Maine GOP platform takes aim at transgender education, abortion, unions, voting access

The Maine Republican Party adopted a platform this weekend that includes provisions opposing gender-based education, abortion and marriage equality while also taking aim at unions and seeking to create more stringent requirements for voting. 

The party platform, discussed at the Maine Republican Party Convention in Augusta, includes a wide range of conservative policy stances. The platform and convention come as the GOP gears up for a pivotal 2024 election both locally and nationwide. 

Against that backdrop, here are some of the stances Maine Republicans support. 

On the issue of reproductive health rights, the platform states that Republicans “believe in the sanctity of human life — from conception to natural death” and “oppose the use of taxpayer funds for abortions or activities that run counter to the sanctity of human life.” 

Abortion has emerged as a key issue in Maine, and nationwide, since the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022, with Democrats generally seeking to expand access and protections and Republicans typically opposing abortion. 

The platform also includes a number of stipulations around education. The Maine Republican Party supports a prohibition on promoting subject matter in public preK-12 schools around gender affirming health care practices or the “teaching or promotion of biological genders other than those of male and female” while also “accepting those who exhibit physical intersex traits from birth.” 

Republicans also say they oppose policies that undermine “individual accountability” in favor of focusing on any class, gender or race. 

Furthermore, the platform says Republicans believe the definition of marriage should be a union between one man and one woman even though Mainers approved marriage equality back in 2012. 

The party also supports enacting so-called right to work laws to “better stimulate economic growth,” although labor groups have said such statutes make it harder for people to form unions and collectively bargain for improved conditions. 

In addition, the platform contains policies that Republicans say would “protect the integrity of the election process.” One such proposal would mandate that a person prove they are a U.S. citizen when registering to vote and show a Maine photo ID when voting.   

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows has spoken against voter ID proposals in the past, saying the state’s elections are free and secure and pointing out that proof of identity is needed for someone to register to vote. 

“Forcing people to carry a specific type of photo identification to vote would result in logistical challenges, financial burdens and potential discrimination,” Bellows said last year, citing difficulties that requirement could pose for certain groups, such as people of color, older voters, people living in poverty or those in rural areas. 

While the platform doesn’t make mention of the 2020 presidential election, some Maine Republican legislative hopefuls in the 2022 cycle did spread former President Donald Trump’s lie that the contest was fraudulent or made other comments questioning the results of that election.  

Other conservative stances taken in the party platform include “rejecting blanket amnesty” for people who have entered the country illegally and making English the official language of Maine and the U.S. 

In addition, the platform seeks to “defend the individual’s right to keep and bear arms.”

Following the mass shooting in Lewiston in October, Democratic lawmakers moved to strengthen Maine’s gun safety laws, and several measures were ultimately passed by the Legislature.  

During the Republican convention, a series of amendments to the platform were also offered, but only a few were adopted. One that was approved, put forward by Sen. Eric Brakey (R-Androscoggin), urges the Legislature to bar the deployment of the Maine National Guard into a foreign conflict unless Congress first declares war.