Exclusive — Paul LePage: Maine Democrat Mills Is ‘Very Much an Elitist,’ ‘Doesn’t Understand the Struggles of the Working Class’

LEWISTON, Maine — Former Gov. Paul LePage is back and looking to ignite hope among Maine’s working class amid a period of national economic decline.

LePage, who served two terms as governor before he was term-limited out of office in 2019, told Breitbart News he sees another working-class rebellion brewing, similar to what occurred when he ran in 2010.

“Do I believe it’s happening? Yes,” LePage asserted in an exclusive interview Saturday morning, just before he was set to participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new Maine GOP multicultural center, opening a few streets over from where he grew up.

LePage is pursuing unseating Democrat Gov. Janet Mills, who served as attorney general when LePage was governor and whose grandfather, father, and brother all served in state elective offices.

“Our opponent is very much an elitist,” LePage said. “She comes from a very multigenerational political family, and she is very much out of touch with the working class. She doesn’t understand the struggles of the working class.”

LePage is running a campaign much like the one he ran in 2010, promoting job growth, tax cuts, and “a smaller, more efficient state government,” which he details in an economy-heavy agenda on his campaign website.

Fiscal conservatism was central to LePage’s first tenure in office, but the former governor also became known during that time as a brash, politically incorrect figure, saying at one point that former President Barack Obama could “go to hell” and calling the IRS the “new Gestapo.”

LePage’s historic win in 2010 as a somewhat Tea Party-styled right-winger and outlier among the typically moderate Maine Republicans was a shock to state politics. LePage benefitted from a crowded general election and won with just 38 percent of the vote, but he also has a compelling background that touches at the heart of Mainers struggling to make ends meet and that likely pushed him to victory that year.

The oldest son of 18 children, LePage grew up in an impoverished Franco-American family with an abusive father. He left home at age 11 and went on to work odd blue-collar jobs until he was accepted into college and eventually became a successful businessman, mayor of Waterville, and governor.

Now, LePage is looking to reinspire his low- and middle-income base in a state that is in many ways unique, being one of the most rural and coldest in the country, with one of the largest shares of Franco Americans (like LePage), and with the largest share of elderly residents, according to Census data compiled by PRB.

“Every day we go to factories, and we go roam the streets, meeting and talking to Mainers. And it’s the same story everywhere,” LePage said. “It’s about food costs. … It’s about heating oil. It’s about gasoline for your cars. People don’t understand that 85 percent of the food we consume comes in on a truck, and then we have a president who’s trying to get rid of fossil fuel before it’s time? There’s a time and place for everything, electric vehicles, we will get to renewables, but we have to plan it, and right now too many people are suffering.”

Mills, too, is focused on climate issues, to nearly the same degree that LePage is focused on the economy.

Mills recently boasted of Maine’s 25 percent reduction in “greenhouse gas emissions” over the last 20 years, noting, “And we aren’t stopping here.” The Maine Democrat often speaks about the “climate crisis” and Maine’s pledge to be carbon neutral by 2045. She, like President Joe Biden, wants to see more electric vehicles on the road.

“Think about this. This is the funniest thing,” LePage said. “She wants to have 150,000 electric vehicles by 2030, but the only thing she’s investing in for energy is solar, so if people use their cars during the day, and you want to charge them at night, how you gonna charge ’em?” He added with amusement, “There’s no sun, so maybe some energy from the moon or something.”

Mills, whose solution to Mainers’ strained budgets this year was $850 checks to taxpayers, took heat from some Republicans for using a budget surplus to make the one-time payout rather than craft some long-term structural change, such as a tax adjustment.

“She just gave out $850 to buy the election, but this fall, come November, we’re going to have hundreds of thousands of Mainers who can’t afford $6 heating oil. … Why didn’t you use the money we already had? Why try to buy the election?” LePage asked.

Maine is also unique in that, according to the state’s energy department, 60 percent of households rely on heating oil in the winter, the highest percentage of any state. The department showed prices in July reaching up to $6 per gallon, the highest the state has seen in at least the last 18 years.

As former Rep. Bruce Poliquin (R-ME), who is running for Congress, was knocking on doors in a modest Lewiston neighborhood on Saturday after the ribbon-cutting event, Breitbart News observed one resident named Lorraine tell him, “I’m looking at $3,000 to heat my house. … Things have to change.”

Frances, an 80-year-old widow, stood in front of her home as she said, “Groceries, fuel, just everything’s outrageous. … I’m getting scared now. Friends have recommended I sell my house.”

Lewiston is the second-largest city in Maine by population and is situated as a gateway between the small southeast coastal sliver of the state and its expansive rural northwestern counterpart. Biden defeated former President Donald Trump in Lewiston about 55 percent to 41 percent in 2020.

While Lewiston will be more of a struggle for Mills because it is LePage territory, the Maine Democrat is popular in southeastern Maine, in wealthier and more densely populated counties such as York and Cumberland, where large turnouts could supersede votes from the rest of the state.

LePage said that on the contrary, he believes “just the opposite” will happen, and that voters in the Portland suburbs in particular, where parents are “enraged at their school system,” are going to shift rightward.

“I think we’re not only going to have a wave up north, but we’re going to have a wave down south, and so I’m really encouraged,” LePage said. “Matter of fact, if the election was held today, it would be no contest.”

As LePage spoke to a room of dozens of activists, state candidates, and supporters Saturday morning, he touted his business acumen, saying he “fixed” Maine in 2011 and “can do it again.”

Watch:

Ashley Oliver / Breitbart News

LePage told Breitbart News the energy level he is seeing from voters is “unbelievable,” an observation that comes in a year when the GOP has the advantage as the party out of power and as polls show the country is overwhelmingly displeased with Biden.

A Digital Research survey taken among Maine voters in March and April found that nearly 80 percent of respondents believed the economy would stay the same (22 percent) or get worse (54 percent). The inflation rate since then has only worsened. Economic issues, especially the cost of living, were far and away voters’ top priority, the survey found.

The same survey showed Mills with a slight three-point edge over LePage, which was within the margin of error and meant the two were statistically tied.

“I will tell you, I ran in ’10, and I ran in ’14. … I’m telling you, the energy this year, the energy is unbelievable out there. I used to be popular. Now I’m a rock star,” the former governor said, smiling as he broke into a laugh. “I can’t even stop and get gas anymore. It’s crazy. I stopped yesterday afternoon. Fill my car up. Guy comes in on a pickup truck, ‘Oh my god. Oh my god.’”

LePage added, “We have to go back and pay attention to everybody, and what’s happening this year is people are starting to worry about their pocketbook issues. When it affects the table, the dinner table, then people pay attention, and I know my opponent doesn’t want to talk about the economy.”

Write to Ashley Oliver at aoliver@breitbart.com. Follow her on Twitter at @asholiver.