Maine’s 2nd Congressional District did something no place else in the Northeast did in 2016 by giving Donald Trump an electoral vote.
That Electoral College vote — the first Maine has given to a Republican since 1988 — highlighted the fact that the district is a political outlier compared with the northeastern United States, which is no surprise to the people who live here.
For some, such as Todd Rogers of Passadumkeag, who was selling meat and vegetables from his farm recently in Lincoln, that’s a point of pride.
“The state shouldn’t be blue all of the time,” said Rogers, a Trump supporter. “The 1st District is too big and powerful in our state. In that one moment in time, in that election, the people of the 2nd District stood up and said ‘this is what we want.’”
Buyers’ remorse
Trump bested Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2nd District by 10 percentage points. In southern Maine’s 1st District, Clinton walloped Trump 54 percent to 40 percent.
For the most part, more than three dozen voters interviewed by the Bangor Daily News during a more than 700-mile research trip through the district in late September stood by the choices they made in voting booths last year. Among them was 81-year-old Joella Paradis of Fort Kent, whose choice had no chance of victory. Unable to support Trump or Clinton, she wrote “Ralph Nader” on her ballot.
“He’s good and he’s bad,” said Paradis of Trump. “With the language, sometimes it seems he could have had a little help with public relations. We have to respect that he’s the president but then, he doesn’t demand the respect.”
The County is pleased to feature content from our sister company, Bangor Daily News. To read the rest of “Here’s how the part of Maine that voted for Trump feels about him now,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Christopher Cousins, please follow this link to the BDN online.
