LEWISTON — Lewiston voters traditionally support Democrats. But on Tuesday, Maine’s second-largest city counted more votes for Paul LePage in the governor’s race than for independent Eliot Cutler or Democrat Libby Mitchell.
Bates College history professor and Republican activist Douglas Hodgkin tells the Sun Journal of Lewiston that LePage benefited from the city’s Franco-American vote. LePage, a Republican, will become the first popularly elected Franco-American governor in Maine, where about a third of the population is of Franco heritage.
Rita Dube (DOO-bee) of the Franco-American Heritage Center in Lewiston says having a Franco governor was overdue. Dube says LePage is a product of Lewiston’s Little Canada section and “you don’t get more Franco than that.”
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