Former Maine Gov. Paul LePage is back on the political stage, and this time he’s trying to help fellow Republican Demi Kouzounas unseat independent Angus King from his U.S. Senate seat.

Former two-term Republican Gov. Paul LePage speaks at Dysart’s truck stop in Hermon in November 2022. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer, file

LePage will host a fundraiser next week for Kouzounas, a former chair of the Maine Republican Party. He will be joined by former U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, who has also been stumping for former President Donald Trump.

“Angus King is out of touch, out of energy, and out of time,” LePage said in a fundraising email. “Maine deserves a Senator with the energy, enthusiasm, and commitment to represent our values in Washington. Angus King doesn’t have it. Demi Kouzounas does.”

King, who is finishing his second term, doesn’t seem to be sweating his reelection campaign and has been sending fundraising emails for his Senate colleagues facing tougher challenges in presidential battleground states, including Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Bob Casey, D-Pa.

“As has always been the case, Senator King believes in the foundations of our democracy: winning hard-fought elections and making the case to his constituents that he is the right person for the job,” campaign spokesperson Dana Youngentob said in a statement. “Senator King will continue to focus on earning the continued support of Maine people one by one, by focusing on what matters most: working from the center to lower the cost of living, address the affordable housing shortage, and bring good-paying jobs to Maine.”

LePage has largely stayed out of the public eye since losing his bid for a third nonconsecutive term as governor in 2022 against Gov. Janet Mills, who dispatched the former two-term Republican governor by winning 55% of the vote in a three-way race.

LePage, who returned to Florida after losing in 2022, reemerged late last year to lead a fundraising effort for the victims of the mass shooting in Lewiston.

King, who served two terms as governor in the late 1990s and early 2000s, is facing three challengers for his Senate seat this fall.

In addition to Kouzounas, King is being challenged by Democrat David Costello of Brunswick and political newcomer Jason Cherry, a Unity independent who is making the 80-year-old incumbent’s age a centerpiece of his campaign.

Recent polling shows King with a comfortable lead more than two months out from the election.

Sen. Angus King, I-Maine. Joe Gromelski/Special to the Sun Journal, file

A poll released last week by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center showed King with a 10-point lead over Kouzounas, 43% to 33%. The Pine Tree State Poll had King receiving strong support from Democrats (70%) and independents (51%). Costello received 9% and Cherry had 3%.

The poll also pegged King’s approval rating at 45%, compared to 10% for Kouzounas, but 64% of respondents said they didn’t know enough about the Republican challenger to form an opinion.

Last week’s poll didn’t ask whether King’s age was a concern for voters, though challengers have focused on the issue. But a UNH poll in the spring suggested voters were not concerned, with 65% of Maine voters expressing confidence that King is mentally and physically capable of serving another 6-year term.