Voters in Maine will recognize the surnames of some of the candidates running to replace term-limited Gov. Janet Mills next year: Pingree, King and Bush.
Those are last names long associated with politics, but there’s a twist. These aren’t the candidates most people may think of. They are those candidates’ relatives.
Former Maine House Speaker Hannah Pingree, Angus King III and Jonathan Bush — the daughter of Rep. Chellie Pingree, son of Sen. Angus King, and cousin of former President George W. Bush, respectively — have all launched gubernatorial campaigns, promising to be new voices for their respective parties.
The political bug can bite several members of one family, regardless of party or office. It can jump across states and sometimes skip a generation. But political dynasties have long been a part of the American political tradition.
And the eponymous pols love to see it.
“She has a lot of experience and is very hard working, and is a true public servant in her own right, really very separate from her mother,” Rep. Chellie Pingree told NOTUS of her daughter, who served in the state legislature from 2002 to 2010.
“I think people are going to be looking for who’s able to fight back, who has the experience to deal with some of these very complicated issues, like cuts to Medicaid, cuts to SNAP, just overall budgeting challenges,” the lawmaker continued. “And that’s one place where I think Hannah has a lot of experience as a legislator.”
Surely with little bias, Sen. Angus King supported his son entering the Maine governor’s race.
“He’s a wonderful guy. He’s a native born Mainer. He knows the issues. I think he has great management experience, and he’d be an excellent governor,” the senator told NOTUS.
Next door in New Hampshire, Stefany Shaheen, the daughter of retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, is running for Congress. In Indiana, Beau Bayh, son of former Gov. and Sen. Evan Bayh, is running for secretary of state. And somewhere on Capitol Hill is Arizona Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, waiting for Republicans to swear her into the House, where she is set to replace her late father, Rep. Raúl Grijalva.
Why does the new class of candidates look so much like the old guard?
“It just seems like a very random coincidence,” Rep. Chellie Pingree said. “We’re closer to retirement, and so our children are people who have had time to have experience, and so, sort of, it’s timing.”
Cassandra Good, a professor at Marymount University, said there are multiple factors in play when it comes to politicians’ children entering the playing field.
“Part of it is just the fact that they have the name recognition, but the other part of it is the sort of socialization and social capital they have from having grown up around people in political power, and so they’re just more familiar with it,” Good said. “I think it’s a sort of natural thing that when somebody grows up surrounded by a particular field, they’re more likely to go into it.”
It’s not always successful. Consider, for example, Massachusetts’ 2020 Senate primary, when Sen. Ed Markey successfully defended his seat against former Rep. Joe Kennedy III. Markey reinvented himself to appeal to younger voters, whereas Kennedy was tied to the legacy of his bloodline. According to the Cook Political Report, this was the first time a Kennedy had ever lost a race in Massachusetts.
Back in Maine’s gubernatorial race, Bush and King III are newcomers to politics. Neither of their campaigns responded to requests for comment, but at least one candidate credited her upbringing for helping bring her into politics, and took pains to carve out her own reputation.
“I feel like, in many ways, I’ve grown up in politics with my mom, watching her elections,” Hannah Pingree told NOTUS, adding that this upcoming election will be the third time she appears on the ballot with her mom. “I feel like, in many ways, we’ve done this together.”
The former state legislator said voters don’t think of her as the same as her mom.
“They see me as a very different politician. I’ve been involved in public service for the last 24 years, and so in many ways, I’m entirely running on my own record,” she told NOTUS. “I think some people are familiar with my mom and know her well, and lots of people know me in my own right.”