History
The Democratic Party has history dating back to the 1800s. A prominent figure that came out of the Democratic Party of Maine was Edmund S. Muskie. Maine entered the Union in 1820 as a Anti-Federalist State.
Soon after, in 1834, the Anti-Federalists adopted the Democratic Party name.
The Democrats had limited success for nearly a hundred years, in in part due to slavery. The Northeast was predominantly anti-slavery whereas the South was pro-slavery. When the Whig party split in 1856, it formed the Republican Party, which dominated the state of Maine due to its anti-slavery stance.
Maine was predominantly Republican until 1954.
In 1954, in a gubernatorial election, the Democratic legislator Edmund S. Muskie became governor, ending Maine's one-party rule. He won the state over in part due to his stance on economic growth through industrial development, accessible politics on television and being acceptable to diverse population growth. Between 1954 and 1974, the number of registered Democrats more than doubled from 99,000 to 212,000.
In more recent years, Maine has been roughly evenly split between Democrats, Republicans, and independents. For instance in 1990, independent registered voters constituted 37% of the electorate, Democrats 33%, and Republicans 30%. This is a great contrast to the first hundred years of Maine politics.
Read more about this topic: Maine Democratic Party
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