Former Maine Governor Paul LePage is hosting a fundraiser next week for Demi Kouzounas, the Republican opponent of U.S. Senator Angus King, who is aiming to oust the two-term independent candidate from office.
In an email sent Wednesday morning from a Kouzounas campaign address, LePage called King an “absent-minded left-wing senator who caves in every time Maine needs him,” touting a fundraiser he will host at Kouzounas’ Saco home on the evening of Sept. 6. Former U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, a Republican who represented Maine’s 2nd District from 2015 to 2019, will also attend the fundraiser. The fee to attend is $250 per person, and the private reception costs $2,500 per person.
“Maine deserves a Senator with the energy, enthusiasm and commitment to represent our values in Washington,” said the email signed by LePage. “Angus King doesn’t have that. Demi Kouzounas does.”
LePage added that Kouzounas is “committed to securing our borders, reducing inflation and ensuring the American dream remains within reach of every Maine resident.”
LePage moved to Ormond Beach, Florida, after leaving the Blaine House of Representatives in 2018 following a two-term run as a governor who was not afraid to make controversial statements. He moved back to Maine and lived in the Lincoln County town of Edgecomb while running for governor again in 2022, but Democratic Gov. Janet Mills crushed LePage by more than 10 percentage points that year. LePage has since returned to Florida, but hosted a fundraiser with his wife in the spring that raised nearly $500,000 for victims of the Lewiston mass murder.
He is not the first well-known Maine Republican to enter the campaign against King, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats and served as Maine governor from 1995 to 2003 before being elected to the Senate in 2012. Kouzounas, 68, a former Maine Republican chairwoman and a dentist, said she decided to run against King in January after U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, called her and encouraged her to run. King said he was “disappointed” by his colleague’s move.
King, 80, would become Maine’s oldest senator if he wins a third term in November. He declined to comment on LePage’s fundraising for Kouzounas.
In the November 5 election, he will face Kouzounas, Democratic candidate David Costello of Brunswick and independent candidate Jason Cherry of Unity.
According to a recent poll by the University of New Hampshire, 43 percent of Maine voters supported King, 33 percent for Kouzounas, 9 percent for Costello and 3 percent for Cherry. King received support from 70 percent of Democrats, 51 percent of independents and 7 percent of Republicans.
