Leslie Gibson Drops Out of State House Race

Authored by mainepublic.org and submitted by VanGoghWV

Republican Maine State House candidate Leslie Gibson has announced that he is dropping out of the race for the Maine House District 57 seat, representing Greene and Sabattus.

Gibson came under fire for his Twitter remarks about two students who survived the February 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. He wrote that one of the Parkland students was a "skinhead lesbian," the other a "bald-faced liar." Gibson later apologized to one of the students.

Gibson said he made the decision after meeting with friends, family and colleagues, saying that his dropping out is “the best thing for everybody.” He also said that “I am not walking away with my head hung low. I am walking away with my head held high.”

Gibson had been running unopposed for the seat, but this week Democrat Eryn Gilchrist, from Greene, and Republican Thomas Martin Jr., from Benton, both entered the race. Both candidates cited Gibson's remarks as motivation for running.

peniszipper on March 16th, 2018 at 23:55 UTC »

imagine being a grown man who got so upset at a teenager that it cost you a job

it's pretty crazy--and good

mutatron on March 16th, 2018 at 22:53 UTC »

Gibson said he made the decision after meeting with friends, family and colleagues, saying that his dropping out is “the best thing for everybody.” He also said that “I am not walking away with my head hung low. I am walking away with my head held high.”

Really? Why would you hold your head high when you embarrassed yourself and others to such an extent that friends, family, and colleagues agreed you should drop out?

espfusion on March 16th, 2018 at 22:52 UTC »

While it seems pretty inevitable that he was going to lose his primary it's hard to say for sure, seeing as how Maine Republican primary voters are the people who kept voting for LePage.

Now that he's out it'll stunt Gilchrist's contributions, although she already collected quite a lot for a state House race and there's no way her competitor will be able to match it.

This district voted Trump 61.2%, Clinton 31.6%, so it's going to be a really hard seat to flip now that it won't be against Gibson. But they're fairly small districts so who knows.