BRUNSWICK

Just three months after losing to incumbent Democrat Rep. Chellie Pingree in Maine’s 1st Congressional District, Mark Holbrook has announced that he will be running again in 2018.

“It’s something that my family and I have been talking about since the last one. The votes weren’t all tallied and in yet and my wife said to me, ‘You’re going to run again, right?’” said Holbrook, a Brunswick resident and psychologist.

Although Pingree won reelection decisively with 58 percent of the vote, Holbrook believes that his underdog campaign showed promise and his team has come up with a strategy for victory in 2018. His 42 percent of the vote is greater than the last two Republicans who challenged Pingree, who only commanded about half of the vote in their respective races.

In a press release, Holbrook fought back against claims that he was “too conservative” for the district, noting that he received more votes in his district than President Donald Trump in November or Gov. Paul LePage in 2014.

“I don’t call it conservative, I call it common sense myself — and I think people are aching for that,” said Holbrook. “The Chellie Pingree dynasty that’s been created is long overdue to retire.”

“We have developed a strategy based on what we learned from the first one,” he said. “I’d be a damned fool if I didn’t use the information we got and figure out what we could do better, what we could do differently to touch the rim.”

One area where Holbrook most notably lagged the incumbent was in fundraising. Holbrook raised around $100,000 to take on Pingree, who raised over half a million dollars to secure reelection. But Holbrook doesn’t think he needs to raise as much as Pingree to win.

“It’s not about the money. We spent about 10-20 percent of what another candidate had spent and got the same result, and Emily Cain spent $14 or $16 million and got fewer votes than we did. It’s not about the money, it’s about the message and how the message is delivered,” said Holbrook.

Holbrook said that while he had suffered personally and professionally from his campaign, he felt it was his duty to run again.

“Don’t think our family income didn’t get hurt really badly — because it certainly did. The personal toll that it takes on me and on my family is enormous. The professional toll–because I’m not working much of my profession, I’m not advancing that if I’m out campaigning. I really want people to have an appreciation for the idea that [campaigning is] a sacrifice, and that everyone can get involved and help out.”

nstrout@timesrecord.com

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