Maine
A newspaper ad promoted a white supremacist book burning in Maine
A white supremacist has taken out an advertisement in a small northern Maine newspaper promoting a book-burning event later this year — a public display that reflected a growing comfort that hate groups have felt in promoting their messages in Maine and elsewhere in recent years.
While racist groups have long used keyboard activism to spread their messages online, where it’s easy to remain anonymous, they’re now using various tactics to spend more time in the public eye.
That has included harassing local officials, testifying on state and local policy changes, disrupting public meetings and distributing signs and other promotional materials. Those activities have coincided with a nationwide jump in reports of anti-semitic and anti-immigrant behavior in recent years, according to experts who track those incidents.
The New England White Network, led by New Hampshire activist Ryan Murdough, was behind the recent advertisement in the Aroostook County newspaper, along with some other recent public demonstrations across Maine.
“June Book Burning,” said the ad, which ran in a March issue of the Fort Fairfield Journal. “During pride month, New England White Network is going to party like it’s 1933.”
It included multiple allusions to Nazi history. Although the month was off, it referenced an episode from May 1933 in which the National Socialist German Students’ Association burned more than 25,000 volumes of what it deemed anti-Nazi books. The ad also featured a logo for the New England White Network that resembled the Iron Cross, a famous German military medal.
“The ad was an opportunity to post something pretty extreme and draw attention,” said Christopher Magyarics, a senior investigative researcher for the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism who has tracked Murdough’s activities.
Magyarics pointed to other recent cases in which Murdough’s group has tried to put its views into wider circulation. Last year, his group began posting messages on community bulletin boards, along hiking trails and on magazine racks around Maine, Magyarics said. Its materials have generally taken aim at Jewish-owned businesses and public officials it views as anti-white, including Maine Gov. Janet Mills.
In one case from January 2024, Murdough sent a letter to Mohammed Albehadli, who was then the coordinator for diversity, equity and inclusion in the South Portland schools. The letter pushed Albehadli to quit his job and move his family out of the state, according to the Press Herald.
The district’s superintendent called the email “the most vile” message he had seen during 35 years in education, and Albehadli told the newspaper that the “message raised safety concerns for my family and I … We could not feel safe again after receiving it.”
In March, the New England White Network provided testimony against Maine legislation that would recognize certain Muslim celebrations as state holidays.
“As White Nationalists, it’s our job to stand up for White people and hold elected leaders’ feet to the fire when they implicitly express solutions for our people,” said Jay Gonzalez, director of the group’s Maine chapter, in written testimony. “It’s also our duty to publicize our grievances and force them into the mainstream.”
In recent years, there has been a broader increase in reports of hateful acts across the nation.
The Anti-Defamation League found there was a 200 percent increase in reports of anti-semitic incidents from October 2023 to September 2024 — in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel — compared with a year earlier. The number of incidents topped 10,000.
Immigrants and refugees also faced more harassment during that time, especially after a viral disinformation campaign last fall about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, which was embraced by President Donald Trump, according to ADL.
Jeff Tischauser, a senior researcher at the Southern Poverty Law Center, attributed some of the uptick to Trump, who in his new administration has attacked diversity initiatives and pardoned Jan. 6 insurrectionists, including those linked to racist groups such the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.
“There is a sense that the Trump administration and the FBI under Kash Patel is not going to take violence against the left as seriously as previous administrations,” Tischauser said.
While hate groups have long shared their views online, they have also been happy to trumpet examples of their message getting a wider audience.
Last fall, Christopher Pohlhaus, a former Maine resident who founded the notorious Blood Tribe neo-Nazi group, claimed credit for stoking the online rumors about Springfield, Ohio.
Magyarics noted that Murdough ran as a white supremacist in 2010 for the New Hampshire State House.
In response to questions from the Bangor Daily News, Murdough said that the New England White Network has multiple chapters that are promoting their causes in venues such as town council and school board meetings.
He noted that the only people allowed to attend the upcoming book burning in Maine will be vetted members of the network.
But that isn’t stopping Murdough from using the event to promote his group. After the ad recently ran in the Fort Fairfield Journal, he shared photos of it online and declared the Aroostook County publication “the most pro-White newspaper” in the nation.
