Bar Harbor Republican Max Linn has jumped into the race to challenge Sen. Angus King for his seat, echoing campaign themes used by President Trump.
The 58-year-old financial planner told Maine Republicans recently that the party “needs a Maine senator that is not wishy-washy on his support for President Trump and the America First agenda.”
“We need people in Washington helping Trump because he’s in the middle of that damned swamp,” Linn said. “It’s real clear to me that we need Trump support in Washington and we’re not going to get it from Angus King.”
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Max Linn
Linn hasn’t filed as a candidate with the Federal Election Commission yet, but he did show a picture of the completed form on his Twitter feed Wednesday.
He likely will face Sen. Eric Brakey, a 29-year-old libertarian from Auburn, in a June 12 primary to decide who will secure Republican backing in the Nov. 6 general election against King. Brakey declared his candidacy nine months ago.
Democrat Zak Ringelstein and independent Max Hammer are also vying for the job.
Linn, who has previously sought elected office in Florida, cited issues that he hopes will resonate with GOP voters: immigration, trade, infrastructure and “a strong military.”
“These are the bedrocks of my campaign,” Linn told Maine Republicans. He called it “the Maine Now agenda.”
Linn said that every undocumented immigrant should be deported.
“If they’re not legal, they’ve got to go back, 100 percent. There’s no exceptions to that,” Linn said. “Zero tolerance on amnesty is what I stand for.”
He claimed open borders have had “a devastating effect” on Maine and offered to help build a wall on the Mexican border with his own two hands.
“Our school systems are being asked to teach up to 34 different languages. It needs to stop. This is insanity,” Linn said.
Lewiston schools accommodate students with 34 languages, educators have said. They point out that immigrant children have a higher graduation rate than native-born Mainers and often pursue college degrees.
Linn said that trade deals negotiated between the United States and other countries haven’t helped.
“Maine has been sold down the river with trade policies,” he said, contributing to its lackluster economy.
“Maine deserves open mills and closed borders, not closed mills and open borders,” Linn said in a video he posted of himself outside a shuttered factory in Millinocket.
In Bangor, Linn said, the state needs to spend more on infrastructure – items such as roads and ports – and that federal lawmakers should bring home the money for it.
He also called for more defense spending,which could bolster Maine’s economy.
“If we’re going to build battleships, they’re going to be in Bath, Maine,” Linn said.
In a speech to Maine Republicans, Linn said he’s done business around the world and recognizes that the key to economic revival is “a strong middle class.”
An eight-year resident of Bar Harbor, Linn said he was “very involved in the Trump campaign,” including attending more than 30 rallies and traveling the country in a mobile home to support his candidate.
But he hasn’t always been a Trump-touting Mainer.
In Florida, he ran as the Reform Party’s candidate for governor in 2006, getting the most attention shortly before the election for landing a small plane in the middle of an interstate highway in Orlando after it suffered engine trouble. The Reform Party began as a vehicle for Texas businessman Ross Perot’s independent presidential campaigns in 1992 and 1996.
Two years later, he ran for a U.S. House seat as a Democrat and briefly suspended his unsuccessful campaign because he wanted to focus on supporting presidential candidate Barack Obama, whom he said would have a “much greater than one additional Democratic congressman” effect on issues such as health care and ending the war in Iraq.
He later pushed term limits for members of Congress, founding America’s Term Limits Campaign in 2015 to tout the idea. He created DonaldTrumpPatriots.com to tout both term limits and Trump.
Linn, who grew up in Florida, graduated from Louisiana Tech in 1983 and then worked as a financial planner.
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