‑choice voting system. In Congress, he has focused on the realities of his sprawling rural District. He fought for funding to shore up lobster fisheries, invested in community health centers, and backed infrastructure bills that extended broadband deep into northern Maine. He has defended Social Security and Medicaid benefits and even joined Republicans to avert a government shutdown when Mainers’ paychecks and small‑business loans were at risk.
LePage’s return threatens to re‑inject the culture war battles that defined his governorship. His vow to “fight the extreme woke policies” is a catchphrase for rolling back civil‑rights protections, undermining diversity initiatives in schools and workplaces, and targeting LGBTQ Mainers under the guise of ideological purity. On gun rights, his blank check for unfettered access ignores the reality that rural Maine has already borne the cost of lax background checks and an escalating toll of firearm accidents. Promises to spur job creation through another round of flat tax rates echo the trickle‑down schemes that did little to reverse population loss in the 2nd District, where young people still pack up and move away in search of opportunity.
This contest is more than a rematch of personalities. It is a choice about the kind of leadership Maine deserves in a polarized era. History will remember LePage not for his promise of blunt talk but for the divisions he sowed and the people he left behind. Golden’s record shows a leader who listens, who compromises when necessary, and who measures success by the health of his communities rather than the size of his veto tally. If Mainers care about rural hospitals staying open, public schools regaining their footing, and waterways being free from industrial pollutants, then the path is clear. A vote for Jared Golden is a vote for constructive problem-solving. A vote for Paul LePage is a return ticket to the bitter brand of politics that nearly broke Maine once already.
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