Augusta, Maine — Yesterday, the Maine Democratic Party laid out the stakes of the 2026 governor’s race and made clear what Mainers can expect under a Bobby Charles administration: kicking Mainers off of MaineCare, economic chaos that will hurt schools and communities, attacks on reproductive freedom, and unwavering loyalty to Trump and MAGA at Mainers’ expense.

Reps. Annie P. Graham and Drew Gattine, alongside MDP Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson, highlighted the consequences of Charles’ dangerous agenda.

News Center Maine: Maine Democrats fire opening salvo on Republican gubernatorial nominee Bobby Charles

• The Maine Democratic Party has come up with a label for the newly minted Republican gubernatorial nominee Bobby Charles: “MAGA extremist.”
  

• At a news conference in Portland on Monday, party leaders criticized Charles’ views on health care, including reproductive rights, his plans for cutting the state budget, and his support for President Donald Trump and the Make America Great Again movement.

• “Bobby Charles praises Trump’s tariffs. He defends Trump’s war in Iran, a war that is driving up gas prices, driving up food prices, and driving up inflation. Again and again, when Donald Trump creates economic chaos, chaos that brings real harm to Mainers, Bobby Charles rushes to applaud,” said State Rep. Drew Gattine, who served as Democratic Party Chairman from 2021 to 2023.
  

• Gattine, who chairs the Maine State Legislature’s Appropriations & Financial Affairs Committee, lambasted Charles’ promise to cut the state biennial budget by one-third, or $4 billion.

• “The math doesn’t work,” Gattine said. “I’d love to see even the most simple spreadsheet about how he thinks that’s going to work.”
  

• About two-thirds of the state budget pays for health care services and public education. The budget also sends hundreds of millions of dollars back to communities in revenue sharing and property tax relief.

• Gattine said cuts advocated by Charles would require “massive slashing” of funds for education, hospitals, and programs popular with Mainers.

• “There would be no part of the services that are provided by our executive branch that would go untouched.” Gattine said. “Frankly, I think it’s ludicrous.”
  

• Democrats warned Charles would reduce enrollment in MaineCare, the state’s version of Medicaid, the government-provided health insurance for low income earners that is used by one in four Mainers.

• Democratic Rep. Annie Graham of North Yarmouth and Gray, a member of the Health and Human Services committee, called Charles’ positions on MaineCare “alarming.”
  

• “He doesn’t believe health care is a human right. He believes it’s okay for seniors to skip their medications so they can afford to buy food,” Graham said. “When politicians talk about restrictions, cumbersome requirements, and cutting eligibility, the people who pay the price are working families, seniors, people with disabilities, and rural communities. Health care is not a luxury. Health care is a human right.”

• Devon Murphy-Anderson, executive director of the Maine Democratic Party, described Charles’s view of reproductive rights as “extreme anti-choice,” and cited a NEWS CENTER Maine profile interview in March, when Charles described abortion as “abhorrent.”

• “Bobby Charles has made it abundantly clear that he would take us backwards,” Murphy-Anderson said. “He has publicly described abortion as abhorrent and is campaigning on restricting reproductive care right here in Maine. That position to be very clear is out of step with what most of us Mainers think about the issue and how we value our freedoms here in our state.”

WGME: Maine Democrats blast Republican gubernatorial candidate Bobby Charles over tax plan

• Maine Democrats are blasting Bobby Charles, the Republican nominee for governor.

• They say if he is elected governor, Mainers can expect more threats to healthcare and education coverage.
  

• Two lawmakers and Democratic Party leaders laid out what they say a Charles administration would mean for Maine.

• The lawmakers say the math makes no sense.
  

• “I mean frankly, I think it’s ludicrous,” Rep. Drew Gattine (D-Westbrook) said. “I mean you would never be able to cut that amount of money, even half or a quarter the amount of money without taking healthcare away from people, gutting services, gutting healthcare services, the viability of providers, of pharmacies, of hospitals, of nursing homes, without massively cutting the amount of money the state sends back to municipalities for K-12 education.”

• He says cuts like that would force local communities to raise property taxes.