America last policies have destroyed rural communities, Maine congressional candidate Austin Theriault, former NASCAR driver aiming to unseat Democrat Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) in the state’s Second Congressional District, said during an interview on Breitbart News Daily.
Theriault explained how Maine’s congressional districts are quite different, as the Second Congressional District is more rural and conservative, compared to Maine’s First Congressional District, which is more urban, including cities such as Portland.
He said that he comes from a farming and logging family in northern Maine, describing it as a place with a lot of “hardworking people who worked in the woods, worked with their hands.”
“And that area is tending to lean conservative. It surprisingly used to be Democrat back in the Kennedy days, back when, you know, unions and the mills and all that stuff. But the mills have closed. The manufacturing has moved away, and people are really, really frustrated and disappointed because they feel like the government and everybody’s left them behind — these working class areas, these rural areas, and that’s what we have in a lot of parts,” he said.
But as one moves south in the state, it tends to get more liberal.
“You’ve got Portland, which obviously has become very liberal. You have people who have moved away from different parts of New England that have come up here, and you know, a lot of them may have brought their ideology and politics with them. So that’s an area that’s very tough for Republicans, which is First [Congressional] District,” he said, noting that President Joe Biden won that district in 2020.
“It just shows you … the difference right now in America between the rural areas and the cities. And unfortunately — this is not a you know, attack — I’ve got friends that live down there, but it’s very easy when you live in the city to forget what it’s like to have to make a living in small-town America, especially when, you know, like I mentioned, these mills and these manufacturing and the jobs have moved away, and the opportunities have moved away, and you don’t have to deal with it on a day-to-day basis,” he said.
“But these people who stayed in rural America have to deal with it, and that’s what we’ve got to focus on. We’ve got to focus on separating the difference between that rural America and the big cities — because America was founded on the hard work of the farmers and loggers and fishermen,” Theriault said. “And we have to get back to that.”
Theriault further explained that Maine used to have a lot of paper mills, shoe factories, and farms, but many of these have closed over the past 50 years.
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“I’m not a negative person. But it’s, it’s tough for these people because they’ve seen their family farms close. They’ve seen paper mills that used to be, you know, there used to be tons of them up here. There’s only two in Maine. And they’re wondering, can we get back to it? And that’s the question they’re asking me on the campaign trail. And I say, ‘Look, we may not get back to the way it was in the 70s and 80s, but we can surely work towards lowering energy costs, you know, lowering some of the regulations that stop business development,'” he said, noting that some of these communities have also been “decimated from the fentanyl crisis and the open border.”
“And even, you know, even some people that … used to be strong and healthy are now dealing with the consequences and realities of addiction, because of … the lack of leadership from some of our politicians and those who voted against securing the border, like my opponent, Jared Golden,” he said, expressing hope that things can turn around if Republicans win the election.
“Right now the trouble is, some of these families have moved away, and unless we replace them, or unless people start having more kids in some of these small towns, it’s going to be very difficult, but it’s possible. We just got to, we have to work together and create an opportunity for them. Create an opportunity where they can … buy some extra land for their farm, or they can they feel comfortable enough to buy an extra piece of equipment, because the market for wood is, you know, is more competitive, but they’re dealing with so many things all at once — high fuel prices, regulations, you know, like I mentioned before, they’re just getting hit from all sides, and we expect them to grow their businesses, and they can’t,” he added.
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