Politics
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Former Maine Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason is one of a handful of Republican gubernatorial candidates jockeying for a potential kingmaking endorsement from President Donald Trump.
Mason told the Bangor Daily News Wednesday that it would be “foolish” not to seek the president’s endorsement given the success of primary candidates he’s backed. But GOP sources in Maine and Washington D.C. say Trump effectively looms over a wide-open, crowded race he’s unlikely to weigh in on until very late if at all.
The positioning for Trump’s blessing, which has included meetings both in and out of the White House and many talks among Trump insiders, has intensified in recent months even as the president’s approval rating has dwindled since he retook power last year.
The hold-off on an endorsement comes as lawyer and former federal official Bobby Charles, who entered the race a year ago, has maintained a lead in polls despite being outraised and outspent by other candidates including Mason and health tech entrepreneur Jonathan Bush.
“Trump’s endorsement is still something that is a game changer,” Lance Dutson, a Republican strategist who previously worked on Bush’s campaign, said. “Most of the field would be very pleased to get his endorsement.”
Sources said the Mason camp and his supporters have been the most active in getting him vetted and making the pitch to the president’s political team. The lobbyist has perhaps the most direct line into the White House given support from Republican megadonors Richard Uihlein and Thomas Klingenstein, who have set up a $5 million outside group to back Mason.
But other candidates have publicly embraced Trump’s agenda. Charles shared recent videos from Washington claiming he brought a message of conservatism and cooperation to White House officials. He is endorsed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, whose wife is a Trump-appointed ambassador.
Even Bush, who has criticized the president in the past and comes from a political family that has warred with Trump, said last month that he’d welcome the president’s endorsement. Campaign manager Eamonn Dundon noted that Trump, like Bush, “is an outsider businessman” who will “drain the Augusta swamp.”
Real estate agent David Jones, who’s criticized both Mason and Charles in recent debates, calls himself “the only Trump guy in the race” who supported the president since 2016.
Charles’ and Jones’ campaigns did not respond to a request for comment. Nor did the campaigns of Gorham businessman Owen McCarthy and South Paris businessman Robert Wessels. A spokesperson for former fitness CEO Ben Midgley, who is backed by members of former Gov. Paul LePage’s inner circle, declined comment.
Several Republicans in Maine and elsewhere said they’d be surprised if Trump backed one of the seven candidates anytime soon. Like many of Trump’s announcements of plans and personnel moves, any potential endorsement is likely to come directly from the president via Truth Social.
The White House declined to comment when asked about the possibility of Trump weighing in on the primary.
LePage, who is running for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, received an endorsement from Trump in December. He remains the only Trump-endorsed candidate in Maine out of the president’s 284 primary endorsements across the country, according to a Ballotpedia tracker. The former governor was the honorary chair of Trump’s Maine campaign in 2020.
The Maine Democratic Party and its handful of primary candidates are already linking the Republicans to Trump at a time of increasing gas and oil prices and rising health care premiums.
“While Trump’s endorsement may help desperate Republican candidates in a primary, it leaves a stain they won’t be able to wash away in the general election and will ultimately cost them at the ballot box,” Devon Murphy-Anderson, the state party’s executive director, said.
Mason shrugged off any concerns that a Trump endorsement could hurt him in the general election. He said he doesn’t think Trump is as unpopular in Maine as Democrats think, and he said a governor of any party should be seeking ways to cooperate with him.
“Maine is a net receiver of federal benefits,” he said. “It’s biting your nose to spite your face to just say you’re going to be a big, bad governor [fighting Trump]. That just hurts Mainers.”
