This letter ran in Penobscot Bay Press, Sept. 24, 2026
When I ask people why they plan to vote for Matt Dunlap, most exclaim, “I’d never vote for Paul LePage!” Fair enough, neither would I. And I do vote unenthusiastically to counter a worse outcome. Many votes are like that. Dunlap as a default vote? I hoped for something more.
So, I went to a house party where he spoke. He was so normal! Reminded me of my brother: funny, self-effacing, the neighborhood good guy, always ready to solve problems, help out. Like when he worked in a U. of Maine dining hall and found a supervisee crying because she couldn’t make her tuition payment. First in her family to go to college, she was being forced to drop out for want of a few hundred dollars. He promptly took up a collection to cover the fees, then approached the administration about starting a fund to help other student workers who might fall short.
Dunlap went on to serve four terms in the Maine House, then was tapped by his peers to be Secretary of State. Bumped out when Republicans took over, he headed the Sportsman’s Alliance for a couple of years before returning as Secretary of State. After Trump was elected in 2016, he was chosen to serve on the newly-formed Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. A misnomer, this turned out to be a sham effort to validate Trump’s wrongful claims that millions of illegal immigrants voted in the 2016 election, costing him the popular vote. Once Dunlap saw the false premise at play, he sued and the Commission was disbanded nine months after it was formed.
Dunlap has the support of the populist movement that fueled Graham Platner’s campaign. His values align: universal health care, ending foreign wars and inflationary tariffs, reproductive freedom, strengthening Social Security, fair taxation and bolstering the middle class. He’s endorsed by the Maine AFL-CIO, Maine Education Association, Planned Parenthood, Sierra Club, National Nurses United, Maine People’s Alliance and End Citizen’s United.
I have no reason to feel equivocal about Matt Dunlap—I’m all in.
Anne Beerits
Deer Isle