The 2026 gubernatorial election is 16 months away, yet Republican hopeful Bobby Charles has already managed to break through the mostly routine campaign rollouts by the rest of the ever-growing field of candidates.

He’s done it by repeatedly questioning the national allegiances of one of the Maine Legislature’s three Somali-born lawmakers.

In doing so, Charles has brought condemnation from most of the Democratic candidates, rallied some right-wing activists and the Maine Republican Party to his cause and received a tacit blessing from the federal agency that’s directing the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.

It’s also the latest example of how the conservative media ecosystem is driving the messaging and actions of Republican politicians and, in this case, the rhetoric of

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