Recent US policies have devastated rural areas, Maine state legislative candidate Austin Theriault, a former NASCAR driver seeking to replace Democratic Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) in the state's 2nd Congressional District, said in an interview with a Maine television station. Breitbart News Daily.
Theriault explained that Maine's districts are quite different, with the 2nd Congressional District being more rural and conservative compared to Maine's 1st Congressional District, which includes cities like Portland.
He comes from a farming and logging family in northern Maine, a place full of “hardworking people who work in the woods and work with their hands,” he explained.
“This area is becoming more conservative. It was surprisingly Democratic during the Kennedy administration, when you had the unions and the factories and all that. But the factories are closing, the manufacturing is moving away, people feel like the government and everybody is leaving them behind and they're really frustrated and disappointed. It's happening in working-class areas, rural areas and a lot of areas,” he said.
However, as you move further south in the state, it tends to become more liberal.
“Portland has obviously become very liberal. People have moved here from different parts of New England, and many of them may bring their own ideology and politics with them. So it's a very tough area for Republicans. [Congressional] “This is a district that President Joe Biden won in 2020,” he noted.
“It speaks to the difference between rural and urban America right now. And unfortunately — and this is no attack — I have friends who live over there, but when you live in an urban area, it's easy to forget what it's like to make a living in small town America, especially when, like I said, the factories and the manufacturing and the jobs and the opportunities are gone and you don't have to deal with that on a day-to-day basis,” he said.
“But those who remain in rural America have to deal with it, and that's what we have to focus on. We have to focus on distinguishing the difference between rural America and big cities, because America was built on the hard work of farmers, loggers and fishermen,” Theriault said. “We have to get back to that.”
Theriault further explained that Maine was once home to many paper mills, shoe factories and farms, but many of them have closed over the past 50 years.
listen:
“I'm not a negative person, but it's hard for people who have seen family farms close. They've seen what used to be a lot of paper mills. Maine only has two. And they're wondering, can we go back? They asked me that question during the campaign, and I say, 'We may not be able to go back to what we had in the '70s and '80s, but we can work to reduce energy costs and ease some of the regulations that stifle business development,'” he said, noting that some of these communities have been “devastated by the fentanyl crisis and the open border.”
“And, you know, even people who were once strong and healthy are now facing the consequences and realities of addiction, and that's because of a lack of leadership from some of our politicians and people who voted against border security, like my opponent, Jared Golden,” he said, expressing hope that things would turn around if Republicans win the election.
“The problem now is that some of these families have moved away. Unless we hire them replacements or people in these small towns start having more children, it's going to be very difficult, but not impossible. We just have to work together and create opportunities for them, opportunities where they can buy extra land for their farms, feel comfortable buying extra machinery, because the timber market is more competitive. But they have to deal with a lot of problems at once – high fuel prices, regulations. Like I said, they're being hit from all sides and we'd like them to expand their operations but they can't,” he added.
Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 6 to 9 a.m. ET.
