MADAWASKA, Maine – In 1988, nearly 90 percent of Grand Isle voters went for Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, who lost handily in Maine and nationwide. Democratic support was cut in half by the time former President Donald Trump won it in 2020.
It marked the first time a Republican candidate had won the St. John Valley in the modern era of Maine politics, but it had been an erosion in line with what has occurred in many working-class communities across the country. That tension is marking high-profile 2022 elections, including the massive fight for the seat held by Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash.
Trump had a unique pull on many former and even current Democrats and the valley’s strong social conservatism has a natural home in the Republican Party, former officeholders and voters across the region said last week.
“Most of the valley’s Roman Catholic: a lot of conservative values there,” said former state Rep. Duane Belanger, R-Wallagrass.
Belanger, 57, remembers a time when the area was almost universally Democratic, in part due to strong support among local farmers. When he registered with the GOP as a young man, it even became a touchy subject in his family.
“My father [forbade] me to let my grandfather know that I had registered as a Republican,” Belanger said with a laugh.
Going back to the mid-1800s, there was a clear line between political factions in the St. John Valley: the Acadian Catholics were the Democrats and the English Protestants were Whigs and then the Republicans, said Chad Pelletier, president of the Fort Kent Historical Society.
While he said Democrats and Catholics were largely politically synonymous, they were not exclusive. He recalled a case of a Catholic priest causing controversy in 1896 after endorsing a Protestant over a Catholic candidate from the pulpit.
That long history is partially why many Democratic-leaning voters find the shift baffling, especially because of the economic conditions of the area.
“This area would really benefit from Democratic policies,” said David Cyr, a 69-year-old retired social worker in Van Buren. “This is a very poor area.”
Cyr was referring to the St. John Valley as a whole, but Van Buren is especially in that category: 74 percent of residents have household incomes below $50,000 a year, which ranks it near the bottom in Maine for a community with 500 households or more.
Van Buren and Madawaska remain Democratic strongholds, albeit by a smaller margin than past years. The smaller communities of Wallagrass and Westmanland also went for Biden in 2020, with the latter transitioning from one of the valley’s only GOP strongholds to among the few that votes for Democratic presidential candidates.
With everyone in their echo chambers, noticing a political shift on the other side can sometimes be difficult. But Cyr and other Democratic-leaning voters said the changes were undeniable.
“Just a year ago, most of them people were Democrat,” said Mabel Pelletier, 76, of Allagash, who plans on voting for Gov. Janet Mills over former Gov. Paul LePage and U.S. Rep. Jared Golden over former Rep. Bruce Poliquin. “Now they all got Republican signs out.”
For former Rep. Charles Theriault, D-Madawaska, the loss of Democratic support in the valley is the “hard question to answer.” Possible factors include the mechanization of labor, exasperation from the pandemic and a perception that Democratic policies may not have worked. In 1970, the region had 23,000 residents and it had only 16,000 in the 2020 census.
Theriault, interviewed as he put up signs for Jackson in his campaign against Rep. Sue Bernard, R-Caribou, said his party still supported the “little guy.” But many others believe it is the Republicans who have working peoples’ back rather than the Democrats.
“They want change,” Sue Michaud, 71, a retired merchandiser in Madawaska, said. “So, they’re going to try something new.”
Some also say it is the Democratic Party’s focus on socially liberal causes that has turned off many, including abortion and LGBTQ rights. Election returns show a persistent cultural conservatism in the area. Just 28 percent of people supported keeping same-sex marriage legal in 2009 and only 38 percent backed legalizing recreational marijuana in 2016.
“People in the valley have been strongly against abortion all their lives,” said former Rep. Mike Nadeau, R-Fort Kent, who temporarily ousted Rep. John Martin, D-Eagle Lake, in 2012.
Nadeau expects the Republicans to do well in the upcoming election due to economic issues like inflation and heating costs. If the party can get votes from people like Sue Pelletier, 62, of St. John Plantation, that may be true. She called herself a proud Democrat but would love to vote for Trump a third time.
“A lot of people hate him, but he says it like it is,” she said.
Diehard Democrats remain. Kurt Holzhausen, a psychology professor at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, said he was worried about abortion rights and threats to democracy posed by Trump.
“I happen to think that freedoms are more important than finances,” Holzhausen said.
