Many top Republicans in Maine have been hesitant to talk about former President Donald Trump and his 2024 presidential hopes. Then, the FBI raised his Florida residence.
Several high-profile Maine Republicans have since condemned the raid on Trump’s home, which occurred on Monday, reflecting the fiery anger of Republicans nationwide and the potential nationalization of Maine’s elections this November.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage last month refused to commit to supporting Trump for president in 2024 shortly after appearing at a networking event hosted by potential Trump opponent Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. It was somewhat surprising for the former governor who in 2016 had described himself as “Trump before Trump became popular” and was an early supporter of the former president’s 2016 presidential run.
But on Tuesday, LePage angrily condemned the raid, saying it had shown that the U.S. had turned into a “banana republic,” a phrase often used to describe a corrupt or authoritarian government. The FBI had treated the former president as if he had committed a murder, LePage said.
The raid is widely believed to be connected to classified documents Trump took with him after leaving the White House early last year, though top FBI and Justice Department officials have yet to discuss the incident publicly.
The raid on Trump’s home has inserted the former president into a Maine election cycle that many in the GOP wanted to keep focused on bread-and-butter issues like gas prices, the cost of utilities and the economy. Elections across the state, including for the Maine Legislature, could be further nationalized if Trump announces his presidential candidacy before the November elections, as many aides expect he will.
Some in the GOP went further than others in their comments. Republican U.S. House candidate Bruce Poliquin, who hopes to return to his 2nd District seat after November, said on Wednesday he would “push for an investigation” into the FBI raid if elected. He had declined to say last week whether he would support Trump if he were to run for president in 2024.
Maine Republican Party Chair Demi Kouzounas on Wednesday morning called on the Department of Justice to release a “full explanation” of why the raid had occurred.
“If this raid is part of a political witch hunt or to retrieve some documents for the National Archives, it’s entirely and grossly inappropriate,” Kouzounas said.
Still, some voices were more measured. Republican Ed Thelander, who is running against Rep. Chellie Pingree in the heavily Democratic 1st Congressional District, called for more answers about why the search was conducted.
“The FBI has an obligation to be fully transparent with the reasons why they conducted this search,” Thelander said. “Without complete transparency, the country will only be further divided.”
Thelander had not responded to a request for comment last week asking whether he would support Trump for president in 2024, though he did appear with several other candidates last month at the “Trump Wall,” in Waldoboro, which features a mural that endorses a 2024 bid from the former president.
Sen. Susan Collins called the raid “shocking” on Tuesday, saying that an FBI raid on a sitting president was unprecedented. Still, she didn’t condemn the raid and noted that there was still a lot the public didn’t know.
Trump still energizes many Maine Republicans, though there have been signs of cracks, especially since his loss in the 2020 presidential election and involvement in stoking the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
A CNN exit poll of 2020 presidential election voters found that 9 percent of Maine Republicans voted for Democratic President Joe Biden, higher than the national average of 6 percent. White Republicans with college degrees were even more likely to buck their party, with 15 percent saying they had voted for Biden.
