On Thursday, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will be making a campaign stop in Portland.
This will mark Trump’s third visit to Maine this election cycle.
Trump could be making a play for one of Maine’s four electoral votes up for grabs this November. While Maine traditionally votes Democrat in presidential elections, the state is one of only two that splits their electoral votes by congressional district, the other being Nevada, and Maine’s 2nd Congressional District leans more conservative than the southern part of the state.
In a Gallup analysis that came out earlier this year, Maine moved from solidly blue to purple, meaning that the state has moved slightly to the right politically. With Republican Rep. Bruce Poliquin’s victory in Maine’s 2nd District and Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s re-election in 2014, some are beginning to think that a Republican could carry one of the state’s electoral votes come Election Day.
Nate Silver, editor-in-chief of the FiveThirtyEight blog and an influential elections forecaster, recently speculated on Twitter that Maine could split its electoral vote between the Democrat and Republican tickets.
“Trump could easily win an electoral vote in Maine’s 2nd District,” Silver tweeted.
After his first choice, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, dropped out of the Republican primaries earlier this year, LePage quickly endorsed Trump. While Le- Page did not attend the Republican National Convention, he has not distanced himself from the Republican nominee as other Republicans have, even after recent attacks on a Gold Star family that was prominently featured during the Democratic National Convention.
According to Trump’s schedule, the Portland town hall event will be held at Merrill Auditorium and begin at 2 p.m. Doors open at 11 a.m.
LePage to attend rally.
LePage said on a local morning radio show that he plans to attend Trump’s rally in Portland.
LePage said he hopes to get a chance to talk with Trump during Thursday afternoon’s rally to tell him to ignore the media.
When asked about the controversy over Trump’s remarks criticizing the mother of a Muslim-American soldier killed in action, LePage said there are two sides to the story and he believes the media is blowing things out of proportion.
The rally was initially scheduled for 10 a.m. but was later changed to 2 p.m. The Trump campaign announced the venue Monday night after word leaked out about his visit.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS contributed to this report.
nstrout@timesrecord.com
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