For the better part of the last year (and longer, actually), as the country has navigated the turbulent waters of the Trump administration and the weak and ineffectual Congress and Supreme Court, our attention has been focused on the U.S. Senate races as a salve to save us from the chaos. Yet, while changing the composition of the Senate and House are of great importance, our more localized races are of equal importance because as we look back, one of the ways that the GOP as a whole consolidated their power over the last decade was by winning races at every level across the spectrum, whether it was the school boards or local statehouses and more.
As Trump has wrought havoc on the country through asinine executive orders and more, what state you live in and who governs that state has proven to be a bulwark against feeling the full impact of the administration’s madness.
In other words, governors matter. Your governor matters. Hell, your state legislature matters. Your city council.
Some of the most outspoken critics of the administration and MAGA-oriented power-brokers in general over the last couple years have been Democratic governors. From my birth state of Illinois with Governor JB Pritzker to my current home state of Maine with Governor Janet Mills. We have seen governors playing an almost oversized role in fighting back and keeping residents safe.
This includes such moves as the Governor’s Public Health Alliance that was launched in late 2025 by 15 Democratic governors to protect public health by helping states communicate across state lines, coordinate on pressing public health challenges, and supporting access to critical healthcare like vaccines. The alliance was created as a way to keep citizens safe after the destruction of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the ongoing lunacy with Health and Human Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., under whose leadership and with essentially the blessing of the administration has allowed measles, a disease that was essentially eradicated in 2000, to now make a comeback in many parts of the country.
Current Maine Gov. Janet Mills is closing in on the end of her second term and term limits prevent her from running again, so Mainers this year will be choosing a new governor.
Personally, this race is a no-brainer for me. Bobby Charles, the GOP candidate, is a vile, racist Republican whose own sister wrote a scathing op-ed imploring Maine voters not to vote for her brother. She actually reached out to me to see if we might talk but I wasn’t able to make it happen on my end.
Look, I have one sibling—my younger brother—and I can’t imagine any circumstance where I would tell people that my brother was an awful human being; then again, my brother isn’t an awful human being. I say that to note that if one’s brother is running for office and you feel the need to tell one of the largest newspapers in the state how vile he is, he is probably truly an awful SOB. Of course, it doesn’t help Bobby Charles that for months he posted ugly racist memes on Facebook targeting elected Maine Somali officials. If that wasn’t enough to make one question the man’s integrity, just this week, the Maine Commission on Ethics and and Election Practices fined Charles $22,000 for violating election laws and accepting over-the-limit contributions.
The man isn’t even in office and he is breaking the law. Mind you, Charles recently talked about his good friend, Tom Homan, the border czar and how he wanted Homan to send ICE agents to Maine to watch the polls. Mind you, in Lewiston, immigrant voters of color have been harassed during early voting, by the same unscrupulous right wing “journalists” who helped promote Bobby Charles.
Yeah, dawg, Bobby Charles is a huge “no” for me and frankly should be a no for anyone who is not a virulent racist in Maine. Since the only thing Charles is offering the state is racism and delusions.
There is an Independent in the race, Rick Bennett. A Republican turned Independent in 2025, who is currently serving in the Maine Senate. Bennet served as the chairman of the Maine Republican Party in 2015 and was actually an elector for Donald Trump in 2016. I have heard a few folks in my personal circles express interest in Bennett, as it seems when he decided to part ways with the Republican Party, he tapped into his humanity when he decided to join Democrats in supporting legislation that would limit local police in Maine from collaborating with ICE as well as not wanting to restrict transgender students from participating in school boards. I also understand that Bennett has a lot of great ideas for harm reduction and creating better conditions for those impacted by substance abuse disorder.
In a different political climate, Bennett actually by all accounts sounds like someone who would have been a consideration, but we aren’t in that different political climate and while I am a big believer that people can and do change and that we need to extend grace when possible…well…given the stakes in this country, and the fact that even the composition of the Maine legislature may change to red, we need leadership that is tested and ready to battle the administration and keep Mainers safe. I’ve seen before how an Independent candidate can split the vote and allow a Republican to win, and Maine got two terms of Paul LePage thanks to that, a man who was a precursor of what a Trump presidency would result in and did and said such awful things that he regularly made the national news.
This is why when the opportunity presented itself to have a one-on-one conversation with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Hannah Pingree, I made time in my schedule to make it happen.
Hannah is the daughter of U.S. Congresswoman, Chellie Pingree, so the political runs in her family. But more than that, Hannah has been engaged in politics and organizing life for a large portion of her life. She served in the Maine legislature—in fact the year she entered the state legislature, Troy Jackson also entered the Maine legislature. They were both freshman legislators at the same time. That was over 20 years, and as I said recently at an event where I spoke, that means that should both Troy and Hannah win, their previous work together will bode well for the people of Maine as they have a natural synergy.
