ME-02: Maine Democratic Primary Winner Had Help From Republicans
National Democrats didn’t want Dunlap to win. They backed Joe Baldacci, a member of the Maine Senate, over Dunlap, Jordan Wood and Paige Loud. Dunlap trailed Baldacci by about five percentage points in a recent poll.
A shadowy super PAC aligned with Republicans spent $300,000 to boost Dunlap and oppose Baldacci in an apparent strategy to promote the candidate Republicans consider weaker against LePage.
Dunlap supports Medicare for All and had won an endorsement from Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a leading progressive in Congress.
LePage served as the governor of Maine from 2011 to 2019. He pursued crackdowns on welfare fraud, such as proposals to make program beneficiaries pass drug tests, and he was notorious for making outrageous, Trump-style statements, such as an incorrect claim in 2016 that 90% of drug dealers arrested in Maine were Black or Hispanic.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/matthew-dunlap-joe-baldacci-maine-democratic-primary_n_6a284b60e4b0c0ad139ad730