“Snow Bird” LePage Establishes Temporary Residency in Maine to Run for Congress

CD2 candidate Matt Dunlap speaks at the press conference on Wednesday.

When Paul LePage finished his final term as Maine Governor in 2018, he left a very bitter man. On the eve of the election, he pledged to give up politics and move to Florida if Democrat Janet Mills won. He said he was moving down there “for tax reasons,” falsely claiming that his property taxes were lower in Florida than in Maine. And after his handpicked successor Shawn Moody lost to Mills by five points, he made good on his promise.

“I still have to pay taxes in Maine for this year,” he told Fox News. “And I’m going to join a former governor [Ken Curtis] who brought the income tax to Maine, who retired to Florida — I’m going to retire with him.”

Labor-endorsed congressional candidate Matt Dunlap has repeatedly needled the former governor as a carpet bagger from Florida who only returns to Maine when he wants to run for political office. LePage was previously registered to vote in Florida and only recently got a Maine driver’s license. He sold his homes in Maine years ago and currently lists his address at an apartment in the same building as a barber shop, an Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and a collision repair shop in Augusta. At a debate last week, LePage boasted that he had lived in Maine longer than his opponent has been alive.

“I've lived in Maine my whole life,” he blustered.

“Except for the time that you spent in Florida,” Dunlap replied.

That’s when LePage lost his temper. “In the winters, yes. I've never been, I, let me clear this with the Maine people,” he said. “Yes, I'm a snowbird. At my age, I don't like snow anymore. I don't ski anymore. I've got knee problems, so I don't ski. And I don't play hockey anymore. So yes, in the winter months, we go to Florida. I have never been in Florida a whole year.”

LePage has faced multiple controversies over his residency since he first ran for Governor in 2-10. At one point he stormed out of a press conference Maine Public reporter Ajay Higgins asked why his wife Ann LePage claimed a homestead property tax exemption on a home in Ormond Beach, Florida while also receiving a homestead exemption on their home in Florida. He later told Maine Public host Jennifer Rooks said he wanted to punch Higgins. Florida officials initially fined Ann LePage for claiming two exemptions, but she got it rescinded using a provision in the law that allowed her to claim a dual exemption if a legal dependent, in this case her ailing mother, lived in the Florida home.

The LePage’s daughter Lauren LePage also qualified for in-state tuition to a Florida college while living with her parents. Following graduation, her father hired her for entry-level assistant position at $41,000 with full benefits, which was about $11,000 more than the average entry wage for a teacher and $5,000 more for a Maine State Trooper at the time. She also received free room and board at the Blaine House. In 2022, LePage returned to Maine again to run for Governor while continuing to benefit from the Florida homestead exemption, which is meant for permanent residents only.

These days, when LePage isn’t in Maine, LePage lives in a four-bedroom, 4,000 square-foot home with a heated pool in a gated community near Daytona Beach. In June, Dunlap released records showing that Ann LePage continued to claim a $50,000 homestead property tax exemption on a Flagler County, Florida property from 2018 to 2025.

“Maine voters are entitled to a representative whose feet are actually on the ground here, whose property taxes paid for our schools, our roads, our first responders,” Dunlap said at the time. “Whose home, actual home, the place where he goes when the cameras are off, is in the state he’s asking to represent.”

Dunlap added, “He wants out of state tax breaks, he wants the gated community and the heated pool and the golf course. And then he wants Mainers to send him to Congress to represent us while he’s been telling the state of Florida in writing, every year for eight years, that he lives somewhere else.”

The debate over LePage’s residency was reignited following a heated debate between the two candidates over the cost of gas and heating fuel last week. Dunlap supports fully funding the LIHEAP program to help Mainers pay for heating fuel, which is at nearly $6 a gallon. He also supports passing a War Powers Resolution through Congress to end the war in Iran, which is driving up the cost of oil due to Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz. LePage said he wants the war to end, but he does not support voting to end it, stating that the “regime has to change.” Although LePage clarified that he doesn’t support “boots on the ground” in Iran, Dunlap pointed out that regime change would require a massive ground invasion, which would very deadly and costly.

But of course, LePage doesn’t have to worry about paying to heat his home this winter. He can just return to his four bedroom gated community with his heated pool and golf course when the election is over.