How Joe Biden’s struggles are playing for Democrats on the Maine ballot

AUGUSTA, Maine — About 600 miles separate the Maine State House from Washington, D.C., but candidates for the Legislature say voters here are sharing concerns over President Joe Biden as he faces calls from fellow Democrats to step aside before the election.

Biden’s struggles and internal party squabbling after his shaky June debate against former President Donald Trump are not showing firm signs of affecting down-ballot races in Maine yet, but Democrats including Gov. Janet Mills have worried that Trump could win the state that has not gone to a Republican presidential candidate since 1988.

That would make for a tough environment in November for the Democrats that have controlled state politics since 2018. U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat who swung Maine’s 2nd District that year, faces a nationally targeted challenge from state Rep. Austin Theriault, R-Fort Kent, and Maine has had some of the nation’s tightest legislative races in recent years.

For many Democrats running in Maine’s purple areas, local issues trump national ones. Kilton Webb, a union electrician from Durham, said he views improving state infrastructure as a key nonpartisan issue in his race with Republican Guy Lebida of Bowdoin, who ousted Rep. Joseph Galletta, R-Durham, in the June primary.

Webb has heard about national politics from different types of voters, including Democrats concerned about the stakes of a Trump victory or undecided voters concerned with the ages of the 81-year-old president and the 78-year-old former president. They have generally not tied those issues back to the State House, the candidate said.

“Those guys are going to do their thing at the federal level, but I’m going to do my thing at the state level,” Webb said.

Other Democrats seeking competitive State House seats are not worried about Biden affecting their races. Carrye Castleman-Ross, a Bridgton Select Board member facing Republican Marygrace Cimino for an open seat, said while voters have shared concerns over Biden’s fitness for office, she hears more worries about what Trump would do with another term.

“We in Maine are on very solid ground, and I focus on local issues and on things that we have control over,” Castleman-Ross said.

Labor activist Doris Poland, a Democrat challenging Rep. Barbara Bagshaw, R-Windham, for a House seat covering the swing town, similarly said “kitchen table issues,” such as housing and health care, are more important to voters than national drama.

“I’m hearing a lot of people say, ‘So what if [Biden] is a little slower? He’s still coherent,’” Poland said. “The biggest thing is the economy. The economy is great, but people aren’t feeling it yet.”

That highlighted a major problem for Biden. New federal data released Thursday indicated moderating inflation, increasing wage growth and declining jobless claims, but the focus on Biden’s ability to serve has overshadowed economic news. Even before that, polling showed he was getting less credit for the economy than Trump did during his tenure.

Neither Lebida nor Cimino responded to requests for comment. Bagshaw, a freshman lawmaker who taught for 25 years, took on Biden directly by saying Democrats “kept Biden’s condition hidden from us while our economy deteriorated, also pinning the ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East on the president.

“I am focused on what we can do legislatively to undo some of the damage,” Bagshaw said.

Toward the top of the ticket, Golden recently used a Bangor Daily News op-ed to predict Trump would beat Biden. He has often bucked his party’s president and told Maine Public this week that he isn’t sure whether he will vote for Biden. The Trump-backed Theriault has been trying to pressure Golden to firmly state whom he will vote for.

Decision Desk HQ, the BDN’s election results partner, gives Trump a 92 percent chance of winning the 2nd District for the third straight election. However, its model gives Golden a 68 percent chance of victory after he split the district with Trump in the 2020 election.

Down the ballot, CNalysis, a site that projects legislative races and virtually nailed the outcome here in 2022, sees a status quo set of elections as of right now in Maine, giving Republicans only a 15 percent chance to win back the House and 17 percent to win the Senate.

One of their toss-up races is in Penobscot County between Sen. Mike Tipping, D-Orono, who works for the progressive Maine People’s Alliance and Orono Town Councilor Leo Kenney, who did not respond to requests for comment. While the university town is among the most liberal in the state, the district runs all the way to Lincoln through small, conservative towns.

Tipping said health care and electricity costs, along with education and the environment, have come up more often than the presidential election when he talks with constituents and voters. If the race between Biden and Trump does arise, “it’s often in terms of general disappointment or fatigue toward national politics.”

“Sometimes it’s honestly helpful to be able to contrast that with the progress we’ve made in Maine and give people some hope,” Tipping said.