Matthew Dunlap

But, you know, Michigan's very marquee because Democrats need to hold that.

Um, but then you've also got, you know, so you got Sam Forstade, you got Matt Dunlap, who's a-

Yeah

... progressive candidate in that cons- relatively conservative main district that Paul LePage, the ex- uh, governor's running in.

So I don't know that those landed that well, but...

And speaking of final debates, uh, Paul LePage and Matt Dunlap will have their final debate tonight, which is Thursday as we record this, uh, in the race for the second congressional district seat in Maine.

How important is this one gonna be, and what do you hope to see or hear from each, Phil?

Well, I think first of all, as we always talk about, uh, your first job is to do no harm.

[laughs]

I saw it that night too, but yeah, fair enough.

I, I, I think, I think Matt Dunlap's gotta find a way to d- uh, demonstrate that there is a path for him with his progressive messaging to be seen in the second district as a, a approachable, uh, Golden, uh, esque type Democrat.

You know, I, I, I think I see this one a little differently.

He's done absolutely nothing in the state of Maine to lower taxes or lower cost of living.

Yeah, let's, uh, let's talk about your, uh, y- your, your, uh, opponent, this guy Matt Dunlap, who is, uh-

[laughs]

... a- again, kind of a, kind of a lightweight, if, if [laughs] I'm not, if I'm not insulting lightweights too much.

Now, d- how did Du- what was Matt Dunlap's, uh, uh, relationship with, uh, Graham Platner?

Oh, they campaigned together.

In fact, after the allegations came out, uh, against Graham Platner, my opponent doubled down on, on, on his position to keep him in the race.

So what's go- what, what is going on in the race? I saw a poll that said you, that you had fallen behind, which I couldn't believe.

I would say punching above its weight because in the second congressional district, uh, Democrat Jared Golden, who was kind of a centrist Blue Dog Democrat, voluntarily, uh, uh, s- decided not to seek reelection.

So that opened up a race, and currently the Democrat running is the former state auditor and before that Secretary of State Matt Dunlap running against former two-term governor Paul LePage, who's extraordinarily popular in the second congressional district.

Most people think of Maine as a purple or blue state, and they're right about that, but the second congressional district is, uh, a district that President Trump won three consecutive presidential elections.

And Maine can split its, uh, electoral college votes based on its congressional districts.

So it's not really a Minnesota scandal and a Maine scandal, it's really just one scandal united by a Somali diaspora that's following the same Medicaid fraud playbook.

And when the House Oversight Committee and James Comer went looking for suspicious activity reports from the Treasury Department related to Minnesota's fraud investigations, there were also a few names from Maine in there, including Representative Deqa Dhalac, who is a Somali, uh, American refugee, who has served on the House Appropriations Committee in Maine.

Uh, and she is a, a very loyal Democrat and a friend of Troy Jackson's, a friend of Matt Dunlap's.

And also Abdullahi Ali, who is the CEO of Gateway Community Services, he's presently on the lam right now, uh, in Kenya, to the best of our knowledge.

Democrat Jared Golden not running.

We have former governor, Republican Paul LePage, up against state auditor Matt Dunlap.

I understand Dunlap is not coming across as very progressive, right, more of a centrist.

How is LePage grappling with that, and is he doing so effectively?

We really had a, a phenomenal week of people that joined us.

When I was talking to Mayor Johnson about the, uh, uh, candidates running for Congress in Maine, I was talking about Matt Dunlap.

You guys need to follow him.

Matt's a great guy.

He's looking, looking good in the polls there, and, and he, we need to make sure that he gets past Paula Page.

So for those of you who wanna get involved in Matt's, uh, uh, campaign, Matt Dunlap, uh, for Congress is someone you wanna definitely follow.

LaKeisha, uh, Womack down in North Carolina is another, uh, uh, voice you would need to follow.

These are people who we have an opportunity to help get across the finish line.

And we'll wrap up by traveling back in time to see the origins of the movement that would make Maine a state.

But before we get started, last week here on WMTW, we saw the first debate between Paul LePage and Matt Dunlap for the open second district congressional seat.

Now, we did some quick analysis that night after the debate, and now a week later, we have some time to reflect.

So first, let's talk about the demeanor of each candidate.

He, he was himself.

He was himself, very entertaining, very confident in what, in what he had to say.

I thought Matt Dunlap did a very good job of looking poised and, um, I, I would say, uh, cloaking his liberal agenda, uh, in, in the debate.

And, uh, it'll be interesting to see as this campaign unfolds whether Governor LePage can draw that distinction between he, uh, and Dunlap.