Former Gov. Paul LePage backs key parts of President Donald Trump’s tax and spending megabill, including Medicaid cuts that have rural Maine hospitals fearing large effects.
It sets up an ideological battle between LePage and U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a four-term Democrat who barely held Maine’s 2nd District in 2024. Trump won it by 9 points, giving Republicans hope that the former governor can put the seat back in their column.
Golden has been outspoken in opposition to the bill. LePage is at odds with both his opponent and Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who voted against the “One Big Beautiful Bill” citing worries about Maine’s health care system. The sweeping measure also extends 2017 tax cuts that Collins supports and will sharply increase funding for immigration enforcement.
LePage has been handing down policy statements on Facebook since declaring his run against Golden in May. Last week, he came out in support of the 20-hour weekly Medicaid work requirement for most adults without children in the megabill. It is similar to one he tried to implement toward the end of his tenure that was later dropped by Gov. Janet Mills.
He did not come out broadly in favor of the bill’s provisions until Monday. Brent Littlefield, his political strategist, said Trump “needs funding to keep enforcing our borders, the middle class cannot afford a tax increase, and our military needs strong national defense funding.”
“[LePage] helped pay down a massive hospital debt left behind by Democrats expanding Medicaid so he understands our hospitals must survive,” he said, referring to the 2013 bill he championed to pay off $183.5 million in debt by borrowing against liquor revenue.
The statement showed a bit of a balancing act in LePage’s 2026 race against Golden. The former governor proposed cutting 65,000 people from Medicaid early in his tenure. He also opposed Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, which voters approved in 2017.
Mills, a Democrat, campaigned on implementing it and did so on her first full day in office. She beat LePage in 2022. Medicaid now serves roughly 400,000 people, up from 260,000 in mid-2018. Cost overruns led lawmakers to fill a budget gap this year, and Mills has warned that the Republican megabill would cut $5.9 billion to Maine’s Medicaid program over a decade.
Recent studies found the Medicaid cuts in Trump’s bill could put hospitals in Calais, Presque Isle, Caribou and Ellsworth in danger of closing. Northern Light Health, the major Bangor-area health provider, lost $156 million in 2024 and is planning major service changes.
Golden is one of the leading centrists in Congress but has been more progressive on tax policy, often blasting the tax code as “rigged” in favor of wealthier Americans. He assailed Trump’s measure in a blog post last week, summing it up as “huge tax breaks for the rich and corporations paid for by cutting health care for the working poor.”
“There’s almost nothing about this bill that I’m going [to] have a hard time explaining to the district,” he told Politico last week. “This is a giant tax giveaway to wealthy people. Everyone f——— knows it.”
That’s an indication that Golden thinks bucking Trump won’t hurt him in a district that is friendly to the president. The congressman is already facing angst on his left that ramped up after he voted with Republicans in April for a bill that would require proof of citizenship before voting.
State Auditor Matt Dunlap has said he may run against Golden. A longshot Democrat, former Maine Senate hopeful Louis Sigel of Gardiner, filed for the 2nd District on Monday.
BDN writer Billy Kobin contributed to this report.
