‘Damn right’: Ex-Gov. Paul LePage says fraud is all around, and Maine Democrats are to blame

AUGUSTA, Maine — Former Maine Gov. Paul LePage is putting allegations of fraud at the center of his run for Congress, saying Maine is plagued by the same kind of social services corruption that has emerged in Minnesota and that Democrats have ignored warning signs for years.

“What happened in Minnesota was happening in Maine 10 years ago,” Mr. LePage told The Washington Times at his campaign office in Augusta. “It’s brutal.”

Republicans, including President Trump, have seized on the fraud scandal that ravaged Minnesota’s social service programs as proof that Democratic governance comes at a steep price for taxpayers.

Mr. LePage is making a similar case, albeit on a far smaller scale, in his bid for the House seat in Maine’s sprawling 2nd District. He is casting himself as someone who raised concerns long before the issue gained national traction, only to be stonewalled by Democrats, including Gov. Janet Mills, who served as attorney general during his administration and is now running for the U.S. Senate.

Ms. Mills sees it differently and has said so forcefully. She said Trump-led Republicans are simply out for political gain.

The state recently launched an investigation into allegations of fraud involving a company that has been on the Republicans’ radar for years.

Mr. LePage, 77, appears to be on a glide path to the Republican nomination, buoyed by an endorsement from Mr. Trump, who carried the House district in 2016, 2020 and 2024.

The former governor is waiting to see who emerges as his Democratic rival. The field includes state Sen. Joe Baldacci, state auditor Matt Dunlap, social worker Paige Loud and activist Jordan Wood.

The race is shaping up to be difficult for Republicans. Democrats have strung together a series of strong electoral performances since Mr. Trump returned to office, and strong Democratic turnout in Texas’ Senate primary this week has stirred fresh doubts about the Republicans’ ability to hold the House.

Mr. LePage said Mr. Trump needs to get out of Washington and hit the campaign trail with Republicans this fall to help reverse the tide.

“If he comes to Maine, that’s what we need,” Mr. LePage said.

After describing himself as “Donald Trump before Donald Trump became popular,” Mr. LePage stands behind the president’s polarizing decision to launch joint airstrikes with Israel against Iran and sees the president’s tariff agenda as a necessary evil, while stressing he wants an exemption for the lumber industry, which is crucial to Maine’s economy.

He backs abolishing the U.S. Department of Education, calls for more preventive health care, and wants to offer students reduced loan rates if they stay and work in the state where they studied.

He wants to revamp the National Guard pay system to boost rural areas and help Mainers in a long-running dispute over lobster fishing rights on the disputed maritime border with Canada.

He is especially pounding home his claims of fraud, using them as a cudgel against Ms. Mills and his potential Democratic rivals for Congress, much as Republicans used them against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who ultimately abandoned his reelection bid amid the political pressure.

“I can’t wait to find out who my opponent is, because we’re going to have fun with this,” Mr. LePage said of the fraud allegations. “I’m going to have a field day.”

Mr. Trump is lending a hand.

In his Feb. 24 State of the Union address, the president pointed to Maine, along with California and Massachusetts, as places he says are facing corruption “even worse” than what emerged in Minnesota.

In Minnesota, more than 60 people, most of them from the Minneapolis area Somali community, have been convicted or pleaded guilty to stealing more than $250 million in funds meant to go to hungry children.

Federal prosecutors have said the fraud runs far deeper. They estimate that $9 billion in federal funds tied to Minnesota-run programs may have been stolen since 2018, a figure Mr. Walz has disputed. Mr. Trump has put the number even higher, at $19 billion.

Democrats in Minnesota have acknowledged that fraud occurred but argue that the Trump administration is using the issue as a political weapon.

The fraud allegations in Maine involve far less money — roughly $1.7 million, compared with hundreds of millions of dollars in Minnesota — and center on Gateway Community Services, a for-profit health care provider founded and run by Somali immigrants.

The state froze MaineCare payments to the company in late December after the state Department of Health and Human Services’ internal watchdog found it had overbilled the Medicaid program by more than $1 million from March 2021 to December 2022. The watchdog determined that “there exists a credible allegation of fraud for which an investigation is pending.”

Federal immigration agents visited Gateway’s offices in Lewiston in January as part of a short-lived enforcement crackdown in the state.

MaineCare is the state’s $4.7 billion Medicaid program.

A day before the HHS announcement, Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sought financial information about Gateway. The company has denied the allegations as “false” and warned that “reckless narratives” are harming the thousands of Mainers who rely on Gateway for services.

The office of the inspector general for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a report the following month that found Maine had made more than $45 million in improper Medicaid payments for autism services, a separate matter from the Gateway investigation but one that drew fresh scrutiny of the state’s oversight of MaineCare.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, requested more information on how the state prevents, investigates and screens for fraud, and then denied the state’s request for more time to respond.

Meanwhile, Mr. LePage and other Maine Republicans say it should never have taken so long to launch an investigation into Gateway. They point to audits conducted during Mr. LePage’s administration that found the company had overbilled the MaineCare program by more than $600,000.

The earlier audits reportedly didn’t meet the threshold for suspected fraud, so nothing was frozen or investigated.

Years later, Mr. LePage says the state should have pushed harder. He said he went to Ms. Mills in 2015 with 180 alleged fraud cases, including some tied to Gateway, but she “refused to prosecute.”

“I asked the Legislature to appropriate funds so I could hire lawyers to prosecute the fraud,” he said. “The Democratic Party shut it down.”

Ms. Mills’ office did not respond to a request for comment on Mr. LePage’s claims or on the overall allegations of widespread fraud.

In a written statement on Feb. 9, she said the Trump administration is using allegations of fraud to target his political rivals.

“Maine is facing a political attack from a president who uses allegations of fraud as a pretense to send [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and other weaponized federal agents into states led by Democrats with devastating consequences,” she said. “This is part of President Trump’s malicious playbook of using his administration’s power to punish anyone who dares to stand up to him or who disagrees with him.”

Mr. LePage went as far as to allege, without evidence, that home care companies housed in the same building as his campaign office, blocks away from the Maine State House, should be investigated for fraud.

Asked whether he believes he is literally sitting atop likely fraud, he said, “Damn right.”