Gov. Paul LePage ruled out a run for the White House and said he wasn’t going to run for the U.S. Senate either during a luncheon in Caribou on Wednesday.

Dennis Marker, Caribou’s city manager, said he was in attendance at the local Rotary Club luncheon, where LePage gave a speech and then took questions from the audience.

Marker said one audience member asked LePage whether, given his popularity, he was planning to run for president.

Marker said LePage told the audience he wouldn’t be running for that office or for a Senate seat, either.

LePage has gone back and forth about possibly challenging U.S. Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats. The governor has told radio show hosts in Maine in recent weeks that he’s been asked to run and was seriously considering it. But one of LePage’s top political advisers, Brent Littlefield, also issued a statement earlier in May saying the governor had decided not to challenge King.

State Sen. Eric Brakey, R-Auburn, has announced he will challenge King for the seat in 2018.

Scott Thistle can be contacted at 791-6330 or at:

sthistle@pressherald.com

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