The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set news policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com
Amy Fried is a retired political science professor at the University of Maine. Her views are her own and do not represent those of any group with which she is affiliated.
Maine’s last race for governor has a lot in common with this year’s presidential race. These similarities are already shaping candidates’ strategies.
In 2022 former Gov. Paul LePage ran for the office he held for eight years versus his successor, Gov. Janet Mills. Now former President Donald Trump is attempting to return to his previous position by defeating President Joe Biden.
Yes, these situations are somewhat different. Before running again, LePage was termed out and retired to Florida. In contrast, Biden beat Trump in 2020. Trump didn’t accept his loss ( and still doesn’t) and took actions that led to the Jan. 6 insurrection and criminal indictments.
Still, these four past and current candidates have all been able to highlight differences between what they and their opponents did in the office they’re seeking.
Two years ago Mills wasted no time drawing contrasts between her and her predecessor. At the 2022 Maine Democratic Convention that spring, Mills specifically pointed to what she did on Medicaid expansion, prescription drug prices, LGBTQ+ rights, support for public health, housing and education and abortion rights, and touted Maine’s economic recovery. Drawing comparisons to LePage, Mills proclaimed, “We won’t go back.”
Responding, Maine Republicans claimed that, because of inflation, voters would want to elect LePage instead.
Watching this, a report in the Bangor Daily News predicted, “It will be a hard campaign for Mills, whose party is facing a brutal national environment in 2022.”
But ultimately Mills ended up winning with a 13 point landslide. Moreover, the big red wave many pundits expected didn’t happen, as Democrats did well in Maine legislative contests, gained one U.S. Senate seat and, while losing their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, did better than expected.
Now, like Mills, Biden is making comparisons on reproductive rights. Last week in Pennsylvania, Biden talked about the ruling in Alabama blocking women from using in vitro fertilization (IVF) there, saying “Folks, do you know why it happened? I’ll tell you why, one reason: Donald Trump. He came to office determined to overturn Roe v. Wade. In fact, he’s bragged about it.” And, in responding to reports that Trump backs a 16-week national abortion ban, Biden proclaimed, “Hear me loud and clear. This will not happen on my watch.”
Biden also contrasted his success in passing a massive, bipartisan infrastructure law with Trump talking about infrastructure but not getting legislation done. Moreover, Biden has highlighted his leadership on countering and getting past the COVID pandemic and confronting climate change. He’s pointed to his support for unions versus Trump’s policies undermining them.
While Biden did not mention Trump’s name in his State of the Union Address, Biden referenced him as “my predecessor” 13 times. And in that speech, Biden pointed to big differences in their perspectives, saying, “My lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy, a future based on core values that have defined America — honesty, decency, dignity, and equality; to respect everyone; to give everyone a fair shot; to give hate no safe harbor. Now, other people my age see it differently. The American story of resentment, revenge, and retribution.”
To be sure, Trump and his allies will also be making comparisons. Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik already posed Ronald Reagan’s question about whether Americans were better off than they were before, suggesting we are doing worse than when Trump was president.
But when one looks at jobs and the economy, that’s simply not so. Trump was the first president since Herbert Hoover to leave office with fewer jobs in the U.S. than when he arrived. In contrast, as NPR reported in January, “Unemployment has now been under 4 percent for almost two years — the longest streak of rock-bottom jobless rates since the Vietnam War.” Sub-4 percent unemployment has continued since then. As journalist and investor Steve Ratner pointed out, these job gains go beyond post-pandemic recoveries. Meanwhile Trump falsely claims that the record low unemployment numbers under Biden are “not real.”
November will be a time of choosing. Americans will vote whether to go back to what Trump’s Republican primary opponent Nikki Haley described as “chaos” from an “unhinged president,” or if they decide, as Mills put it regarding LePage, “We won’t go back.”
