Maine gubernatorial candidate Bobby Charles holds a news conference in Congress Square Park in Portland on Wednesday. He addressed comments his sister Anita Charles made at a news conference earlier in the day in which she said she did not support his campaign and that she would vote for Hannah Pingree.(Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer)
PORTLAND — The sister of Maine Republican gubernatorial candidate 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 — and then again at a news conference Wednesday — Anita Charles said she cannot support her brother because of his “divisive rhetoric,” attacks on public education 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 in the op-ed. “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 announcement could be damaging to her brother, who is already trailing Pingree in polls and fundraising.
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 Speaker of the U.S. 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.
Charles responded to his sister’s criticisms at a news conference in Congress Square, where he stressed his support for her in light of the sexual assault she experienced. He appeared with his 24-year-old daughter, Sophia Charles, who stood beside her father, resting her hand on his shoulder as he wiped away tears and delivered an emotional statement.
Bobby Charles, hugs his daughter Sophia after a news conference in Congress Square Park in Portland on Wednesday, when he addressed comments made by his sister Anita Charles at a news conference earlier in the day. His sister said that she did not support her brother’s campaign for governor and that she would vote for Hannah Pingree instead. (Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer)
“We disagree on some things, but the big things in life, I would say, we don’t disagree on,” Charles said of his sister. “And no child should have to face the evil of sexual abuse.”
Charles said he worked for Hastert in the late ’90s and knew nothing of the allegations against him at the time. “I think it’s monstrous, and I think people against whom these charges are proven need to go to prison and stay there forever,” he said.
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 said Wednesday that he believes that “late-term abortion, abortion at birth is heinous” but that his sister’s claim that he doesn’t believe in ever allowing abortion in rape cases is wrong.
“In that kind of a situation, it’s so horrifying that, of course, there are exceptions,” Charles said.
Charles 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. He 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.
Anita Charles criticized her brother for the way he talks about schools and vulnerable communities. Describing herself as a lifelong educator, she said she knows how hard teachers work and that her brother’s budget plans would decimate schools.
Anita Charles, sister of Bobby Charles, outlines at a news conference Wednesday the reasons why she won’t support her brother’s campaign. (Gregory Rec/ Staff Photographer.)
“I am a heart surgeon for education, and Bobby wants to come in and play the kids’ (game) Operation with a mini pair of tweezers,” Anita Charles said in remarks to the media in a stark Congress Street office building, just blocks from her brother’s news conference an hour later.
She criticized him for attacking marginalized communities, saying her brother’s rhetoric toward people of different races and gender orientations and from different countries has made members of their own family feel unsafe.
Bobby 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.
Charles said Wednesday that he is a fierce advocate for public education, but pointed out that Maine recently saw a drop in scores on a national standardized test, the NAEP. He said he would never campaign against any extended family members on the basis of their race, gender orientation or other demographics, and believes in treating others with respect.
He said he always believed he was close with his family, but that he and his two other siblings have been somewhat alienated from his sister Anita in recent years. When he first decided to run for governor, Charles said he reached out to his sister and encouraged her to bring him any ideas she had on education and how his campaign could approach the issue.
“I never expected a press conference in order to vilify me,” he said.