Bobby Charles runs on ‘sweeping income and property tax relief’
Former Navy officer running for governor says he will ‘root out duplicate spending and structural waste’ is state government
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Rising Tide has asked all gubernatorial candidates to complete the following questionnaire. The Rising Tide will publish responses of candidates when received. These profiles are not paid advertisements. They are offered purely as a voter education tool. The Rising Tide does not endorse candidates for any office.
Below are responses from Republican candidate Bobby Charles. The primary is June 9.
June 2, 2026
1. Background
Bobby Charles, a former Naval Intelligence Officer and Pentagon official says Maine must become “unapologetically business-friendly.” Courtesy photo.
Tell us about your background: Where did you grow up and where did you go to school? Tell us about your career (or careers). Why do you want to be governor, and how have your past experiences prepared you for this role?
I proudly grew up in the small town of Wayne, Maine, where my mother was a dedicated local schoolteacher. My roots in our state run deep, shaping my worldview and work ethic from an early age. I earned my Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College, a Master of Arts in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) from New College, Oxford as a Keasbey Scholar, and my Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School.
My career has been dedicated to high-level executive leadership, law, and national security. I served as a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and worked as a litigator and served in both the Ronald Reagan White House and the George H.W. Bush White House as Deputy Associate Director for Domestic Policy. I spent over a decade as a Naval Intelligence Officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve, including time at the Pentagon. Under President George W. Bush and Secretary Colin Powell, I served as the Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, managing a multi-billion-dollar global budget. Today, I am the president of a consulting firm and a regular opinion contributor.
I am running for governor because Augusta has become insulated, bloated, and unresponsive to everyday Mainers. My decades of experience handling immense federal bureaucracies, cleaning up agencies, and managing massive operations under intense scrutiny have uniquely prepared me to bring true, no-nonsense accountability to the state level.
2. Housing and Affordability
Maine faces rising housing costs, increasing property taxes and a shortage of workforce housing. What specific policies would you pursue in your first two years to make Maine more affordable for working families, young people and seniors?
Rising property taxes, out-of-control housing costs, and inflation are squeezing working families, young adults, and seniors out of their homes.
My administration will address the root cause of unaffordability: the size and spending of the state government. I have proposed a foundational plan to aggressively slash state spending, which will allow us to pass historic, sweeping income and property tax relief back to the people. When families keep more of their hard-earned money, the cost of living drops. In my first two years, we will also aggressively eliminate state-level red tape and bureaucratic micro-management that drives up building and development costs, unleashing the private market to rapidly build high-quality workforce housing.
3. Rural Maine
Many rural communities are struggling with aging populations, school enrollment declines, workforce shortages and limited access to health care. What is your long-term vision for rural Maine, and how would your administration help small towns remain economically and socially viable? What specifically will you do for rural Maine?
My long-term vision is a self-sufficient, economically vibrant, and safe rural Maine that is no longer treated as an afterthought by Augusta insiders.
Small towns do not need top-down government mandates; they need breathing room to grow. We will protect and revitalize our core heritage industries—including forestry, farming, and fishing—by removing the crushing weight of overregulation. To combat workforce shortages and limited healthcare access, my administration will incentivize rural economic investment through aggressive tax cuts and dismantle the bureaucratic hoops that prevent independent healthcare providers and small businesses from operating viably in our rural communities.
4. Education and Workforce Development
Maine has slipped dramatically in delivery of quality education, and now ranks in the bottom 10 states in the nation. What is your plan to reverse this trend?
As the son of a Maine schoolteacher, it breaks my heart to see our state’s education system ranking near the bottom tier. We must reverse this trend by returning to educational fundamentals, academic rigor, and merit.
My administration will shift resources away from top-heavy administrative bureaucracies and political agendas, putting funds directly back into classrooms and empowering local teachers. We will fiercely defend parental rights and school choice, ensuring that families have the ultimate say in their children's upbringing. Furthermore, we will build direct, structural partnerships between high schools, community colleges, and local industries to expand vocational training and trade skills, preparing our youth for high-paying, real-world careers right here in Maine.
5. Energy
Maine has some of the highest electricity rates in the nation. What is your plan to reduce electricity rates, and will you promise to lower it by a certain amount?
Maine's sky-high electricity rates are a direct result of artificial, over-subsidized alternative energy mandates that prioritize political virtue-signaling over affordable reality.
My plan is to immediately restore a market-driven, diversified approach to energy. We will evaluate and tap into all viable energy options, eliminate hidden state-level fees, and strip away regulatory barriers that drive up utility transmission costs. While I will not play political games by promising an exact arbitrary number, I do promise to aggressively roll back the specific, costly state regulations that currently artificially inflate your monthly electric bills.
6. Economy
Maine has always struggled with a year-round economy. But seasonal states like Florida are booming, thanks to economic development plans that are business friendly and aim to lower income and property taxes. What’s your plan to spur economic development? Do you have any outside-the-box ideas you’d like to propose?
To build a robust, year-round economy like booming low-tax states, Maine must become fiercely competitive and unapologetically business-friendly.
My primary objective is to implement a structural overhaul of state government, directly auditing every agency to root out duplicate spending and structural waste. By removing state income tax burdens and capping property tax growth, we will attract permanent capital, manufacturing, and technology jobs to the state. An outside-the-box priority will be treating the economic growth of our natural resources and maritime trades as a national security asset, defending our local businesses from federal overreach and out-of-state special interest groups.
7. Trust in Government and Civic Life
Americans increasingly distrust institutions, including government and the media. What would you do as governor to improve transparency, restore public trust and encourage more civil political dialogue in Maine?
Public trust is broken because government insiders act like they are the bosses, rather than the servants. We will restore transparency through relentless, outside oversight of Augusta's operations.
My administration will bring a no-nonsense, open-book approach to government, ending closed-door committee deals and holding agency heads strictly accountable to performance audits. Civil political dialogue returns naturally when leadership stops dividing people based on political identity and focuses entirely on delivering measurable results—lower taxes, safer streets, and economic freedom—for every citizen across the State of Maine.
