A key and under-appreciated factor in American elections — at the state, federal and local levels — is party insularity.

In 2022, when Maine Republicans decided to nominate Paul LePage for governor without any competition at all, they were being insular. In 2014, when Democrats nominated Mike Michaud as LePage’s opponent without competition, they, too, were being insular.

It’s totally natural for a political party to rally around its incumbents and try to protect them from challenges, both from within and from the other party. What’s not natural (at least, not in this day and age) is for parties to stifle all competition from existing — especially when there’s no incumbent running for re-election.

For the most part, this doesn’t seem to be happening in Maine in 2026 — though there is one glaring exception.

The gubernatorial and U.S. Senate elections already seem to be crowded, and Rep. Jared Golden may actually face a primary challenger. That’s all good news. Elections should be competitive in both the primary and the general election.

From the candidate’s point of view, they may prefer to just walk right into the nomination and then walk right into office after, but it’s better for the public as a whole if they do not. While a lack of competition is easier for candidates, it represents a lack of health of a party (if it’s a primary) and of democracy as a whole, if it’s the general election.

Take former Gov. Paul LePage’s decision to challenge Golden next year.

Although it seems likely that LePage will not have any opponents in the primary, let alone a credible one, that’s actually not the ideal outcome for him or for his party.

When LePage first ran in 2010, he prevailed in a very competitive gubernatorial primary. That served him well, especially as a first-time candidate for statewide office, as he prepared to take on Libby Mitchell and Eliot Cutler in the general election.

The Democrats, although they had a more competitive primary, ended up being split between Mitchell and Cutler later.

Neither party would have been well-served by a cake walk to the nomination; their nominee wouldn’t have been ready for the general election, as we saw four years later in the case of Mike Michaud.

The best thing for the Republican Party would not be to simply coronate LePage as the challenger to Golden, but to promote a competitive primary that LePage has to fight to win. This would serve a couple of purposes.

First, it would demonstrate that the party has a bench beyond LePage in Maine, and isn’t beholden to him — in contrast to the national Republican Party and President Trump. That would show that the Maine GOP has a future beyond LePage, just as a more competitive 2024 Republican presidential primary might have vis-à-vis Trump.

Primaries strengthen candidates for general election rather than weaken them. It would be easy to cite many examples of this throughout American political history, but instead let’s return to one mentioned earlier: Maine’s 2014 gubernatorial campaign.

The lack of primary opposition to Michaud didn’t demonstrate his strength, but his weakness. It showed that many Democrats weren’t particularly interested in running against him — not necessarily because he was a strong candidate, but because
LePage was well-positioned to win re-election.

Parties and consultants might not like having to spend time and money on a primary, but in the end it makes their candidates stronger. After all, standing up to the rigors of a competitive primary shows that they’re ready for a general election. If they’re not? Well, they’re not worth nominating.

Contrary to popular opinion, primaries in and of themselves aren’t necessarily a sign of weakness or of division. It all depends on how they play out. If a candidate wins their primary fairly, it strengthens their case. If they have to resort to dirty tricks and intimidation to win or avoid one altogether, it’s unlikely they’ll prevail in November.

Keep that in mind as Maine’s field of candidates takes shape for next year.