Republican state Sen. Garrett Mason will formally launch his campaign for governor at an event in Lewiston Thursday.
Mason originally planned to announce his candidacy earlier this month. But he postponed the kickoff after the sudden death of his mother, former state Rep. Gina Mason.
The Senate Majority leader turned 32 in June. But he has risen quickly in the Maine GOP since first being elected to the Legislature seven years ago.
Mason is Christian and he has benefited from a religious block of voters that routinely punches above its weight in Maine elections.
Mason helped mobilize those voters to lift Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to victory during the Maine presidential caucuses last year.
He later helped organized a rally for Donald Trump at the Open Door Baptist Church in Lisbon a week before the election.
Mason will become the third Republican to enter the governor's race.