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Angus King has served two terms as a U.S. senator and was governor of Maine for eight years. Because of this experience, he has a deep understanding of Maine and its breadth of issues. He also has for decades brought people together to reach consensus and get things done.
We believe he will continue to do so in another term in the U.S. Senate, which is why we recommend ranking King, an independent, as your first choice in that race on the Nov. 5 ballot.
King’s challengers — Republican Demi Kouzounas, Democrat David Costello and independent Jason Cherry — offer a variety of backgrounds and perspectives. But, with a lack of experience in elected office, none of them can match King’s record of working with others, no matter their party affiliation, to craft and pass needed legislation.
Although they have fallen out of fashion in a Congress that has become more partisan, King has long been part of bipartisan groups of lawmakers who negotiated agreements on crucial issues, such as a COVID relief package and an infrastructure funding bill in 2021.
In addition to these bills, other recent pieces of major legislation, such as the CHIPS and Science Act, the PACT Act and Great American Outdoors Act, were all passed on a bipartisan basis. But, King worries, many of the moderate lawmakers who helped shepherd these and other essential bills through the Senate have left or are leaving. For example, independent Krysten Sinema, Republican Mitt Romney and Democrat Joe Manchin are not seeking reelection this year.
“I felt a responsibility as one of those who’s in the middle and trying to actually get things done to stay and see it through because without that we can’t get anything done,” King told the Bangor Daily News editorial board.
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King has prioritized improving care and housing for veterans as a member of the Armed Services and Veterans Affairs committees. In addition to his membership on the Senate Intelligence Committee, King has been a leader in warning about, and developing responses to, increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity risks. He helped lead bipartisan efforts to increase funding for conservation, including to address a backlog of needed work at national parks, including Acadia.
Such a proven willingness to work through issues with senators with differing political views will remain essential in a closely divided Senate, no matter which party controls the chamber after November’s election.
Calls from Kouzounas, a dentist and Army veteran, for better access to health care, especially mental health care, are spot on, as is her suggestion of government incentives to encourage more people to become care providers. She’s also right that failing to provide services to those with substance use disorder or who are homeless is costly.
Kouzounas’ leadership of the Maine Republican Party during a time of increasingly divisive rhetoric and her continued support for Donald Trump, setting “his personality aside,” as she termed it, are concerning.
Costello, who has worked on political campaigns and for city, state and federal government entities, pledges to reform government by working to enact significant changes to electoral laws and governing procedures, such as eliminating the Electoral College and the Senate filibuster and restructuring the House and Senate. Such big changes remain unlikely with the current makeup of Congress.
Cherry, an independent who is a former FBI agent, echoes King’s concerns about increasing polarization and the growing inability of people to consider different points of view. It’s almost like he’s pledging to be King without all the valuable experience.
We do have concerns about King’s age. He would be 86 at the end of another term in the Senate. However, given his energy and commitment to keep working on pressing issues such as affordable housing and national security, in addition to the value of his seniority in Congress, we believe he is the top choice in the U.S. Senate race.
Editor’s note: Deputy Opinion Editor Matt Junker did not participate in the U.S. Senate endorsement process because he worked in King’s U.S. Senate office from 2013 to 2017.
