Republican Vice President JD Vance came to Maine to stump for Republicans including Sen. Susan Collins, congressional candidate Paul LePage, and gubernatorial candidate Bobby Charles. However, LePage was the only one of the three candidates to appear at the event held at Compotech, a precision manufacturing company in Brewer. During his speech, Vance called Collins a “dear friend” who has visited him at his house a “half dozen times.”
“[Collins] comes to work every single day and she fights for the great people of Maine,” said Vance.
Vance called Collins “the most independent member of the United States Senate.” However, the Maine Democratic Party pointed out in a statement that she votes with the president 96% of the time. Vance also praised Charles as “an amazing fighter for the state of Maine” who is “going to make an even more amazing governor.”
Both Collins and Charles skipped the event, citing scheduling conflicts. Charles and Collins also face tough elections, as voters have soured on the economy and President Trump’s approval is underwater at around 38 to 40%, according to two recent polls by Fox News and the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. The Fox News Poll found that 55% or more than half of Maine voters expressed concern that her voting record aligns with President Trump too often.
Vance said that the Trump administration is investigating the fatal shooting of delivery driver and father Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Biddeford on July 13. However, he advised people concerned about the shooting to “have a little bit of perspective.”
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“What I see from Democrats is people who are far more worried about a shooting involving an illegal alien than they are about the fact that tens of thousands of Mainers died from fentanyl overdoses by that poison brought into our community,” said Vance. “And so, my message to the Democrats who are so worried about that situation is to say, have a little bit of perspective.”
Contrary to Vance’s claim, Guerrero was lawfully present in the country and authorized to work in the United States and had been issued a Social Security number. It’s estimated that about 60 to-70% percent of ICE detainees have no criminal convictions, according to the right-leaning Cato Institute. In Maine, just 6% percent of ICE detainees arrested during January’s immigration enforcement surge had criminal convictions, and 14% percent had pending criminal charges.
Vance cast the upcoming midterm elections as a battle against “socialism,” pledging to “defeat socialism by giving you a stake in the American dream.” The vice president claimed the United States is experiencing “a manufacturing renaissance,” boasting that the nation has added 83,000 new jobs in factory construction and 29,000 new manufacturing jobs since President Trump assumed office last year.
“Trillions of dollars, trillions are pouring into our country to support new facilities, new jobs and of course new workers and to train workers in the new jobs of the future,” he said.
However, while manufacturing activity reached its highest level since 2022, manufacturing employment is still well below the pospandemic peak. Overall, 62,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost since Trump took office in January 2025. Meanwhile, the U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Gas prices have also spiked recently, rising to an average of $4.10 per gallon in Maine according to AAA, as peace talks with Iran have stalled.
“They’d say, what are the things that are causing housing prices to go up? And I’d say common sense, it’s supply and demand,” said Vance. “That if you bring in millions and millions of illegal aliens, you gotta put them somewhere.”
While rent prices have been dropping in some parts of the country due to a surge in new apartment construction, data from Zillow rental market trends shows rents in Maine haven’t changed much in the past year.
Vance called Maine “a capital of fraud” and blasted Gov. Janet Mills for “making it harder to find and catch and prosecute the fraudsters.” In early August, U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz claimed 90% of Medicaid payments in Maine had “no justifiable backup,” but did not specify why the charges shouldn’t have been made. Later that week, Mills announced that her administration had suspended payments to five providers based on allegations of fraud. A federal audit found $46 million in potentially improper MaineCare payments to dozens of providers, but it did not indicate any fraud occurred.
In response to Vance’s comments, Mills called the vice president “a neutered lapdog for Donald Trump.”
“Maine will continue to tackle fraud, as we always have,” said Mills in a written statement. “But if the Vice President is serious about fraud, he’d be better off starting with his boss, Donald Trump, who is using his office to enrich himself and his family, building himself a lavish new ballroom at taxpayer expense, and wasting billions on a needless war with Iran — one he promised he would never wage — while his endless tariffs on Canada drive up costs for Maine people.”
