White People Would Be ‘Forgotten’ Without An Electoral College, Ex-Maine Governor Says

Paul LePage, who was the Republican governor of Maine for eight years before leaving office earlier this year, has long been known for controversial statements. And that has continued even now that he’s out of office.

The former governor gave an interview on a radio show on WVOM, as reported by The Maine Beacon. In the interview, LePage was asked his opinion on a bill under consideration in Maine’s state legislature, one that would lend Maine’s support to an initiative to abolish the electoral college and replace it with a national popular vote.

LePage, a man whose personality and temperament have often been compared to that of President Trump, is opposed to the move.

“Actually what would happen if they do what they say they’re gonna do is white people will not have anything to say. It’s only going to be the minorities that would elect. It would be California, Texas, Florida,” LePage said in the interview. He added, of white people, that “we’re gonna be forgotten people,” in the event that the measure passed.

The ex-governor was calling into the show from Florida, where he now lives.

LePage, who left office because he had served the maximum two terms, has drawn criticism for controversial statements in the past. He drew fire in 2016 for saying at a town hall, per The Week, that “guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty” were coming to New Hampshire from points south in order to sell drugs, and that “half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave.”

Later that year, LePage attempted to clarify the comments, but also stated that “Let me tell you something: black people come up the highway and they kill Mainers.” Per CNN, after the then-governor was denounced as racist by a Democratic state legislator, LePage left a profane message on the man’s voicemail, concluding with “I want you to record this and make it public because I am after you. Thank you.”

LePage: Eliminating electoral college would make whites "a forgotten people" https://t.co/NxmhojS6mC pic.twitter.com/fDieECREsk

— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) February 28, 2019

He talked in a later interview about wanting to challenge the legislator, Drew Gattine, to a duel. LePage publicly declared at the time that he was considering resigning, but ended up finishing out his second term.

In 2011, LePage had declined to participate in Black History Month festivities, and said “tell ’em to kiss my butt” to the local NAACP, per the Press Herald newspaper.

LePage, as he has frequently mentioned in the wake of his many racial controversies, has an adopted son who is from Jamaica.