ORONO — Steve Abbott, the athletic director at the University of Maine who was a 2010 Republican gubernatorial candidate, announced today that he will not run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Olympia Snowe.
Abbott said many people have encouraged him to run, but he cannot leave the job to which he was appointed a year ago for a two-year commitment.
“Over the last three days, I have received many phone calls, emails, and Facebook messages from friends and supporters encouraging me to run for the United States Senate,” Abbott said in a news release.
“My current job commitments at the University of Maine are something that I take very seriously and something that I truly enjoy,” Abbott said. “It would be irresponsible of me to leave just as we are launching so many great projects for our athletic department.”
Abbott said he couldn’t “do that to an institution that is so important to our state and that is a place that means so much to me personally.”
“I would love to run for higher office at some point if that opportunity presents itself in the future and would consider an honor to represent our state,” Abbott said. “But first, I want to finish what I have started here at the University of Maine.”
Abbott, a Harvard graduate, also served for many years as Sen. Susan Collins’ chief of staff.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.