PARIS, Maine — Rep. John Andrews announced his resignation from the Maine House of Representatives on Wednesday, saying he was absolutely disgusted by his constituency's vote for Trump-backed candidate Austin Theriault.
Theriault defeated fellow Maine House member Mike Soboleski in Tuesday's Republican primary in Maine's 2nd Congressional District.
Theriault, who currently represents Fort Kent in the Maine House, will face three-term incumbent Democratic Rep. Jared Golden in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, which has handed an electoral vote to Donald Trump in the last two elections. The district was also the site of a mass shooting that killed 18 in Lewiston in October.
Andrews, a Republican from Paris, represented House District 179. He had been in state politics since 2018 but now says he is done.
"Paris voted for Theriault. That made up my mind," he wrote in a social media post Wednesday. "I'm sorry, but I'm done standing up for anything in this community."
"I'm officially retired from politics," he continued. "This absolutely disgusts me."
Andrews said he "can't be a part of anything that supports Austin Theriault."
Theriault, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, has vowed to be a stronger protector of the Second Amendment than Golden in the months since the shooting, which motivated Maine Democrats to approve a battery of new gun control laws. Golden, who has also long fashioned himself as a protector of gun rights, came out in support of an assault weapons ban after the Lewiston shooting but has said he would not have voted for changes such as expanding background checks and creating penalties for illegal gun sales.
Maine's 2nd Congressional District race has a chance to shake up the power structure of Congress. Republicans have a slim five-seat edge in the U.S. House, and the Maine election is one of a handful that could change that balance, University of Maine political scientist Mark Brewer said.
“This is certainly shaping up as one of the top 10 House races in the country, if not the top five,” Brewer said. “It's an incredibly evenly divided district, and there are increasingly few of those.”
The 2nd Congressional District is far more rural and geographically much larger than Maine's other district, which leans more heavily Democratic and is based around Portland. The 2nd District is home to many of Maine's traditional industries, such as papermaking and lobster fishing.
NEWS CENTER Maine reached out to the Maine Democratic Party and the Maine Republican Party for a response to Andrews' resignation but did not immediately get a response.
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