AUGUSTA, Maine — Leaders of the Lincoln County Republican Committee defended their decision to give a former legislative candidate a speaking role at a recent event after he pleaded guilty to assaulting police during the U.S. Capitol riots of Jan. 6, 2021.
Matt Brackley of Waldoboro served as an emcee at the local party’s March 2 caucus in Newcastle. The 2022 Republican nominee for a neighboring Maine Senate district pleaded guilty in January to one count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers in connection with the 2021 riots in Washington, D.C.
His presence at the March led to local concern among Republicans and led the party’s presumptive U.S. Senate nominee to skip the event, although Lincoln County leaders both defended Brackley’s role as the emcee of the caucus and downplayed both concerns about his role and the severity of the riots overall.
It is a local example of how different levels of the Republican Party continue to deal with the fallout from the riots. Former President Donald Trump faced harsh criticism immediately after the riots that came amid his false insistence that he won the 2020 election. He is now running a rematch with President Joe Biden and invoking Jan. 6 to describe defendants as “hostages.”
Former Maine Republican Party Chair Demi Kouzounas, a retired dentist and U.S. Army veteran seeking to unseat U.S. Sen. Angus King in November, said her military background and respect for “law enforcement and the rule of law” made her decide against attending the caucus.
“I’m never OK with any assaults,” said Kouzounas, whose campaign website pictures her with both Trump and centrist U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, the latter of whom recruited her to run against King. “As a veteran, we don’t shove law enforcement around.”
Brackley joined a crowd of rioters that breached the Capitol after attending Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally in early 2021, according to federal prosecutors who say he was part of crowds that twice pushed past Capitol Police officers while trying to go to the Senate chamber as members of Congress tried to certify Biden’s election victory.
The second time, Brackley and the crowd were stopped by two officers. After roughly 40 seconds of conversation with the officers, he turned to the crowd and yelled, “Let’s go!” With both elbows extended forward, he pushed through the officers and led the crowd into a hallway going toward the Senate chamber, prosecutors say.
After FBI agents arrested Brackley last summer in Waldoboro, he denied ever assaulting anyone. But he pleaded guilty in January to a charge that carries up to eight years in prison and a maximum $250,000 fine. His plea deal could result in a lighter sentence. Both sides will likely submit requested sentences closer to a May 14 sentencing hearing.
Lincoln County Republican Committee Chair Patty Minerich said no members approached the executive committee with concerns about Brackley’s role in the March 2 event.
Between 2022 and 2023, she said the committee’s leadership “took unprecedented action and removed a member of the committee due to a variety of concerns including member safety.” That person has “a small group of supporters” and is trying to discredit the committee, she said.
She declined to identify the person but added that she has no doubt that they were the source of concerns mentioned in a Lincoln County News editorial on March 7 that called Brackley’s speaking role “not a good look.”
The committee’s vice chair, Liliana Thelander, responded to that editorial by writing Brackley was chosen because “he did a fantastic job” helping out during last year’s special election for an open Maine House of Representatives seat and “did a wonderful job” again at the caucus. Thelander, also mentioned “hyperbole” about the Jan. 6 riots.
She added Lincoln County Republicans “will continue to schedule speakers without viewing them through the lens of political correctness.”
“Instead, we will make sure they are knowledgeable, relevant, entertaining — even if sometimes controversial,” Thelander wrote.
Brackley, who lost in 2022 to Maine Senate Majority Leader Eloise Vitelli, D-Arrowsic, said Friday he was “humbled” by local Republicans asking him to help with the caucus and that he had not heard of any objections from Kouzounas. He said “her heart is in the right place.”
“I am proud of her continued dedication to serving the people of our great state,” Brackley added. “I wish her well and hope that her campaign to be our next senator is successful.”