During our almost hourlong chat, we covered a lot of terrain ranging from a shared connection as Maine islanders, since there is being a Maine resident and there is being an islander, which are two different vibes. Taking a few moments to chat about how Maine islands are their own ecosystem allowed us to ease into a meatier discussion.
The one question that readers implored me to ask Hannah was how she plans on differentiating herself from current governor, Janet Mills, with whom she also served as a lawmaker over 20 years ago.
Hannah stated that as a young lawmaker, they initially served together for six years until Mills ran for attorney general, and that while there were times when she and Mills voted the same, overall, Pingree was pretty progressive and pragmatic whereas Mills was more moderate.
In 2019, when Mills won the governor’s race, Mills asked Hannah to work for her at the newly created Office of Policy Innovation and the Future. In that position, Pingree worked on issues such as climate, energy, housing and new Mainers—she worked for Mills for six-and-a-half years but felt that they had different styles and approaches, including the fact that Mills is a lifelong attorney and prosecutor and Hannah’s style is more community-based, having worked as an organizer and having ran a housing non-profit. A different trajectory than Mills for sure.
While Hannah spoke of being proud of Mills and how she stood up to Donald Trump in 2025, she quickly let me know that tribal sovereignty is of the utmost importance to her and it is something that she wants to attack in her first 100 days. It was clear in her voice and demeanor that she feels strongly about the issue of tribal sovereignty, which is definitely a place where she differs from her former boss.
We also talked about her work as an organizer, since as I noted people in Maine have been energized in general by the idea of grassroots organizing at the political level. She shared that while running for the legislature 25 years ago wasn’t exactly traditional organizing, in a small community it meant knocking on doors and listening to people and hearing what was important to them and being able to use that information to get to the legislature and work on behalf of those people. In essence, using the tools that are part of community organizing to mobilize for change. She also helped build a community center in her community and worked for a national environmental group organizing to go after a national chemical company. In addition to serving on the school board and helping to create housing in her community.
It was a good conversation, where her commitment to serving Maine was clear and she most certainly has the qualifications to hit the ground running. She is finely attuned to the fact that Maine is becoming a difficult place for people to live and wanting to make it a place where people can afford to live here. Especially as an islander and knowing the struggle that Maine islands have securing housing for year-round islanders versus summer people, a struggle which is now playing out across the state. As we see housing prices soar everywhere and home ownership is increasingly out of reach, which for a state like Maine is catastrophic.
Suffice to say after our conversation, I wholeheartedly offer my support to Hannah Pingree and for Maine voters who haven’t already voted, I would ask that you support Hannah as well.
This year every race is important and having family in red states, I will just say that we cannot take anything for granted.
A Democratic governor and legislature provides protection for our vulnerable community members who are being targeted by our administration. Mainers have an independent streak and while the allure of an Independent governor is attractive, the issue is that in the governor’s race there is no ranked choice voting (unlike in the primaries). A vote for an independent could very well lead to a Republican governor and even if Troy Jackson wins the Senate race, what would a Republican governorship mean in this political climate? Less public health protections for starters, but what about our immigrant communities? Having lived in Maine under the LePage administration, Maine was a less safe place for BIPOC and immigrant Mainers and now that our immigrant communities are building power, a fella like Bobby Charles who openly brags about his good friend, border czar Tom Homan, would mean harm to many people who for years now have not had to live under a racist and xenophobic governor.
Back in 2010 when LePage won the election, the Democratic candidate was weak in the polls and lagged a lot behind both LePage and the Independent candidate Eliot Cutler. In the end, LePage won just a hair ahead of the Independent. Do not, however, fool yourself into thinking voting for this year’s independent and not for the Democrat will turn out better. This year, the independent is lagging in the polls and Pingree and Charles seem to be neck and neck for the rest of the votes according to one recent poll. We need everything poured into a blue vote here.
Friends, this is not the year to follow your bliss with your vote; it is harm reduction for all of us and friends don’t make voting choices that harm friends.
Vote for Hannah Pingree, vote for Troy and, if you are in Congressional district two in Maine, vote for Matt Dunlap, since do we really want that Florida man, Paul LePage, carpetbagging his way back to a power of position in Maine? No, we don’t.
Oh, and if you are in Cumberland County in Maine, vote for Jackie Sartoris for District Attorney. Her opponent, Stephanie Anderson, is a republican turned Independent who still seems pretty aligned with the Republican Party.
After over a year of covering the politics in Maine, this is my last pre-Election Day post on the races. Hopefully, we all make the right choices and keep each other safe. See ya on the side and here’s hoping that in a few days, we can take a collective breath, exhale and feel hope.
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