AUGUSTA, ME — Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson issued the following statement tonight in response to Paul LePage winning the Republican primary in Maine’s Second Congressional District:

“Tonight, Republicans in CD-2 nominated an extremist who has spent his entire career selling out Maine families — and is promising to do it all over again from Washington.

“Paul LePage is all in on the Big, Ugly Bill — calling it ‘the greatest thing that can happen to the Maine people.’ That bill is taking health care from over 34,000 Mainers, putting rural hospitals in Calais, Presque Isle, Caribou, and Ellsworth at risk of closing, and gutting Maine’s health care system just to hand billionaires a tax break. Northern Light Health alone is already projecting a $27 million annual revenue hit and has been forced to cut staff.

“This is who LePage has always been. As governor, he vetoed Medicaid expansion six times, tried to cut 65,000 Mainers off coverage, and was sued for ignoring the will of voters who approved health care expansion at the ballot — saying he’d ‘go to jail’ before expanding Medicaid. He blocked access to naloxone as overdose deaths set records, writing that it ‘does not truly save lives.’

“And while Maine families struggled, LePage moved to Florida the day Janet Mills was sworn in — saying he didn’t want to pay Maine taxes — while continuing to collect his Maine taxpayer-funded pension. He and his wife were caught double-claiming homestead tax breaks in both states. Now he’s listing an Augusta apartment owned by a political ally as his ‘permanent residence’ and won’t even say where he’d live if he wins.

“Mainers can’t trust an extreme politician who abandoned them twice to fight for them now. We look forward to drawing that contrast clearly this fall.”