Paul Richard LePage (; born October 9, 1948) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 74th governor of Maine from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the mayor of Waterville, Maine, from 2004 to 2011 and as a city councilor for Waterville from 1998 to 2002.
In 2010, LePage was elected governor, winning with 37% of the vote in a race with four major candidates. In 2014, he was re-elected in a less crowded election with 48% of the vote. During his tenure as governor, LePage made extensive use of his veto power, vetoing 652 bills as of July 2018 – more than all of Maine's governors over the previous 100 years combined. LePage was known for making controversial remarks on various issues. LePage was unable to seek re-election to a third term due to term limits laws in Maine, and was succeeded by Democrat Janet Mills. After initially retiring from politics, he mounted an unsuccessful bid for governor in 2022.
In 2025, LePage announced his candidacy for Maine's 2nd congressional district in 2026.
Early life and education LePage was born in Lewiston, Maine, on October 9, 1948. The eldest son of 18 children of Theresa (née Gagnon) and Gerard LePage, both of French Canadian descent, he grew up speaking French in an impoverished home with an abusive father who was a mill worker. His father drank heavily and terrorized the children, and his mother was too intimidated to stop him. His brother Moe later said of their father, "He was an evil man."
At age 11, after his father beat him and broke his nose, LePage ran away from home and lived on the streets of Lewiston. At times, he stayed in horse stables and at a strip joint. He was homeless for two years before two families took him in. LePage was the only person among his parents and siblings to graduate from the eighth grade. He graduated from Lewiston High School in 1967.
LePage performed poorly on the SAT verbal section because English was his second language. Politician Peter Snowe, who had befriended LePage, persuaded Husson College to give LePage the test in French. LePage was later accepted. He graduated from Husson in 1971 with a bachelor's degree in business administration, and earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Maine in 1975.
Early business and political career
After graduating from college, LePage began his business career working from 1972 to 1979 for a lumber company in New Brunswick, Canada, that was owned by his first wife's family. He subsequently worked for Scott Paper Company in Winslow, Maine.
In the 1980s, LePage founded the management consulting firm LePage & Kasevich Inc., which provided services to struggling businesses. In 1996, he was hired as general manager of Marden's, a Maine-based discount retail chain.
Waterville City Council LePage entered local politics when he was elected to the Waterville City Council in 1997, serving until 2002. He was reelected to the council in 1999.
Mayor of Waterville In 2003, LePage sought the office of mayor of Waterville, running against Democratic candidate Charles Kellenberger and independent Daniel Dufour. LePage won the election with 40 percent of the vote.
LePage took office as mayor on January 6, 2004, succeeding Nelson Madore. As mayor, he implemented administrative reforms, reduced municipal taxes, and increased the city's reserve fund from $1 million to $10 million. During his tenure, he had policy disagreements with Democratic Governor John Baldacci on issues including immigration enforcement and state tax policy.
In 2008, LePage was reelected mayor, defeating Democratic challenger Rosemary Winslow by a margin of 51 percent to 49 percent. He resigned from the mayoral position in January 2011 upon taking office as governor.
Governor of Maine Elections 2010
On September 22, 2009, LePage announced that he would be seeking the 2010 Republican nomination for governor of Maine. He won 38% of the vote in a seven-way primary election, despite being outspent ten-to-one by his closest challenger. John Morris, LePage's campaign chief-of-staff, credited LePage's win with a campaign strategy (devised by chief strategist Brent Littlefield) that he referred to as the "three onlys" theme before the June primary election. This theme focused on particular aspects of LePage's biography that supposedly set him apart from the other candidates. These were, according to Morris, LePage "was the only candidate who had a compelling life story, ... the only candidate who had a successful experience as a chief executive officer of a government entity, ... the only candidate who was the executive of a prosperous Maine business."
In the general election, LePage was backed by local Tea Party activists and faced Democratic state senator Libby Mitchell, and three independents – Eliot Cutler, Shawn Moody, and Kevin Scott. During the campaign, he told an audience that when he became governor, they could expect to see newspaper headlines stating, "LePage Tells Obama to Go to Hell". He was subsequently criticized by Libby Mitchell's campaign as being disrespectful towards the office of the president.
With 94% of precincts reporting on the day after the election, the Bangor Daily News declared LePage the winner, carrying 38.1% of the votes. Independent Cutler was in second place with 36.7% of the votes (fewer than 7,500 votes behind LePage), while Democrat Mitchell was a distant third with 19%. Moody and Scott had 5% and 1%, respectively. LePage was the first popularly elected, Franco-American governor of Maine and the first Republican since John R. McKernan Jr.'s re-election in 1990. In his victory speech, LePage promised he would shrink government, lower taxes, decrease business regulation, and put "Maine people ahead of politics".
