Paul LePage

I may have another one here, but I want to give a warning here.

I saw someone write that Paul LePage is the favorite to win Maine's second congressional district.

Now, I believe this is true.

Paul LePage is awesome.

He's the former governor running for Congress now.

This would be a demotion in the ranks.

I'm going through these polling numbers with a grain of salt, and then you come in here with a prediction market? No.

A prediction market is just a small number of people guessing who they think will win.

So we, we're gonna talk to, uh, some, some of the congressional candidates here.

Of course, Paul LePage is probably the, has the best chance of getting the, that seat back, the second seat in m- this congressional district in Maine.

But there are other candidates running, and there, there are some districts that, uh, may be, uh, s- may be winnable.

One of them is the, uh, first congressional district in New Hampshire.

So in a cycle where I think a lot of people just assume because of history that the House might switch, that shows you that we've got a chance to flip a seat from Democrat to Republican.

If that seat goes to the Republican side and Paul LePage wins, which I think he will, it's it shows you we're going to have a good night.

Okay, so that's

one.

He managed to pass a bill through the Republican-led House which postpones regulations that have been mandated on lobstermen intended to protect the North Atlantic right whales until 2035.

In the process, he did anger some House Democrats and also enlisted the assistance of second district candidate Paul LePage, former Republican governor to lobby Speaker of the House Mike Johnson to push this bill through.

Phil, sort of a twist here.

If you were Matt Dunlap, if you were Matt Dunlap, put yourself in his shoes, how would you respond to Jared Golden working with and giving some credit to your opponent in this race?

Jared Golden's seat in Maine.

Governor LePage is our candidate on the Republican side.

He's running a great race.

He's going to flip that seat from Democrat to Republican because people in Maine are saying, hold on.

The one clear holdout is Jared Golden, the congressman from the 2nd District, a Democrat, who supports Trump's tariff policy and warned that Canada was in a losing battle if they get into an import-export war with us.

Before we get to the politics of all of this, let's get your assessment of the tariff war, and do you agree with most of Maine's delegation that this is bad for Maine, or do you see that, aside with Jared Golden and Phil, maybe to a lesser extent, Paul LePage?

Yeah, it's definitely an uncertain time here in the state of Maine, but nationally it's perhaps a little different because it's very clear that the American side of this economy with Canada is subsidizing Canada, whether it's the national security, militarily, and others.

And let's not kid ourselves.

all day.

Symbolism matters.

Former Governor Paul LePage, the Republican nominee for the second congressional district, said recently, I'm a big fan of data centers.

I think they're going to create jobs.

And I respect the fact that the people of this country made a different choice than I did.

This is something I actually want to drill down on, because this is a really salient question, and even more so in the months since the tragic passing of Senator Graham, who I know was a close friend of yours.

He was.

You guys shared...

So I've had this once-in-a-century opportunity to really make a difference for my state.

If I were an independent, there's no way I would be chair of appropriations.

But wouldn't John Thune, your friend who I know that you have a good relationship with, let you keep that gavel if you were an independent who caucused with the Republicans?

I don't think so.