Former Maine governor Paul LePage came out swinging against a proposed election bill he says would dilute the votes of white people and make it the “minorities that would elect” if the state were to eliminate the Electoral College system.
LePage, 70, made the remarks during a Tuesday appearance on WVOM radio station’s the “George Hale Ric Tyler Show,” where he lambasted the bill as an “insane process” and warned that “we’re gonna be a forgotten people,” the Maine Beacon reported.
Paul LePage has a history of making racist comments and once called people of color “the enemy right now.” (Image courtesy of Politico)
The proposed legislation would essentially allow Maine to band together with other states in the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact to bypass the Electoral College. State electors would agree to pool their votes for the candidate with the most votes nationwide, making the popular vote winner president.
The bill is currently being considered by the Maine Legislature, and LePage isn’t happy about it.
“All the small states, like Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Wyoming, Montana, Rhode Island, will all be — you will never see a presidential candidate again, you’ll never see anybody at the national stage come to our state. We’re gonna be forgotten people,” he argued.
“Actually what would happen if they do what they say they’re gonna do is white people will not have anything to say,” LePage added. “It’s only going to be the minorities that would elect. It would be California, Texas, Florida.”
That’s when one of the hosts stopped his rant to note that minorities oppose the Electoral College system because they feel it limits the power of their votes. The proposal, if adopted by a sufficient number of states, would ensure that everyone’s votes, regardless of race, have equal power in electing the president, according to the Beacon.
The Electoral College system in fact is rooted in providing political leverage to the slave states, which since the nation’s founding have wielded power in Washington disproportionate to their share of the American population.
LePage, who served as Maine governor from 2011 to 2019, has a history of making racially charged remarks. He once ranted against drug smugglers during a town hall meeting in 2016, saying, “These are guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty. These type of guys. They come from Connecticut and New York, they come up here, they sell their heroin, then they go back home. Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave.”
He later apologized for the “slip-up,” claiming what he meant to say was “Maine women.”
The then-governor found himself in hot water again that same year after leaving a threatening voicemail, in which he declared that “the enemy right now” is “people of color or people of Hispanic origin.”
The national popular vote bill is expected to have a public hearing Friday before the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee, the newspaper reported.