Republicans already have a crowded primary in one of the most conservative parts of Maine, with four candidates running to represent Bangor-area towns and all of Piscataquis County in the state Senate.
Sen. Stacey Guerin, R-Glenburn, is term limited. Her husband, Joseph Guerin, is seeking to replace her. Two other candidates come from around Bangor, while state Rep. Chad Perkins of Dover-Foxcroft is the only candidate from the Piscataquis County side of the district.
That county is Maine’s smallest by population and also its most conservative. The budding 2026 race shows how the district’s representation has been pulled away from Piscataquis and toward many of the growing towns around Bangor after the last round of redistricting in 2022.
The senator who served before Guerin, Paul Davis, was a longtime lawmaker from Sangerville. But there are now 17,000 voters on the Penobscot County side of the district, outweighing the fewer than 13,000 in all of Piscataquis County, where the population has been stagnant for a century.
County identity is less likely to become a theme of this year’s campaign like it is Down East, where House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, is running into resistance from Washington County in the form of former Rep. Bucket Davis, his primary opponent from East Machias.
Local loyalties are still a factor in the race for a chamber in which members are introduced by their county of residence in a holdover from the days when each county elected senators. Charles Shaffer, the party chair for the Piscataquis County town of Sebec, said he was supporting Perkins even though he said it was not strictly due to his residence in the county.
“Chad has a long record, plus he was very involved, specifically for years in Piscataquis County,” Shaffer said.
Joseph Guerin is campaigning alongside his wife, recently sharing a comic book-style illustration of the two with the title “Team Guerin.” Businessman and former TSA officer Gregory Pierce, who is also from Glenburn, is running alongside Levant Selectman Zachary Wood and Perkins.
The rural nature of the county has influenced campaigning in the district. Pierce’s town is far more tied to Bangor, but he finds himself driving into Piscataquis County almost daily during a campaign that he said is focused on the issues facing rural Mainers.
“It’s far removed from Portland,” he said of his district. “It doesn’t have immediate access to big city aspects of things.”
Whoever wins the primary will be heavily favored in the district. This is the most conservative Senate district in Maine by party registration. Nearly half of the voters there are Republicans. Like Pierce, Wood said there hasn’t been much trouble over the county divide, except the wear on his vehicle after putting in 30,000 miles going across the district since June.
“I stay enthusiastic about wanting to, you know, help everybody in Senate District 4,” he said.
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.
