Portland Press Herald · Rachel Ohm · September 9, 2026
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The sister of Republican candidate for Maine governor Bobby Charles said Wednesday that she will vote for Democrat Hannah Pingree in the November election.
In a strikingly personal op-ed in the Portland Press Herald, Anita Charles said she cannot support her brother because of his "divisive rhetoric" and stance on abortion.
"Maine deserves leadership rooted in empathy, dignity, intellectual honesty and respect for every person who calls this state home," Anita Charles wrote. "That person is not Bobby."
Anita Charles' endorsement of Pingree, a former speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, comes less than two months before Election Day. The op-ed could be damaging to her brother, who is already trailing Pingree in polls and fundraising.
The Press Herald sought comment from the Charles campaign after Anita Charles' op-ed published Wednesday morning, but did not immediately hear back. This story will be updated with his comment when it is available.
In one eye-popping section of her op-ed, Anita Charles, who lives in Lewiston, claimed that her brother was a close friend of former U.S. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, who was convicted in 2015 of financial crimes related to a cover-up of the sexual abuse of teenage boys.
"Bobby has never publicly renounced that association," Anita Charles wrote.
She said her own childhood was marked by sexual violence; someone known to their family repeatedly assaulted her, she said.
"Under the anti-choice positions Bobby holds today, even in cases of rape, I would not have been able to make a decision about my own body should that have become necessary," she wrote.
The Republican candidate told News Center Maine in March that he believes abortion is "abhorrent" and that he opposes a 2023 law signed by Gov. Janet Mills permitting women to get an abortion later in pregnancy when deemed medically necessary.
He is a political newcomer who grew up in Maine and built his career in Washington, D.C., where he worked as an official in the federal government and started a lobbying and consulting business, The Charles Group. Charles was one of the first Republicans to get into the governor's race last year, and he ran an aggressive social media campaign on issues including immigration and crime that propelled him to victory in the June primary.
In her op-ed, Anita Charles criticized her brother for the way he talks about schools and vulnerable communities. Describing herself as a lifelong educator, she said Maine teachers work hard, while her brother "speaks with false certainty about what is wrong with our schools."
Charles has campaigned on a pledge to "end the nonsense in schools." At a March debate, he called for restructuring the Maine Department of Education. "It's not about just changing out the commissioner," he said. "It's about wire brushing that place of all the ideology."
He has also drawn criticism from Maine Democrats for his hawkish stance on immigration.
This is a developing story.