According to FiveThirtyEight, Biden’s rating has risen from 38 percent to 43 percent since July. But those ratings have begun to improve, with national policy wins on infrastructure spending, investments in domestic computer chip makers, passage of the Inflation Relief Act and taking executive action to address student loan debt. And Republicans controlled the White House during that midterm, with Trump’s approval rating at 35 percent, according to Gallup.īiden has been saddled with low approval ratings, which could bring down Democrats nationally. That race also had an independent candidate, Terry Hayes, but she didn’t have the same wealth or name recognition as Cutler. In 2018, Mills faced Republican Shawn Moody, a well-respected businessman who couldn’t motivate the Republican base like LePage. LePage was running as an incumbent and the 2014 race featured a strong independent candidate in Eliot Cutler. Those campaigns were vastly different, however. Both chambers are controlled by Democrats.īoth LePage and Mills have shown they can attract some of the same voters.īetween 20, seven counties flipped from LePage to Mills. Mills and LePage have a history of clashes dating to when she served as attorney general while LePage was governor, but this is the first time they have been on the same ballot.ĭown the ballot, all 186 seats in the Maine Legislature – 35 in the Senate and 151 in the House – will also be decided. Little-known independent candidate, Sam Hunkler of Beals, also is in the race. And with little public polling out there, many races appear wide open.Įlection Day in Maine will be dominated by the governor’s race between incumbent Democrat Janet Mills and LePage, the former two-term governor.
Increasingly, even the most local of elections are often colored by national politics, but Maine has an independent streak. Maine gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage, center, seen June 17 at the Maine GOP Unity Rally in Lewiston, says he would like to exempt all seniors from income taxes and then phase out income taxes for others starting with the lowest-earning Mainers.