Wednesday, June 29: To watch Donald Trump live in Bangor, click here.
Gov. Paul LePage told Bangor radio station WVOM that he plans to attend the campaign rally of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Wednesday.
The governor’s attendance had been assumed after he canceled a scheduled town hall meeting in Greenville shortly after Trump’s campaign confirmed the rally.
The Bangor rally, at the Cross Insurance Center, will be the second that Trump has held in Maine this year. The first was in Portland, just days before the Republican party held its presidential caucuses.
LePage introduced the real estate mogul and television personality at the first event, but it’s unclear whether he’ll be a participant or a bystander in Bangor.
Trump’s visit here is a bit of a curiosity. Appearances by presidential candidates — never mind presumptive party nominees — are somewhat rare. Even visits prior to party caucuses are infrequent, as candidates often send surrogates.
But Trump’s visit does make some strategic sense. Maine is one of just two states that distributes its four electoral votes by Congressional District, rather than the winner-take-all method used by other states. It means that a candidate can snag one of the state’s four electoral votes if he or she outperforms their opponent in one of the state’s two Congressional Districts.
A recent poll shows Hillary Clinton leading Trump statewide, but a much closer contest in the 2nd District. That might explain why Trump has chosen the Queen City for his rally.
Nonetheless, no candidate has ever managed to split Maine’s electoral votes in 40 years. Nebraska, the other state that uses this method, has done it once, in 2008.
