Former Gov. Paul LePage during a 2022 gubernatorial debate. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald

After losing a 2022 bid to return to the Blaine House, former Gov. Paul LePage moved out of Maine and returned to a home he owns in Florida.

In March 2023, LePage registered to vote as a Republican in Flagler County and remains on the rolls there.

But the Bangor Daily News reports that despite having his home in Ormond Beach, which his wife purchased in 2018, LePage is eyeing the possibility of running for a U.S. House seat in Maine’s conservative-leaning 2nd District.

The Bangor paper reported that “three Republicans who spoke on conditions of anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue said they have heard from those in the former governor’s inner circle that he is seriously considering a run” for the seat held by Democrat Jared Golden, whose own 2026 campaign plans are uncertain.

The 76-year-old LePage, who could not be reached for comment, would be among the oldest first-time members of the House should he both opt to run and emerge victorious. An Illinois congressman elected in 1952 for the first time was slightly older than LePage would be.

LePage served as governor 2011-19, when he had to give up the office because of term limits. His bid to regain the position in 2022 fell well short as incumbent Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, easily defeated him.

During the interim between his time as governor in 2019 and his return to Maine to face Mills in 2022, LePage also moved to Florida, where he voted in the 2020 presidential race.

In 2017, when LePage flirted with a U.S. Senate bid, he admitted during a radio interview that “he wouldn’t make a very good legislator” and expressed concern that the many committee meetings that members of Congress must attend would be too boring for him.

Nobody has yet filed to run in the 2026 congressional race in the 2nd District, but it is widely anticipated that Republican Austin Theriault of Fort Kent will seek a rematch. He lost to Golden by a narrow margin last year.

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The Democratic consensus on allowing males to compete in women’s sports is starting to crack. In November, Massachusetts Representative Seth Moulton broke ranks, telling journalists his party was “out of touch” on the issue. Last week, California governor Gavin Newsom told conservative activist Charlie Kirk that male participation in female sports is “deeply unfair.”

Newsom is simply bowing to political reality. Take the case of Payton McNabb, who was left with a traumatic brain injury after a male volleyball player spiked a ball at her head. Or the female swimmers exposed to male genitalia in their changing facilities. Or the many high school girls who have experienced heartbreak and frustration, training for months only to have scholarships, opportunities, and trophies stolen by members of the opposite sex.

Almost 80 percent of Americans, and 67 percent of Democrat voters, disagree with allowing males in female sports. That leaves Democrats with two choices—jump ship or double down. In my home state of Maine, Democrats are choosing the latter.

For the past four years, as a representative of Maine House District 90, I have fought for the rights of women and girls. But last month, Democrats in my state prohibited me from speaking and voting in the chamber, trampling on my constituents’ rights to representation. And all because I dared to say that boys shouldn’t play on the girls’ team.