Socialist Party of Maine

The Socialist Party of Maine was a multi-tendency socialist political party in the U.S. state of Maine. During its first incarnation in the early 20th century, prominent members included naturalist Norman Wallace Lermond of Warren, artist Charles L. Fox of Portland, and writer George Allan England of Woodstock, each of whom ran for governor as Socialist Party nominees.

At its 1916 convention in Portland, the Socialist Party nominated James F. Carey of Surry for United States Senate, Frank H. Maxfield of Portland for governor, and Melville A. Floyd also of Portland for state auditor. Carey had previously served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1899 to 1903. The party's platform included equal suffrage, public insurance, pensions for mothers and elders, a minimum wage, abolition of the U.S. Senate, equalization of funding for schools, and conservation of water power.^[1] In the September election, Carey finished in third place with 1,520 votes (1%). The party's presidential nominee, Allan L. Benson, received 2,177 votes (1.6%).^[2]

In January 2016, former Green Independent Party candidates Seth Baker and Tom MacMillan announced their intention to break with the Greens and to form a chapter of the Socialist Party.^[3] In August of that year, Socialist Party USA members established a local in Southern Maine. In April 2017, SPUSA established a second local in Maine, this one based in Eastern Maine.^[4] In July 2017, the two locals held a convention in Augusta and formed a statewide party.^[5]

In the 2018 elections, the party nominated Maia Dendinger for Maine Senate in the fifth district. Dendinger drew 1,124 votes, or 7.5%. The winner of the race was incumbent Democrat Jim Dill. As of 2019, the party was no longer listed on the Socialist Party's directory of local organizations and its website had gone inactive.^[6]

In 1956, Darlington Hoopes ran as the final nominee of the Socialist Party of America but was not on the Maine ballot. In 1976, following a split in the Socialist Party, Socialist Party USA began running independent candidates with the Socialist Party label. However, no SPUSA presidential nominee appeared on the ballot in Maine between 1976 and 2016.

• Lermond, Norman W., and Scott M. Martin. Autobiography of Norman Wallace Lermond, Maine's Naturalist-Socialist. Humboldt Field Research Institute, Steuben, Me, 2004.
• Scontras, Charles A., and University of Maine. Bureau of Labor Education. The Socialist Alternative: Utopian Experiments and the Socialist Party of Maine, 1895-1914. The Bureau of Labor Education, University of Maine, Orono, Me, 1985.
• Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University of Maine. Wight (Clement P.) Socialist Party of Maine Papers, 1896–1915. DigitalCommons@UMaine, 2015.

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