Maine Voters Pessimistic About State’s Direction: Poll

The Portland-based Digital Research Inc. (DRI) has published its semiannual Critical Insights Poll, which asks Mainers a variety of questions on important political issues and candidates, and their view of the country and state’s directions.

[RELATED: Polling Breaks Down Voter Views on Key Social Issues, Including Transgender Ideology, Going Into 2024 Election: Pew Research…]

Every Spring and Fall for the past 25 years, the Critical Insights Poll has asked registered voters their views on key issues, this year using a relatively small sample size of 609 respondents in early April.

While asking people’s views on their home state, DRI discovered that a mere 22 percent of Mainers believe the state is going in the right direction.

This number represents a slight change from the 23 percent recorded in Fall 2023.

42 percent said that Maine is moving in the wrong direction, while the rest were unsure.

While 73 percent of Republican respondents said that the state is on the wrong track, only 19 percent of Democrats agreed with them.

Since 2009, no more than 43 percent of respondents have supported the direction of the state.

Interestingly, the 43 percent approval for the state’s direction came in Fall, 2020, while the state was facing COVID restrictions, including lockdowns, mask mandates, and social distancing.

Approval ratings for the national direction were even worse, with only 11 percent of respondents believing the country is on the right track, and 55 percent taking a pessimistic view of the country.

The poll also revealed the top priorities of Maine voters, showing that Mainers are primarily concerned with economic issues, with contentious topics like climate change, immigration, and gun violence taking a backseat.

The top three of the eleven listed issues all focused on the economy.

Respondents were not given a multiple choice option, instead they were asked without prompts what they believe the most pressing issue facing Maine is.

Maine’s skyrocketing housing costs emerged as the top issue for voters, with 15 percent agreeing that housing is the most important issue facing the state.

In a close second, 14 percent said that the economy in general is the most pressing problem in the state, while 11 percent cited the cost of living as the top issue.

The top non-economic issue was homelessness, which has harmed the quality of life for everyday Mainers across the state, particularly in Democrat-controlled cities such as Portland.

[RELATED: Out of State Homeless People are Clogging Portland’s Shelters]

Nine percent of responders saw homelessness as the most pressing issue facing the state.

While Mainers were concerned about the state’s declining economy, and the homeless people making the streets more dangerous, Maine’s Democrat-controlled legislature was focusing on gun control, “green” energy projects, and abortion.

In the aftermath of the Oct. 25 Lewiston shooting, much of Maine’s most recent legislative session was spent pushing to drastically expand gun-control, despite only four percent of voters citing gun violence as the state’s top issue.

As Maine voters struggle with economic stresses and the legislators elected to represent them focus on other issues, very few have any hope of the economy improving in the next year.

Only 17 percent believed the economy would improve in the next year, while 41 percent believed that it will continue to decline.

As was the case when DRI asked about the national trajectory, the responses from Fall 2023 were drastically different from the Spring survey.

In late 2023, 13 percent thought the economy would improve, while 54 thought that it would get worse.

DRI went on to ask Mainers about their views on immigration, which has emerged as a top issue nationally in the 2024 presidential elections.

In total, 42 percent of voters said that immigration is a very important issue, while only 9 percent believe that immigration is entirely unimportant.

Interestingly, DRI found that older voters, over the age of 45, were far more likely than younger voters to believe that immigration is very important.

In a similar result, 47 percent of voters said too many immigrants were entering the country, while 9 percent said that too few immigrants were entering the U.S.

Although gun control was the top priority for few Mainers, the poll found that 46 percent of Mainers believe that gun laws should be more strict.

The poll also found that 40 percent of voters strongly oppose electric vehicle requirements that Gov. Janet Mills (D-Maine) and other Democrats championed recently, but which ultimately failed.

[RELATED: Maine BEP Rejects Controversial EV Mandate…]

A significant number of voters, 19 percent, strongly supported electric vehicle rules, although nearly as many Democrats strongly opposed the rule–26 percent–as those who strongly supported in–27 percent.

After asking voters about key issues, DRI moved on to ask voter views on political figures.

Gov. Mills received a 46 percent approval rating, which is unchanged since the Fall 2023 survey, but which is a significant drop from her 55 percent approval from the Spring 2023 results.

The state legislature as a whole held a 32 percent approval rating overall, with 57 percent of Republicans disapproving of their performance.

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) had a significantly higher approval rating than Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), coming in at 49 percent approval compared to Collins’ 33 percent rating.

Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) emerged with 41 percent approval, and Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), who is up for re-election in the state’s Republican leaning Second Congressional District, holds a 36 percent approval rating.

Using a ranked choice voting system, DRI found that former President Donald Trump may be narrowly beaten out by President Joe Biden, but it found that President Trump came out ahead by a single percentage point in first choice votes.