PoliZette quotes Brewer in report on importance of Maine votes in presidential race
PoliZette spoke with Mark Brewer, a political science professor at the University of Maine, for an article about the importance of Maine votes in the 2016 presidential race. With polls tightening across the country, the race could be decided by a single congressional district in Maine, under several unlikely but still-plausible scenarios, according to the article. Maine is one of two states that splits its votes in the Electoral College; the statewide winner gets two, and one vote goes to the winner of each congressional district. Two recent polls show Republican Donald Trump trailing statewide but winning the 2nd Congressional District. In an extremely close election, the electoral vote awarded by that district could put Trump over the top, the article states. “It could matter,” Brewer said. “It absolutely could matter.” He added a Trump victory in the district seems likely. “There is a strong possibility at this point. This isn’t necessarily a new, Trump-only phenomenon,” Brewer said. “It’s not out of the question that any Republican could win. I think Trump, maybe, has a better chance than other Republican nominees, given his appeal to white, rural voters. And that district has a lot of them.”