Augusta, Maine – This morning, the Bangor Daily News highlighted how Republican candidates for governor, including Garrett Mason, Bobby Charles, and Jonathan Bush, are scrambling to secure Donald Trump’s coveted endorsement ahead of the primary.

Mason is leaning on his network of MAGA, anti-choice billionaire donors. Charles made the trip to Washington, D.C. to plead his case in person. And Jonathan Bush is now eagerly embracing Trump and MAGA politics.

This comes as no surprise given their extreme agendas that are in lock-stem with the MAGA, Trump playbook: Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill has led to skyrocketing health care costs for Mainers. Many of the Republican candidates have been vocal about wanting to cut health care. Jonathan Bush has gone as far as saying he’d use AI to automate kicking Mainers off of MaineCare and Garrett Mason has consistently opposed MaineCare expansion in Augusta.

In a crowded and chaotic primary, these candidates are racing to outdo one another in their loyalty, through extreme policies and flattering words, to an unpopular president — chasing a short-term boost they know comes with a long-term cost.

As Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson put it in the story:

“While Trump’s endorsement may help desperate Republican candidates in a primary, it leaves a stain they won’t be able to wash away in the general election and will ultimately cost them at the ballot box.”

The Maine Democratic Party is capitalizing on their miscalculation:

“The Maine Democratic Party and its handful of primary candidates are already linking the Republicans to Trump at a time of increasing gas and oil prices and rising health care premiums.”

Bangor Daily News: Republican candidates for governor are racing to get Donald Trump’s endorsement

Benjamin Kail, April 16

• Former Maine Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason is one of a handful of Republican gubernatorial candidates jockeying for a potential kingmaking endorsement from President Donald Trump.

• Mason told the Bangor Daily News on Wednesday that it would be “foolish” not to seek the president’s endorsement given the success of primary candidates he’s backed.

• The positioning for Trump’s blessing, which has included meetings both in and out of the White House and many talks among Trump insiders, has intensified in recent months even as the president’s approval rating has dwindled since he retook power last year.

• “Trump’s endorsement is still something that is a game changer,” Lance Dutson, a Republican strategist who previously worked on Bush’s campaign, said. “Most of the field would be very pleased to get his endorsement.”

• The lobbyist [Mason] has perhaps the most direct line into the White House given support from Republican megadonors Richard Uihlein and Thomas Klingenstein, who have set up a $5 million outside group to back Mason.

• But other candidates have publicly embraced Trump’s agenda. Charles shared recent videos from Washington claiming he brought a message of conservatism and cooperation to White House officials. He is endorsed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, whose wife is a Trump-appointed ambassador.

• Even Bush, who has criticized the president in the past and comes from a political family that has warred with Trump, said last month that he’d welcome the president’s endorsement.

• The Maine Democratic Party and its handful of primary candidates are already linking the Republicans to Trump at a time of increasing gas and oil prices and rising health care premiums.

• “While Trump’s endorsement may help desperate Republican candidates in a primary, it leaves a stain they won’t be able to wash away in the general election and will ultimately cost them at the ballot box,” Devon Murphy-Anderson, the state party’s executive director, said.