The Republican governor of Maine told Breitbart News that he is confident that GOP nominee for president Donald J. Trump wins at least three of the state’s four electoral votes.
“I said about three weeks ago, it’s not one point in play anymore, it is at least three,” said Gov. Paul R. LePage, who was referring to how like Nebraska, Maine allows its congressional districts to award their electoral votes separately. In the case of Maine, two electoral votes go to the statewide winner and then one vote goes to the winner of each its two districts.
Colby College/The Boston Globe poll of Maine voters, showed Trump closing the gap between himself and his Democratic rival Hillary R. Clinton with his 39 percent to her 42 percent. The poll of 779 likely voters was taken between Sept. 4 and Sept. 10, so it was completed before the former first lady’s heat stress incident Sunday at the Ground Zero ceremony in New York City.
The Globe wrote: “Trump’s ascendancy in Maine is largely due to his dominance in the vast northern sector of the state — but analysts say it’s also a reflection of how Maine, like many other parts of the country, has become geographically more polarized. Its northern reaches, mostly rural, tend to be far more conservative than the southern, populous part of the state.”
In 2012, President Barack Obama beat Republican W. Mitt Romney in Maine with 56 percent to Romney’s 41 percent. In Maine-1, Obama beat Romney, 60 percent to 39 percent, and in Maine-2, Obama garnered 53 percent to Romney’s 44 percent.
LePage said Trump’s surge of support has the same feel as his own 2014 reelection campaign.
“I am feeling it not only here in Maine, but when I travel around the country, the Silent Majority is going to speak loudly, he said.
“It spoke loudly in my race in 2014, they did it in 2010–nobody thought I could win in 2014,” he said. “The night before the election, the national media said I had no path to victory and we set a record for the most votes for a governor.”
A major key to Trump’s appeal to Maine voters is how Trump speaks to their own economic challenges, he said.
“I keep telling the Maine people, the reason we are losing our manufacturing is that the Democratic Party that has controlled this state for the last 40 years refuses—refuses to look at what needs to be done to bring prosperity back.”
The governor said Democrats refuse to reform regulations, lower taxes, or take steps to lower energy costs, and the price is paid by the regular people.
Trump calls companies who leave the United States unpatriotic, but it is also unpatriotic for politicians to make it so difficult to do business in America that businesses are looking for a better place to flourish, he said.
The governor said he was not surprised when the local and national press ridiculed Trump for making his third trip to the state Aug. 4, when it seemed like he had no chance in the state.
“Let me tell you something, the Maine press ridicules anybody that speaks the truth and Trump is no exception,” he said.
When he spoke to that audience, the audience for the most part was on the edge of their seats and many times on their feet,” the governor said.
LePage said he is ridiculed daily by the local media, but it has no bearing on how real Mainers see him or Trump.
“The people on the street are finally waking up. They are getting it,” he said.
People are tired of about the “political correct truth,” he said. “What people want to hear is the plain truth and there is a major difference,” the governor said.
“The American people are getting it now,” he said. “They are tired of the smooth-talking, slick-talking snake oil salesmen that are called ‘politicians,’ the American people want the plain truth and it is that simple.”
In November, the Democrats will find out for themselves, he said.
“Hillary and her crowd can be as PC as they want, but they are going to be on the outside looking in in November,” he said.
“It used to be years ago, it used to be ‘As Maine goes, so goes the country,’ and I think Trump’s bringing that back.”
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