LEWISTON, Maine — Pamela Edgecomb couldn’t look past Paul LePage’s coarse style of politics as she cast her ballot for a House seat in northern Maine.
She was open to supporting a Republican and voted for Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), the longtime GOP incumbent seeking a sixth term this fall.
But Edgecomb is among the Maine voters who remember LePage’s polarizing years as governor and decided to support his Democratic opponent, state auditor Matt Dunlap, citing a desire for more civility in Washington.
“He’s a little bit more rough-edged than I would prefer, and I think it’s hard to see beyond that,” said Edgecomb, a 66-year-old business owner in Lewiston. “I was able to tolerate a little more when he was governor, but not so much now because it’s just too mainstream, and we need to get away from that.”
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LePage’s blunt delivery and penchant for picking fights dominated Maine politics for almost a decade, starting with his first term as governor in 2011. He feuded with everyone from the media to state legislators of both parties and did so with a crassness that later drew comparisons to President Donald Trump.
LePage is still haunted by his remark that drug dealers were coming to the state to impregnate “white girls” and repeatedly mused about shooting his critics. As he ran his first gubernatorial campaign in 2010, LePage famously promised voters that he would tell President Barack Obama to “go to hell” if elected.
That sort of bombast has been accepted before in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, a right-leaning battleground that Trump has carried each time he’s run for president, including a 9-point win in 2024.
Even LePage has proven it may not matter, winning there as recently as 2022, when he unsuccessfully challenged Gov. Janet Mills (D-ME) for a third, nonconsecutive term as governor.
He lost the state, but carried the 2nd District, albeit by a narrow 2 percentage points.
For that reason, Republicans believe the seat is a likely pickup this fall in what is otherwise a difficult midterm environment. It has been represented for the last four terms by Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), a “Blue Dog” Democrat who frequently breaks with his party.
Still, LePage’s reputation as a bomb thrower is also a liability and was brought up unprompted in repeated interviews with the Washington Examiner at early voting centers in Bangor and Lewiston.
Theresa, a 72-year-old registered independent in Bangor, said she “almost” voted for LePage, but chose not to because of his “delivery.” Instead, she split her ticket and supported Collins and LePage’s opponent, Dunlap.
Jude, a 63-year-old educator in Lewiston, voted the same way, lamenting that LePage had “trashed public education” and “disrespected” teachers during his time as governor. Jude described himself as a Republican who is willing to cross party lines.
“I’m just embarrassed by how LePage – the way he represents the state of Maine,” he said. “I’m hoping that Dunlap will give us some consistency.”
There are limits to how heavily temperament will factor into voters’ calculus.
Dave Hamlin, a 61-year-old retiree in Lewiston, sighed when asked about the House race, telling the Washington Examiner that he considered LePage “too bombastic” but viewed Dunlap as “incompetent.”
“I voted for LePage. I held my nose,” Hamlin said, adding that he supported Golden in past cycles and would have done so again.
Others remembered LePage’s governorship in a positive light and planned to vote for him this fall.
“All over that, I love it,” said Patty, a 63-year-old retiree in Lewiston who, like others in this story, requested that their last name be kept private. “When he was our governor, things ran smooth.”
The responses offer a small sample of how voters are thinking about LePage more than a decade after he left office. He notably moderated his tone in his 2022 comeback bid and has run a relatively disciplined campaign this time, too. Still, LePage’s confrontational style as governor remains ingrained in voters’ minds. In fact, it appeared to be more of a factor than the merits or negatives of Dunlap as a candidate.
LePage’s decision to spend more time in Florida after leaving the governor’s mansion has also crept into the consideration of at least some voters following a drumbeat of attacks by Dunlap.
Joline, a 68-year-old Republican living in Lewiston, said that she liked how LePage ran the state as governor but was undecided on how she would vote, citing his part-time residency in Florida.
“I used to like LePage, but I’m not sure yet,” she said.
LePage, 78, addressed that concern at a debate earlier this month, calling himself a “snow bird” who no longer enjoyed Maine winters at his age.
There is little reliable polling on the race with a week to go until Election Day, but nonpartisan analysts such as Cook Political Report believe the district still favors LePage, even as outside factors like the war in Iran and Trump’s underwater approval ratings put more seats in play for Democrats.
The last independent survey released for the 2nd District was a University of New Hampshire poll from a month ago. It found Dunlap leading LePage by 6 percentage points.
Dunlap has his own liabilities as a progressive running with the backing of socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and national Republicans have sought to frame him as out of step with the district’s conservative lean.
Yet Dunlap is also somewhat insulated from that critique due to his years spent as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, a pro-2nd Amendment group that supports hunters and fishermen.
“I think he’s more of a moderate. He’s not a left-wing Democrat,” said Jude. “That’s why he got my vote.”
Dunlap is also mild-mannered next to LePage and almost as well-known. Before his time as auditor, Dunlap was a Maine House member and then secretary of state.
“I mean, Matt Dunlap has been around for a long time, and he’s been considered kind of like a harmless type of politician,” said Lance Dutson, a GOP operative and former senior adviser to Collins. “He’s a pretty smart guy. He’s a nice guy, you know – but he’s essentially a ‘D’ on the ticket.”
Politically, LePage’s race will be decided on the same issues that have become flashpoints in House battlegrounds across the country. He’s created some daylight when it comes to Trump’s Canadian tariffs and called for a quick end to the war in Iran.
But LePage and Dunlap have each attempted to exploit the perceived weaknesses that come with a long record in the state and, where they can, have tried to localize the race.
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Dunlap’s years as state auditor have given LePage an opening to call attention to the fraud in Maine’s healthcare programs and accuse Democrats of being unable to fix it.
Dunlap has, among other things, focused on LePage’s repeated vetoes of Medicaid expansion in the state.