Former GOP governor and Trump ally to challenge vulnerable House Democrat

Former Republican Gov. Paul LePage of Maine announced his campaign Monday to unseat Democratic Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, making him the first big GOP challenger to enter the 2026 race.

LePage served as governor from 2011 to 2019 and attempted to run for a third term in 2022 until he lost against Democratic Gov. Janet Mills. Now, LePage has set his sights on Golden, who narrowly won re-election in 2024.

"The entrenched interests are fighting President Trump at every turn as he works to fix problems," LePage said in a statement Monday. "We need more straight talk to help take back Washington."

'I am running to serve the people of Maine and help the President fix Washington. We’ve had too many years of Washington, DC trying to control the people.'

Golden is one of a handful of Democrats who were re-elected to represent a red district. In 2024, President Donald Trump won Golden's district by over six points, opening up a potential pickup opportunity for Republicans.

Golden himself flipped the seat in 2018 and has narrowly held onto it since, often bucking his own party for the sake of political preservation. Notably, Maine uses a ranked-choice voting system, which relies on the voters to rank candidates based on preference. If a candidate fails to secure a simple majority, the least popular candidate is eliminated, and the voters who ranked him or her as their first choice then have their votes distributed to their second-choice candidate.

"I do not need a job, I am running to protect our Maine jobs," LePage said. "I am running to serve the people of Maine and help the President fix Washington. We’ve had too many years of Washington, DC trying to control the people. It is time to put the people before politics."

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