The Press Herald recently [spoke separately with Dunlap and LePage](https://www.pressherald.com/2026/07/29/we-asked-paul-lepage-and-matt-dunlap-about-iran-trump-and-healthcare-heres-what-they-said/) for Q&As featuring two of the same questions and two unique questions for each candidate. Dunlap answered his questions over the phone, while LePage campaign adviser Brent Littlefield said LePage asked him to respond to questions on his behalf via a text message.

LePage did not respond to a question about whether he supports Trump’s actions to date with [the Iran war](https://www.reuters.com/world/iran/). Dunlap has already criticized Trump’s Iran actions for months, calling it “an illegal war.”

Here's an excerpt:

**The Press Herald: For both of you, would you support efforts to expand access to Medicaid or support efforts to limit Medicaid enrollment if in Congress? Feel free to get into greater detail.**

**Dunlap:** I can’t imagine actually reducing the Medicaid footprint, just because so many people depend on it. When LePage was governor, of course, he [withheld voter-approved funds](https://www.pressherald.com/2017/11/08/lepage-says-he-wont-expand-medicaid-in-maine-unless-legislature-funds-it/) for Medicaid expansion, and referred to things like Medicaid and Social Security as just welfare programs that should be eliminated. I think really we should go be going the other direction. We should be finding some form of universal healthcare. One of the things that’s been described along that line is like a Medicare for All solution. And I think what’s the attraction there is that it’s a structure we already have in place.

I think with the money that we’re putting into Medicaid, if you had a universal healthcare system, all of those resources could be redirected that way. But you know, the number one question that comes up is how do you pay for it? And the reality is we already pay for it in a lot of different ways. Either you pay for it through your Medicaid-Medicare assessment or your income taxes or you just pay for it.

You’ve got to pay for health insurance, so I think we should really be driving hard at that issue to try to find some relief for people so they don’t have to worry about a slip and fall on the ice sending them into bankruptcy, or being able to afford prescription medications.

**Littlefield, on behalf of LePage:** Paul LePage has a proven record of protecting access to healthcare by [paying off a massive hospital debt](https://www.pressherald.com/2013/06/14/lepage-signs-maine-hospital-debt-payment-plan/) left behind by others, which threatened health services at hospitals throughout Maine. In Congress, he will continue to protect healthcare access with an eye toward the reimbursement rates paid to healthcare providers to keep them solvent and open in the state of Maine. You can’t access healthcare if a hospital is closed or there is no doctor to see you in your area.

[Read the rest on the Press Herald.](https://www.pressherald.com/2026/07/29/we-asked-paul-lepage-and-matt-dunlap-about-iran-trump-and-healthcare-heres-what-they-said/)

We asked Paul LePage and Matt Dunlap about Iran, Trump and healthcare. Here’s what they said.