Linville McDonough is a student at the University of Maine Farmington, majoring in political science and minoring in creative writing.

I cannot help but notice that while Maine’s 2026 Senate race is getting attention, many are overlooking the race for our 2nd Congressional District House seat.

This seat is in one of the reddest areas currently held by a Democrat nationally. I do not think Democrats should assume this seat will stay blue. Former Gov. Paul LePage has chosen to run for the 2nd District seat, and he might just win it.

LePage draws people to him who feel disenchanted with “traditional” politics. This rings true for many people in Maine and especially for Trump voters, many of whom are in the 2nd District. LePage himself knows he was a kind of “Trump” before Trump was an idea in politics.

Of the candidates who have chosen to run for the House, three stand out. Matt Dunlap is Maine’s current state auditor. He was a participant on Donald Trump’s voter fraud committee, where he refused to release sensitive voter information to the president. Joe Baldacci is a current Maine state senator. And Jordan Wood is a former chief of staff to California Rep. Katie Porter and was a participant in End Citizens United.

LePage, who seems likely to win this race, should not be the man to speak for and act on behalf of our state on the national level. At a time when the country is so divided, having LePage in the House will stall any progress.

In his first year as governor of Maine, he vetoed a record-breaking 187 bills, stating, “As promised, I am vetoing all bills sponsored by Democrats because they have stifled the voice of Maine citizens by preventing them from voting on the elimination of the income tax.”

In his entire time as governor (2010-2018), he vetoed 642 bills. The level of uncooperativeness and the refusal to work across the aisle is a bit astonishing.

LePage also conducts himself in ways that don’t represent Maine. He had to make many apologies for his words while he was governor, often making national headlines. He once said that drug dealers with names like “D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty” come into Maine and impregnate “white women” before leaving. He recommended that those with a license to carry should solve drug trafficking (“load up and get rid of drug dealers”).

LePage is very anti-immigrant, claiming immigrants are bringing in tuberculosis, AIDS and “the ziki fly.” Not only is this horribly offensive, it is factually incorrect. The fly does not exist. One time, he told a boy that he would like to shoot his father, a local political cartoonist. He later wrote a note to the kid to apologize. On more than one occasion, he compared the IRS to the Gestapo.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and most D.C. politicians have not formally backed any candidate. Little attention continues to be paid to this race on a national level. While I do not approve of the level of national interference in state races we have seen over the past year, I find this lack of attention a bit concerning.

The last statements released were in 2025, when Democrats refused to back Matt Dunlap after he announced his intention to run for the seat. They later announced that they would not support Jordan Wood, either, and were still looking for a candidate. I think we have run out of time to find another Democrat to run.

The most popular candidate in this race is Paul LePage. LePage is a real threat to a Democratic majority in the House, whether Democrats in the rest of the country realize that or not. More attention needs to be paid here, more funding needs to be poured in, and one of the candidates needs national backing to win this race.