The paper’s editor and publisher, David Deschesne, said in an email response to the BDN that his newspaper is not pro-white, but rather that he accepted the ad from Murdough in the interest of allowing free speech.
“I am just the middleman providing information — albeit information about an ideology I do not agree with — which is a position all newspapers/news organizations should be doing,” he said. “One cannot provide that service by arbitrarily gatekeeping and deciding whose speech should be protected and whose speech shouldn’t be.”
The letter’s publication caused an outcry among some local readers. Deschesne pointed to a letter he received from a Mapleton woman that was published in the April 2 issue.
In the letter, Nicole Gamblin questioned why the paper accepted an ad for such “a heinous and horrific event.”
“By choosing to take a buck and post this, you are promoting hate and violence,” Gamblin wrote. “We have too much of this in our world right now. We must do better.”
When BDN shines a light, policymakers act. Make a gift to help our reporters keep Maine’s leaders informed. Make a donation now.
This story will be updated.
The Maine Department of Transportation is moving to slash up to $400 million in projects from its agenda, a shocking and abrupt cutback that is rattling the state’s construction industry at the start of building season.
Roughly $50 million across six pavement projects have already been delayed, according to a memo exclusively obtained by the Bangor Daily News. The agency plans to cut or delay another $150 million in bridge, highway, intersection and multimodal projects later this month. A further $200 million or more in cuts are planned in the next three-year work plan.
Those figures were outlined by Transportation Commissioner Dale Doughty in the May 18 memo to Gov. Janet Mills that has since circulated widely in the transportation sector, which has been getting drip-by-drip details on the wide scope of the cuts over the past three weeks.
It comes at the beginning of the state’s relatively narrow construction season. Companies have hired workers and ordered materials for projects they expected to begin this summer. The severity of the transportation budget problems was not raised to lawmakers during the 2026 legislative session.
Kelly Flagg, executive director of the Associated General Contractors of Maine, called the shortfall “deeply troubling” in a statement.
“We stand ready to work with policymakers, stakeholders, and industry partners to identify both immediate and long-term solutions,” Flagg said. “Maine cannot afford to fall further behind.”
Insiders saw this first.
This story was broken in Maine Politics Insider, the BDN’s daily premium newsletter for the most ardent political news followers. If you are a new BDN subscriber, you can sign up here. Current subscribers can contact our customer service team to upgrade.
The cuts stem from a structural funding gap of at least $130 million in the state’s current work plan, according to Doughty’s memo. Losses are magnified because state money from the gas tax and other revenue sources is matched by federal funds. Lawmakers have long grappled with politically difficult long-term problems with the state’s transportation budget.
A Mills spokesperson said Wednesday morning that the administration was working on a response to questions from the BDN. The department says it needs roughly $240 million more in state capital funding annually to maintain the existing system, and that anything less than $200 million will erode it over time.
Doughty’s memo the only near-term solution is a series of bonds beginning as soon as possible. Lawmakers would have to return to Augusta to authorize that if one is going to appear on the November ballot.
The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set news policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com
Michael Capeci is the former chairman of the Bangor GOP.
Let’s be honest about Maine’s current state.
For many families, the cost of living has become unsustainable. Housing is out of reach for many young people. Energy bills keep rising. Many small businesses are struggling under taxes and regulations that make it harder to grow. Rural hospitals are under strain and despite years of increased state spending, the results are not showing up in people’s daily lives.
Concurrently, Maine continues to lose young workers to other states. That is not a statistic, it is a warning sign.
To me, the question in this Republican primary for governor is not about slogans. It is whether we continue with a political approach that has failed to reverse these trends, or whether we nominate someone with new ideas. I think that someone is Owen McCarthy.
Owen is not a political insider. He is an entrepreneur from Patten, a small town where opportunity is not assumed, it is built. He grew up in a working-class family, became the first in his family to graduate from college graduating from the University of Maine, and founded MedRhythms, a healthcare technology company focused on neurological treatment.
He didn’t just talk about opportunity. He built it. That distinction matters, because Maine’s problem is not a lack of debate it is a lack of results. We have seen the trajectory: higher costs, slower growth, and a steady outmigration of young workers. I believe Owen McCarthy represents a break from that pattern.
