Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who has presided over some of the strictest COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the country, was reelected to a second term as governor in the rural New England state.
The 74-year-old Democrat beat out Republican challenger Paul LePage, himself a two-term Maine governor from 2011 to 2019.
According to the Associated Press, Mills won with 54.4 percent of the vote to LePage’s 43.7 percent.
In a politically colorful state like Maine where pro-Second Amendment and pro-abortion politicians can often be found, the liberal Mills has wide appeal.
While she is a northern Mainer, her biggest support comes from the southern coastal regions where progressive Massachusetts transplants co-mingle with local bluebloods who inherited their standing as a result of their ancestors’ good fortune of buying cheap real estate that is now worth millions.
Maine also has the oldest population in the country, making the governor’s strict COVID-19 vaccine mandates appealing to an age group that proved most vulnerable to the pandemic. The state’s ranking as having the highest vaccine rate and the lowest COVID-related deaths were invaluable statistics in Mills’ campaign to remain in office.
Prior to becoming governor, Mills served as the first female district attorney in the state and then as its first female attorney general.
As Maine’s top prosecutor, she founded the Maine Women’s Lobby, an advocacy organization for victims of domestic violence. She also created the Land for Maine’s Future Program, for the conservation of the state’s forests, farms and waterfronts.
No stranger to politics, LePage, 74, served two terms as Maine’s governor between 2011 and 2019 and is a former mayor and city councilor. He embraced his “Trump before there was Trump” reputation he had earned in part for his openly abrasive jabs at anyone who opposed him.
Because Maine does not allow a governor to serve three consecutive terms, the Waterville businessman didn’t seek re-election at the end of his second term in 2019. He left office with a 54 percent disapproval rating.
He and his wife moved to Florida, but moved back to Maine in 2020 oddly enough at the height of the state’s COVID shutdowns when freedom seekers were heading in the opposite direction.
It was around that time when Mills would make Maine known for having some of the strictest COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the country, while doing away with religious exemption for government and healthcare workers. The restrictions remain in place and are the subject of multiple pending lawsuits. A group of healthcare workers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the constitutionality of Mills’ no-religious-exemption policy, but the high court refused to hear it as it did with a similar complaint out of New York.
Maine also is one of only six states that have no religious or philosophical exemptions from any of the required school immunizations. A non-profit called Health Choice Maine, which supports freedom of medical choice and fully informed consent, has the support of a large group of parents. The group was one of LePage’s biggest campaign supporters.
