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Angus King Officially Kicks Off Re-Election Campaign

Mal Leary
/
Maine Public
Sen. Angus King announces his bid for re-election at a rally in Brunswick Thursday..

Independent U.S. Sen. Angus King officially kicked off his re-election campaign at a rally in Brunswick.

King says he is running for a second term for the same reason he ran in 2012: Congress is broken and needs bipartisan leadership to get things done.

“I’m just going to continue to talk about the issues that I talked about this morning about opioids, forest economy, veterans and just go forward and try to convince the people of Maine to hire me for another six years,” he says.

King says while partisan gridlock has stymied action on some major issues, progress has been made on veteran’s bills, education and workforce training.

“Caucusing doesn’t mean I joined the Democratic party. I didn’t have to sign an oath or anything. Almost every bill I worked on is bipartisan because that’s the only way things can get done,” he says.

If he’s re-elected, King says he’ll continue to focus on the opioid crisis, health care and expanding broadband access in Maine.

King will face Democrat Zak Ringelstein and Republican Eric Brakey in the fall.

Journalist Mal Leary spearheads Maine Public's news coverage of politics and government and is based at the State House.