Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will make his second campaign stop in Maine when he visits Bangor on Wednesday.

Trump will appear at the Cross Insurance Center at 4 p.m., according to his campaign website.

Lee Jackson, chairman of the Penobscot County Republican Committee, said the Trump campaign sees Maine as a potential swing state in November.

“This is really the first time we’ve seen a campaign put boots on the ground this early on, and I think that’s an indication that they believe they could pick up an electoral college vote or even three here,” said Jackson, who won’t attend the rally because of a previously planned family event.

Maine Republican Party Chairman Rick Bennett was traveling and would not be in attendance Wednesday, said Jason Savage, the party’s executive director.

“We look forward to welcoming Mr. Trump to Bangor,” Savage said. Trump is coming to Maine’s 2nd District because he sees it as a part of the state that is trending toward Republicans, Savage said.

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Maine is also one of two states – Nebraska being the other – where the presidential vote is not necessarily winner-take-all.

Maine contributes four electors to the Electoral College. Unlike in 48 states, Maine can split its electors if the majority of voters in each congressional district supports a different candidate. So if presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton picked up the majority of voters in the 1st District and Trump won the 2nd, each candidate would receive one elector. Whoever wins the total statewide vote then would pick up the two at-large electors, resulting in a 3-1 split.

While such a scenario never has played out in the 40 years since the policy has been in place in Maine, Nebraska had its first split vote in 2008.

Savage said northern Maine shares many of the concerns about foreign trade that are often a theme for Trump. “Like Michigan and Ohio and other parts of the country, northern Maine has been hit hard by a lot of the issues Mr. Trump talks about, like unfair foreign trade agreements,” Savage said.

It’s likely that Gov. Paul LePage will join Trump on Wednesday. LePage endorsed Trump during a visit he made to Portland in March.

Moments after Trump’s campaign announced the Bangor visit, LePage postponed a previously scheduled town hall meeting in Greenville that was due to start at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Greenville is about a 1½-hour drive north of Bangor.

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LePage’s representatives did not respond to questions about whether the governor will attend the Trump rally.

A Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram Poll released Sunday suggested Trump is trailing Clinton by about 7 percentage points, but Clinton’s lead was within the poll’s margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.

The poll showed 57 percent of likely voters see the Democratic former first lady and secretary of state in an unfavorable light, while 62 percent say they have an unfavorable view of the Republican real estate developer and television celebrity. The candidates’ low approval ratings in Maine mirror their ratings in recent nationwide polls.

According to the poll, conducted for the newspaper by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, likely voters in Maine’s more urban, Democratic and southern 1st District favored Clinton over Trump, 42 percent to 27 percent. But the race appears closer in the state’s northern and more rural 2nd District, which includes Bangor, where 30 percent of likely voters said they favor Trump compared to only 28 percent who favor Clinton. The race in the 2nd District also highlights the dislike likely voters feel for both candidates – 64 percent had an unfavorable view of Clinton compared to 59 percent who had an unfavorable view of Trump.

Among likely voters in the 1st District, Clinton has a clear advantage, with 48 percent saying they’ll vote for her compared with 33 percent who say they will vote for Trump.

Trump lost Maine’s Republican caucus in March to Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who received 8,550 votes – about 46 percent of all cast. Trump placed second in the caucus with 6,070 votes, representing one-third of votes.

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Cruz received 12 delegates, while Trump received nine and Ohio Gov. John Kasich received two.

According to an analysis by The New York Times, Trump had the least support in Penobscot County, where Bangor is located. Cruz captured 62.6 percent to Trump’s 23.9 percent.

Trump won in Knox and Aroostook counties, where he beat Cruz by seven votes.

Trump’s visit to Maine comes as national polls show Clinton running ahead of him, including a Washington Post/ABC News poll that puts Clinton in front by 12 percentage points.

Trump also was roundly criticized for a gaffe he made during a visit to Scotland last week when he congratulated the United Kingdom for its “Brexit” vote to leave the European Union. United Kingdom voters narrowly approved a withdrawal from the EU, but Scottish voters overwhelmingly supported remaining.

Still, Trump, along with his supporters and some political observers, said the Brexit vote was reflective of the U.S. mood on immigration and security, and the general “anti-establishment” sentiment among voters.

“Look, there’s something in our society, it’s happening in Western societies, where there’s tremendous anxiety over economic stagnation, the whole issue of refugees and immigration that’s changing the context of countries and then this faceless bureaucracy that’s not really responding to people,” U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., told CNN on Sunday. Corker is widely rumored to be among those Trump may consider as a vice presidential running mate.

 


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