2014
On May 7, 2013, LePage stated that it was likely that he would seek re-election in 2014. He had already filed paperwork to form a campaign committee in August 2011 to be able to hold fundraisers to raise campaign funds. On June 21, 2013, when asked if he was concerned about hurting his re-election campaign, he replied, "Who said I'm running?", and, that "everything was on the table"—including entering the race for Maine's Second Congressional District; retiring; or "going back to Marden's to stock shelves". He later backed off the reference to entering a congressional run, but stated that he would have a family meeting to discuss the possibility of him not seeking re-election, citing the passage of a 2013–2014 budget by the legislature—in override of his veto of it—as the type of devastating mistake that Maine could not recover from. At a fundraiser with former Florida governor Jeb Bush on July 2, he told supporters that he was indeed running for re-election.
At 12:04 AM on November 5, the Bangor Daily News declared that Paul LePage had won re-election to a second term, defeating Democratic Congressman Mike Michaud and independent candidate Eliot Cutler. He received 48.2% of the vote.
2022
LePage unsuccessfully ran for a third non-consecutive term in 2022. LePage had previously indicated his interest in the 2022 election based on the implementation of Maine's Medicaid expansion referendum. On July 5, 2021, he officially announced his candidacy for governor. He was later endorsed by Maine's Republican U.S. Senator, Susan Collins. LePage faced no primary opposition, and was the Republican nominee to run against Mills in the November general election. LePage lost 56% to 42%.
Tenure LePage is known for his bombastic and off-the-cuff remarks that have at times generated controversy. He has cited the fact that French was his first language as a reason for his controversial statements. His comments regarding women, African Americans, Native Americans, the poor, local colleges and universities, and government activities have generated headlines. At the beginning of his term as governor, he was criticized for refusing either to attend Martin Luther King Jr. Day events in Portland or Orono or to meet with Maine representatives of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), telling the press the group could "kiss my butt". His actions were called "astonishing and troubling" by civil rights group leaders and local newspapers.
In February 2011, LePage spoke on a local TV news program saying he hoped to repeal the Maine ban of Bisphenol A, voted for unanimously by the Maine Board of Environmental Protection, because "there hasn't been any science that identifies that there is a problem." On March 28, it was reported that the LePage administration had dropped its opposition to the new BPA regulations. After a unanimous vote in the Senate, the Maine legislature on April 22 passed a bill to ban the use of BPA in beverage containers. LePage refused to sign the bill, but it became law without his signature.
On March 23, 2011, LePage sparked protests when he announced that he planned to remove a large mural depicting the history of the state's labor movement from the lobby of the Maine Department of Labor offices. Despite protests, on March 28 it was disclosed that the murals had been removed over the weekend. The Portland Museum of Art issued a statement that said LePage's decision has tarnished the state's reputation as a haven for artists. His actions sparked furthered backlash, and lawsuits were brought forward regarding the murals.
On April 27, 2012, LePage stated that Maine's "middle management" was corrupt, sparking backlash from worker groups and Maine politicians. Maine State Employees Association President Ginette Rivard responded to the criticism of state workers by stating, "For LePage to call them 'corrupt' is baseless and insulting to every public worker who has dedicated their lives to making Maine a great place to live, work and raise a family."
In his second year in office, LePage made a proposal to allow public funds to go to religious schools; the proposal was found unconstitutional by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. He later drew negative publicity for urging any commission members who were not up to meeting the state's expectations to resign. On July 25, 2012, LePage and his Commissioner of Education, Stephen Bowen, unveiled a second round of reform proposals which issued that domestic students were getting "poorer" educational practice, regarding required examinations for admission. His proposals were criticized by the Maine Education Association, Maine Democrats, and many college students attending school out of state who stated they did not experience the poor treatment LePage purported.
On July 8, 2012, LePage said, while discussing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was "the new Gestapo" due to their role in enforcing the law. Some Democrats, Jewish groups, and unions levied heavy criticism towards LePage over his statement, and demanded an apology. Prominent members of LePage's own party were generally less critical. Maine Republican Party chairman Charlie Webster felt that "most regular people knew what he meant." A day later, LePage issued a written statement stating that his intent was not to "insult anyone, especially the Jewish community, or to minimize the fact that millions of people were murdered," and that his message had been "clouded" by his use of the word "Gestapo". In response, both Maine Senator Roger Katz, who is Jewish, and U.S. Senator Susan Collins stated they were pleased LePage had backed away from his comments.
LePage was the first Maine governor to use social media to promote the annual State of the State address, when he used Twitter to send several tweets previewing his February 5, 2013, speech.