Paul LePage, a Medicaid critic, launches congressional bid in Maine

Paul LePage, the former Maine governor who opposed Medicaid expansion and a higher minimum wage, is running for Congress in the state’s 2nd District.

LePage served as governor from 2011 to 2019. In that time, he became known for his offensive remarks and cantankerous personality. He ran unsuccessfully for a third term in 2022 and has resided in Florida ever since.

“We need people who have and will always protect Social Security and Medicare,” LePage said in a May 5 statement. “That’s why I’m running for Congress. I do not need a job, I’m running to protect our Maine jobs.”

Despite this proclamation, LePage governed as an enemy of safety net programs. He vetoed Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act six times as governor. In 2017, when voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum to expand Medicaid, LePage still refused to allow the expansion and said he would rather go to jail than approve it.

Current Maine Gov. Janet Mills expanded Medicaid as her first act in office in 2019.

Medicaid expansion has allowed 24 million uninsured Americans to receive health coverage, including more than 100,000 Mainers. About 22% of residents in Maine’s 2nd District are Medicaid recipients.

“The LePage Administration’s continued attempts to veto Maine voters is cruel and costly,” Rep. Chellie Pingree (ME-01) said in 2018. “By delaying Medicaid Expansion yet again, Governor LePage is leaving tens of thousands of Mainers without health care coverage and keeping millions of federal dollars out of our state.”

LePage’s campaign announcement comes as House Republicans are eyeing cuts to Medicaid as a way to fund tax breaks for rich people and big corporations.

LePage was also an opponent of MaineCare, the state Medicaid program, which he claimed had too many enrollees and was too easy to qualify for.

In 2013, LePage vetoed a bill to increase Maine’s minimum wage from $7.50 an hour to $9. The following year, he proposed rolling back child labor laws to allow 12-years old to work at a pay rate of $5.25 an hour.

In 2020, LePage publicly opposed a state referendum to increase the minimum wage to $12 an hour.

About 20% of workers in ME-02 would benefit from a minimum wage increase.

LePage also stirred controversy with his penchant for making unguarded and offensive remarks. He used graphic sexual terms in 2013 to describe a dispute with state Sen. Troy Jackson, a former logger.

“Sen. Jackson claims to be for the people,” LePage said, “but he’s the first to give it to the people without providing Vaseline … People like Troy Jackson, they ought to go back in the woods and cut trees and let somebody with a brain come down here and do the work.” 

Three years later, LePage was accused of racism when he said he wanted to crack down on out-of-state drug dealers with names like “D-Money” who come to Maine and “impregnate white girls.”

Bestselling author Stephen King, who lives part-time in Maine’s 2nd District, has been a vocal critic of LePage.

“One must admit LePage has elevated assholery to a level far past the extraordinary and into a rarified sphere that might be termed divine,” King wrote in 2016.

Maine’s 2nd District is currently represented by Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, who is reportedly eyeing a run for governor next year. Golden was reelected in 2024 despite President Donald Trump carrying the district in the presidential race.