Vice President JD Vance brought his anti‑fraud message to Bangor, Maine, on Thursday, campaigning for former Governor Paul LePage and using the platform to denigrate Democrats in the state ahead of the June 9 primary elections.
Speaking to a crowd of a few hundred people at Bangor International Airport, Vance — dubbed the “fraud czar” by President Donald Trump — told supporters that his fraud‑fighting task force had already begun rooting out waste in government programs. “You are the first victim of fraud,” Vance said, with signs reading “PROTECTING TAXPAYER DOLLARS” behind him. “My friends, this has gone on for far too long. You have been fleeced by your own government for far too long, and we are stopping it every single day.”
Vance’s visit was his first event formally billed as a stop to discuss the administration’s fraud crackdown rather than his usual economic‑focused campaign swings. He directly tied Democratic Governor Janet Mills to the problem, telling the crowd, “Let’s kick Janet Mills to the curb and let’s send Paul LePage to Washington to help us fight the fraudsters and protect all of you.”
LePage, the sole Republican vying for the nod in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, is running for the seat being vacated by Democratic Rep. Jared Golden. Vance portrayed the former governor as a partner in his anti‑fraud effort and argued that LePage’s absence from state government had allowed wrongdoing to spread. “Fraud has festered in Maine because this guy is no longer the governor of Maine,” Vance said, pointing to LePage.
The Vice President also took the unusual step of praising Republican Senator Susan Collins, who was not in attendance, for her bipartisanship. “Sometimes I get frustrated with Susan Collins. I almost wish she was more partisan,” Vance said. “If she was as partisan as I wish she was, she would not be a good fit for the people of Maine.” Collins, who faces a difficult reelection fight, has occasionally voted against Trump administration priorities.
The event drew immediate pushback from state Democrats. Governor Mills, whose term is ending due to term limits, said Vance’s rhetoric was designed to distract from the Trump administration’s failures. “Maine people deserved to hear about how the Trump Administration is making their lives better by lowering costs, improving health care, building housing, and fixing child care — but we got none of that because the President and Vice President don’t actually care about these issues or the hardships they are causing our state and people,” Mills said in a statement.
The Maine Center for Economic Policy, a left‑leaning advocacy group, called the administration’s fraud characterizations “inaccurate” and accused it of “political fearmongering designed to undermine health care for hundreds of thousands of people.” Democratic gubernatorial candidate Nirav Shah, a former state CDC director, noted that Vance’s visit came as costs of heating oil and gas were surging in the state, saying the administration’s record was the one Vance was “honored to celebrate.”
A few dozen demonstrators stood across the street from the airport carrying signs denouncing Vance and the Trump administration, and one protester held a giant caricature of the vice‑president’s head that has become a popular meme.
LePage told the rally before Vance arrived that if elected, he would work with the Trump administration to crack down on fraud in social safety programs, which he characterized as rampant under Mills’s leadership. “The American people are done being taken for a ride,” he said. The Trump administration’s focus on Maine intensified after CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz earlier this year called for corrective action on alleged fraud in the state’s government health programs, a request Mills called a “political attack.”