His Maine 2040 plan focuses on creating 50,000 new jobs in sectors where Maine has real advantages — maritime and defense, advanced forest products, and life sciences. These are export-driven industries tied directly to Maine’s workforce, geography, and institutions. What sets Owen apart is not only what he proposes, but how he approaches governing.
He prioritizes modernizing permitting so projects do not stall. He supports using technology to reduce costs and increase efficiency. He focuses on making it easier to build, hire, and expand in Maine.
That same practical mindset extends to healthcare. Expanding telehealth, strengthening EMS systems, improving provider flexibility, and shifting toward earlier intervention are not abstract reforms. They are system upgrades designed to improve access while controlling costs.
Maine voters consistently respond to competence. They reward candidates who understand problems and present plans to solve them. I believe they are tired of rhetoric that does not translate into results, and skeptical of politics that prioritizes messaging over execution.
Owen’s approach is grounded in solving the issues that shape daily life — affordability, healthcare access, job creation, and government efficiency. That is not just policy positioning. It is a governing model that speaks directly to voters.
Some will point to his lack of political experience. But I believe Maine’s core problems are not the result of insufficient political experience; they are the result of policies that have failed to deliver measurable improvement. Experience inside a broken system, by itself, is not a solution.
If Republicans want to win, this primary must be taken seriously. From my perspective, it is not about choosing a nominee for governor who can energize the base. It is about selecting someone who can compete in a broader electorate that is frustrated and looking for change.
That requires a candidate who can speak beyond the base, not by abandoning principles, but by demonstrating competence and a credible plan to address Maine’s challenges. I believe Owen McCarthy offers that combination. He represents a shift away from managed decline and toward economic execution.
This is not just another primary. It is a decision about whether Republicans position themselves to win Maine or whether they remain trapped in a cycle of repeating the same strategies and expecting different outcomes.
If Republicans want to compete for Maine’s future, they cannot afford to nominate a candidate who only motivates part of the electorate. They need someone who expands it.
I believe Owen McCarthy is that candidate.
And if the goal is to win Maine, then the choice should be unmistakable
The only notable change in the top-seven of the Varsity Maine baseball poll is that Gorham now has eight first-place votes, two more than last week. The order of the seven teams is identical. In fact, the only change in the top-seven over the past three polls is the swap at the top after Gorham’s win over South Portland on May 19.
Furthermore, Gorham, South Portland, Oxford Hills, Cheverus, Bangor, Mt. Ararat and Fryeburg have been ranked in the top seven for four straight weeks, and six of those squads have been among the top seven in every poll this spring.
Meanwhile, Scarborough is ranked for the first time since May 5, and Ellsworth and Thornton swapped spots.
The Varsity Maine baseball poll is based on games played before June 2, 2026. The top 10 teams are voted on by the Varsity Maine staff, with first-place votes in parentheses, followed by total points.
1. Gorham (8) 89
2. South Portland 79
3. Oxford Hills (1) 75
4. Cheverus 55
5. Bangor 42
6. Mt. Ararat 41
7. Fryeburg Academy 30
8. Ellsworth 27
9. Thornton Academy 25
10. Scarborough 12
Also receiving votes: Washington Academy 8, Monmouth Academy 4, Cony 4, Leavitt 2, Falmouth 2.
-
Finance4 minutes agoHouston budget amendment would give financial assistance to help those impacted by a trash fee
-
Fitness11 minutes agoHow Jeremy Clarkson Reset His Health and Fitness at 66 – Walking, Pilates and Trying ‘Not to Die’
-
Movie Reviews19 minutes ago
Movie Review: Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas hit the right notes in ‘Power Ballad’
-
World24 minutes agoTrump Says Iran Has Agreed to Not Have a Nuclear Weapon
-
News34 minutes agoHow Each House Member Voted on the Iran War Powers Resolution
-
Lifestyle1 hour agoFirings at CBS’ ’60 Minutes’ reflect the fight for media control in the age of Trump
-
Technology1 hour agoMicrosoft Is Pulling the Plug on Publisher This Fall. These 8 Alternatives Prove You Don't Need It
-
World1 hour agoTrump expands Cuba sanctions beyond US companies in major crackdown on foreign enablers
