AUGUSTA, Maine — Earlier this year, former state Rep. Corey Wilson approached the door of a voter who epitomized the exact type he needed to return to the Maine Legislature.
Like the candidate, the man was a military veteran. He left the Republican Party after Donald Trump became president. The man told Wilson he knew all of his stances on major issues and they agreed on all of them, but he had made a pact to vote against all Republicans in 2022.
“I’ll vote for you next cycle, but not this time,” Wilson recounted the man saying. “I want to send a message.”
Wilson lost a swing House district in Winthrop and Readfield to Rep. Tavis Hasenfus, D-Winthrop, in an outcome that summed up a great election for Democrats in Maine last week. Gov. Janet Mills routed former Gov. Paul LePage, U.S. Rep. Jared Golden of the 2nd District will hold his seat and Democrats kept the Legislature after many predicted big Republican gains.
The results were striking because Democrats held serve during a midterm election for the unpopular President Joe Biden at a time of high inflation. It came under the shadow of Trump’s suggestion that he may declare a third presidential run on Tuesday. Both that and the results have Maine Republicans rethinking their standard bearers.
Republicans had bet heavily that the roiled economy would lift them to victory and a national exit poll led by the Associated Press confirmed that it was the top issue on voters’ minds, although nearly as many said the future of democracy was top of mind after Trump and other party members falsely claimed that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
Wilson, who was elected to one House term representing half of Augusta in 2012 but did not run for reelection and now lives in Readfield, is an atypical Republican. He championed gun-rights causes in the State House. He also bucked LePage to support Medicaid expansion. While he is personally anti-abortion, he supports abortion rights on the grounds of personal freedom.
He got many private messages from voters asking about his position on that issue after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June. The candidate attributed Tuesday’s results to a “silent majority” of voters that included many in the middle of the electorate turned off by consensus Republican social positions and Trump-style election denial.
“There was no question that Donald Trump, he caused a lot of damage,” he said. “I think that Republicans need to wake up and realize that the Republican Party, if it’s led by Donald Trump, will not go anywhere.”
Republican leaders in Maine have been quiet since Election Day. The state party has been “gathering information” and will put together a regular report on strengths and weaknesses, Jason Savage, the executive director, said in a statement.
Neither LePage nor Poliquin has spoken publicly since their election night gatherings. The former governor gave a bitter speech to supporters in which he called Mills an elitist and complained that voters prioritized abortion rights over “feeding your families” and heating oil costs.
“I’m telling you I should have never got into politics,” he said.
There are well-worn parallels between LePage and Trump. LePage likened his style to Trump’s when he endorsed him in 2016. He chaired the former president’s 2020 Maine campaign. But LePage shied away from Trump ahead of this election, never saying whether he thought a 2024 White House return bid would be a good idea.
The next presidential election has hung over discussion of the election results in Maine among Republicans. Many in the party are grateful for Trump’s tenure, but other potential candidates like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis could expand on the former president’s base, Matthew Gagnon, the CEO of the conservative Maine Policy Institute, said on his WGAN show.
Mills defeated LePage by 13 percentage points and delivered a shellacking in the growing Portland suburbs that were crucial to past LePage victories. For example, he won Scarborough by 6 points in 2014. Trump lost it by 16 points in 2016 and 29 points in 2020. This time, LePage lost it by a staggering 33 points.
“You’ve got to be able to find a way of marrying that with being able to appeal to a guy who lives in Yarmouth, for God sakes,” Gagnon said of Trump’s appeal to working-class voters.
Maine Republicans will need new standard bearers. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins is the last high-level elected member of the party. She has consistently won majorities in Maine but was a nonfactor in the election here, spending last Sunday campaigning in Pennsylvania with Mehmet Oz, the TV doctor turned Senate nominee who lost to Democrat John Fetterman.
LePage, who is 74, is generally expected to leave the stage. His strategist, Brent Littlefield, did not answer questions about whether the one-time Florida resident would continue to live here or stay engaged with civic life in Maine. While Poliquin is going to a ranked-choice count with Golden, the incumbent is expected to easily prevail. After that, Poliquin will have lost four of the Maine campaigns that he has run since 2010.
Legislative Republicans are shaking up leaders. Sen. Trey Stewart, R-Presque Isle, will lead his caucus after Poliquin pushed him out of a 2nd District bid. Five House Republicans — Laurel Libby of Auburn, Josh Morris of Turner, Billy Bob Faulkingham of Winter Harbor, Jack Ducharme of Madison and Michael Lemelin of Chelsea — are vying for the top spot.
The party’s figureheads, the messaging and the socially conservative platform need to be changed, said former House Minority Leader Ken Fredette, a lawyer who represented Newport. He likened the party’s situation to a corporation bleeding money.
“We might be witnessing the death of the Republican Party as we know it in Maine,” he said.