Spaghetti politics: Baldacci campaigns locally for Congress

‘I got into the race because I don’t want Paul LePage to be your next Congressman,’ Baldacci says at spaghetti dinner in Ellsworth

April 14, 2026

By John Epstein

Joe Baldacci, candidate for Congress. Photo by John Epstein.

Over spaghetti and meatballs at the Ellsworth Elks Lodge, about 60 people turned out on April 10 to hear Joe Baldacci’s reasons for running for Congress.

Maine’s 2nd Congressional District – the majority of Maine with the exception of the coastline and nearby communities from Kennebunk to Camden – is the largest district by area east of the Mississippi River. The district has been held since 2019 by Jared Golden, who is not seeking reelection. 

That has set conditions for a hotly contested race involving a half-dozen candidates, including Baldacci, fellow Democrats Matt Dunlop and Jordan Wood, and former Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican.

Billed as a “kitchen table conversation,” attendees at Baldacci’s event in Ellsworth came to hear the Bangor area trial lawyer and politician discuss why he decided in January to run in Maine’s June primary to be the Democratic candidate for Congress in the 2nd District.

The event featured a dinner with the same tomato sauce and meatball recipe used for decades at Momma Baldacci’s, a once popular restaurant in Bangor owned and operated by Baldacci’s parents. There were also cannolis. Joe and his nephews helped serve the crowd.

“I was the youngest of eight, and growing up, we all helped in the restaurant,” Baldacci said.

Making and serving good Italian food hasn’t been the only profession in Joe Baldacci’s family.  The Baldacci name is almost synonymous with Democratic party politics in Maine.

Bob Baldacci, the patriarch, was a member of the Bangor City Council. As a Democrat, Joe Baldacci’s older brother, John, was the state’s governor for two terms from 2003 to 2011, after having served four terms in Congress representing Maine’s 2nd District, as well as 12 years in the Maine State Senate representing the Bangor area.   

For his part, Joe Baldacci has served in the Maine Senate, District 9, representing Bangor and Hermon, since 2020. Prior to that, he was on the Bangor City Council for 12 years, serving two terms as council chair.

“Our Constitution, our democracy, is under relentless attack,” Baldacci said at the beginning of his remarks to the crowd, emphasizing that the Democrats need to take control of the House and the Senate. “I got into the race because I don’t want Paul LePage to be your next Congressman,” he added.  

Lacking any major challengers for the Republican nomination, LePage, a former two-term governor who moved back from Florida last year to run for Congress in Maine’s 2nd District, is the presumptive Republican nominee for U.S. seat.

“They’re keeping him under wraps right now, so you haven’t heard much from him, but he’ll just be a rubber stamp for the Republican agenda.” Baldacci said.

Baldacci address the crowd at a spaghetti dinner on April 10. Photo by John Epstein.

In answer to a question about his age, the candidate said he was 61. A boy in the audience said that he looked like he was only 46. “You can have another cannoli,” said Baldacci to laughter from the audience.

Moving to his agenda, Baldacci criticized the rationale for launching a war on Iran that he said does not advance national security interests and that is causing inflation and inflicting economic pain.

He said he also supports universal health care. He said that health care costs are rising dramatically and that Mainers are losing coverage. Meanwhile, tariffs are hurting Maine’s economy, he said.  

“The tariffs are not serving us. Half of Maine’s trade comes from Canada,” he said. 

Baldacci also said he was pleased that Maine’s legislature, with a razor-thin Democratic Party majority, had passed a budget that included a 2 percent tax on millionaires, which will help fund increases in state support for health care and child care.

“We needed to raise state revenues because of all the money that the federal government has taken away from Maine,” he said.

Baldacci admitted that even if the U.S. House and Senate revert to a Democratic majority, it will be unlikely that federal laws can be passed in the near term to reverse Republican cuts to the social safety net, “but we can do investigations, which could help us understand the depth of the damage,” Baldacci said.

Asked about fundraising, the candidate said his campaign currently had $300,000 on hand with plans to double that amount soon. “We’re okay right now,” he said. Balducci said he is confident that if he secures the nomination, the national Democratic Party will provide ample funds for the general election.

There are other major candidates vying to become the Democratic Party nominee for the 2nd District:  Matt Dunlap, the State Auditor, who served as Maine’s Secretary of State, and Jordan Wood, former chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Katie Porter of California. Wood originally announced he would run for Senate but switched to the Congressional race after Golden dropped out. Democrat Paige Loud, a 29-year-old social worker, is also running.

There is scant polling on the race at the moment. A poll taken by The Pan Atlantic Omnibus Poll released in early March shows Baldacci at 36 percent, Dunlap at 14 percent and Wood at 12 percent, with 38 percent undecided.

The Baldacci campaign says there will be at least two televised debates within the next several weeks. WMTV will hold one at 8 p.m. on April 28. That debate will also air on WABI Bangor and WAGM Presque Isle. News Center Maine is looking to host another debate in May, but the date is not yet confirmed.

Asked by The Rising Tide if he was getting any campaign advice from his older brother, John, 71, Maine’s former governor, Baldacci said:  “Oh yeah,” he laughed, “my brother tells me to ‘work my ass off, raise more money, and keep smiling.’”