Former Gov. Paul LePage announced Monday that he's running for Maine's 2nd Congressional District seat.
LePage served two terms as Maine's governor and left office in 2019, the same year Democratic Congressman Jared Golden kicked off his first term.
Now LePage is seeking to challenge Golden for a seat that the Democrat has managed to hold despite skewing conservative since President Donald Trump was first elected in 2016.
LePage's candidacy marks the second time that he's tried to get back into politics. He challenged and lost to Gov. Janet Mills in 2022 and blamed his defeat on the contest's focus on abortion rights.
The Republican was also criticized for retiring to Florida before briefly returning to challenge Mills.
LePage is a Lewiston native whose rough upbringing was a central feature of his campaigns. As governor, he aggressively pursued tax and welfare cuts, and an antagonistic approach to political opponents.
He has often been described as a Trump prototype.
Golden was first elected in 2018, defeating Republican incumbent Rep. Bruce Poliquin in the first congressional raced decided by ranked-choice voting. Poliquin was a staunch ally of LePage, who had to certify his election loss. LePage signed the proclamation, but added "stolen election" alongside his signature.
Republicans have criticized and vowed to repeal Maine's ranked-choice voting law ever since. The election system will be used again in 2026.
Nonetheless, LePage will be a formidable opponent for Golden. The Republican has solidly carried the 2nd Congressional District in all three of his gubernatorial campaigns.
Golden, a former state legislator who won a four-way Democratic primary in 2018, has faced fierce criticism from Democratic activists in recent years. He continues to draw their ire over a column he wrote last year arguing that Democrats were "pearl-clutching" over Trump's threat to democracy and the rule of law, adding that Congress would act as a check against his impulses. The Democrat remains a supporter of Trump's erratic and unilateral deployment of import taxes, or tariffs.
In a Facebook post, LePage confirmed he's challenging Golden without mentioning him by name. Instead, he said he was running because "entrenched interests" are fighting Trump "at every turn as he works to fight problems."
