PORTLAND, Maine — Democrat Hannah Pingree is touting a coalition of Republicans and independents supporting her candidacy for Maine governor.
On Wednesday, members of the group appeared with Pingree in Portland’s Lincoln Park and credited her experience, character, temperament, and ability to govern in a bipartisan manner when she worked for Governor Janet Mills and served in the state House of Representatives, including one term as Speaker.
“The problems facing Maine families are not partisan,” Pingree said, citing the costs of housing, health care, childcare, and energy. “The Maine that I believe in is not red or blue. It’s not north or south. It’s not rural or urban. It’s about communities where people show up for each other, and they show up for their neighbors.”
“She has always commanded respect, and she has always displayed respect for others. I watched her work up close for many years,” said Don Marean, a horse farmer and a former Republican state representative from Hollis who served 12 terms in the legislature, including when Pingree was in the House. “I know the difference between a politician who talks and one who actually gets things done. Hannah gets things done. She listens. She works across the aisle, and that mattered. It mattered to me.”
Tony Payne, a former Maine GOP Executive Director who left the party in 2018, said Pingree is “well versed” in housing, health care, and energy policy and prepared to work with the Republican-led federal government in Washington.
“Making it work for Maine is going to be a very tall order, and Hannah’s experience in working across the aisle is perfectly legendary, so far as the times that we’re serving in,” Payne said.
Ed Crockett, a former Democratic state representative from Portland who left the party last year and ran for governor this year as an independent, falling short of the required signatures to earn a spot on the November ballot, also announced his support for Pingree.
“In my opinion, the biggest challenge facing our next governor will be working with a legislature that has drawn deep partisan lines in the sand,” Crockett said. “To truly deliver for the people of Maine, the governor and the full legislature have to be on the same page. It will take a special leader to right that course.”
Joann Bautista, an independent who used to be a Democrat and served as a Maine Deputy Secretary of State under Shenna Bellows, is currently an Associate Director with the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Elections Project. Bautista, a daughter of immigrants to the U.S., alluded to the activities of federal agents for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Pingree has called for ICE agents to leave the state. “We want ICE not just out of Maine. We want ICE out of all of our communities,” Pingree said at a protest last month.
“What we’re seeing happening in our ports, in our neighborhoods and to our institutions is not right, and we need a governor who recognizes that,” Bautista said. “What we’ve seen happening in our state — what is still happening in our state — is very real and very personal to me, so we need a governor who knows how to use every tool available to them to protect the rights of every single person who lives in our state.”
