Douglas Rooks has been a Maine editor and columnist for 41 years. His biography of Gov. Ken Curtis, “Transformational,” is now available. He welcomes comment at [email protected].

It’s long been said that candidate endorsements don’t sway many votes, and that’s probably still true. Donald Trump’s endorsement seems different, but may in the end be the exception that proves the rule.

From the beginning, it was clear Trump’s imprimatur was much more about his personal control of the Republican Party than any attempt to find the most electable candidate.

His track record in the 2026 primaries deteriorated; nearly half of Trump’s prominent endorsees lost. Trump’s zeal to punish any GOP senator who voted to convict after impeachment over the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol assault took out two more proven vote-getters, in Texas and Louisiana. Whether their replacements can prevail will be decided Nov. 3.

Endorsements can, however, provide a guide to political currents, as here in Maine, with some more civilized campaigns. The most notable endorsement to date came on Sunday morning at Bowdoin College, where Sen. Angus King strolled on stage and said “Vote for Hannah” at a campaign event for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Hannah Pingree.

Based on margins in his two runs for governor and three for U.S. Senate, King is by far the most popular Maine incumbent, so his nod to Pingree carries some weight.

Though he’s caucused with Senate Democrats since 2013 — as he put it, Democratic Leader Harry Reid called right away, while Republican Leader Mitch McConnell never did — he’s otherwise careful to guard his independent status.

King said that when Pingree served as Maine House speaker from 2008-10, he told her she’d get his vote if she ran for governor, although in this year’s crowded ranked-choice primary she was his second choice — an allusion to his son, Angus King III.

A riskier Pingree endorsement came much earlier, from Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau last November. Had Pingree not won the primary — she finished second in the first round — Fecteau might have a caucus challenger. As it is, his support suggests Pingree’s relationship with lawmakers might be smoother than for outgoing Gov. Janet Mills, who often clashed with Democratic leaders.

Independent candidate for governor Rick Bennett also got notable backing from Bill Cohen, one-time GOP congressman, senator and secretary of defense (under Bill Clinton) — the most successful among Maine Republican moderates who emerged in the 1970s. Cohen, a frequent Trump critic, made it clear that Bennett, a lifelong Republican until his switch to independent last year, better represents his positions than most current GOP nominees.

That would include the Republican in the governor’s race, Bobby Charles, whose aggressive support of Trumpism won the primary, though those same stances place him well behind in polling to date.

While Charles hasn’t received any comparable endorsements, he did get a nod from embattled Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who said at an event in Naples, a day after one of Charles’ sisters said she’d vote for Pingree, that “of course” she’d vote for Charles.

This is surprising; Collins is generally wary of saying how she’ll vote. After saying that she’d definitely not vote for Trump in 2016, she was silent about the 2020 presidential race, and in 2024 wrote in Nikki Haley, a Trump primary opponent.

Charles is decidedly not a moderate Republican, the lane Cohen popularized as Democrats were rising statewide — and where Collins got her political start as a staffer; she succeeded her former boss when he retired in 1996.

Moderate Republicanism was expertly practiced by Sen. Olympia Snowe and Gov. John McKernan, later her husband, from the 1980s onward. Collins served with Snowe for 16 years before Snowe departed in 2012, citing what for her was already excessive partisanship. Collins has soldiered on for 30 years, even as moderate terrain shrank to the vanishing point.

The strangest announcement came from outgoing 2nd District Rep. Jared Golden, who endorsed GOP Rep. Mike Lawler in New York’s 17th District. Other than Lawler being like-minded, it’s hard to understand the motivation, except to give one more back-of-the-hand to fellow House Democrats.

Earlier, Golden may have been the only Maine politician cheering Trump’s renewed trade war with Canada — to which Canada has responded in kind — even though the U.S. Supreme Court already ruled against Trump’s unilateral tariffs, and will undoubtedly strike these down too.

Golden has wandered far from the Democratic Party that first nominated him in 2018, and one endorsement he’ll undoubtedly not make is for the Democratic nominee to succeed him, Matt Dunlap, who challenged Golden in the primary before Golden quit the race.

Given the turmoil across the country, this tangled web of Maine endorsements was to be expected — and, as usual, voters will have the last word.