Former Governor Who Dared to Invoke “natural born Citizen” Running for Congress

by Sharon Rondeau

(Jun. 9, 2026) — On March 5, 2016, then-Republican primary presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz was declared the winner of the Maine and Kansas caucuses as he competed against then-businessman Donald Trump and others for the party’s nomination.

Approximately a week prior to Cruz’s primary victory there, then-Maine Governor Paul LePage had endorsed Trump because, he said, Trump was a “natural born Citizen” and Cruz was not.

Article II, Section 1, clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution requires that the president and commander-in-chief have been a resident of the country for at least 14 years upon his election, be at least 35 years of age and a “natural born Citizen,” a term the Founders left undefined.

Cruz was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 1970 to a Cuban-citizen father and a presumed U.S.-citizen mother, Eleanor Darragh Cruz. Born in Delaware as a U.S. citizen, Darragh Cruz is rumored to have been granted Canadian citizenship prior to her son’s birth.

Cruz’s father, too, reportedly became a Canadian citizen prior to leaving the family for the United States.

Young Cruz and his mother eventually left Canada for Texas, where he grew up to serve in the state and federal governments prior to successfully being elected to the U.S. Senate.

After filing documents to seek the presidency in 2015, Cruz insisted that despite his birth in another country, he met the requirement of “natural born Citizen” because he was born to one U.S.-citizen parent, a contention echoed in a widely-cited essay by former solicitors general Neal Katyal and Paul Clement published contemporaneously.

Cruz also claimed the 1790 Naturalization Act bestowed “natural born” status on him despite its repeal by Congress five years later.

With the results declared that evening, Trump remarked that Cruz “should do well in Maine because it’s very close to Canada,” a reference to the country in which Cruz was born.

In 2013, The Dallas Morning News discovered that Cruz, born in Alberta on December 22, 1970, was considered a Canadian citizen at his birth and that Cruz was also born with U.S. citizenship.

Later that year, Cruz renounced his Canadian citizenship after denying he possessed it.

In its investigation The Post & Email was unable to obtain a copy of any Consular Record of Birth Abroad (CRBA) from the U.S. State Department, which stated the document, if it exists, is considered “private.”

LePage is running for Congress in Maine’s second district whose primary is Tuesday, as Trump noted in his Truth Social post Monday. However, as a Republican, LePage has no opponent, while four Democrats are vying for the nomination for the fall general midterm election.

Democrat Matt Dunlap, who Trump said will “likely” face Lepage in November, claims the LePages’ legal residence is Florida and not Maine. LePage’s campaign claims the opposite.

The seat is currently held by Democrat Jared Golden, who chose not to seek re-election in 2026. The district is traditionally right-leaning and voted for Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024.

Golden’s name has been mentioned in the event current Maine senatorial candidate Graham Platner’s candidacy should implode due to emerging scandals, though Golden has declined the potential opportunity.

On March 5, 2016 of LePage’s commentary, The Post & Email further reported:

On Howie Carr’s radio show, LePage disclosed that his two daughters were born in Canada, had to be “naturalized” as U.S. citizens, and cannot run for president, according to research he said he has performed.

Born in Lewiston as a native French-speaker from a shocking background of abuse and neglect, LePage began working at the age of 11, living part-time with two families and managing to graduate from high school. He later earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Maine institutions.

LePage went into business management, growing the family-owned Marden‘s into a formidable chain of stores throughout Maine.

Following his business career, LePage successfully ran for the city council and later, to become mayor of Waterville. According to his campaign website, “As a Republican elected and re-elected in an overwhelmingly Democratic town, he became popular across party lines as he reduced taxes repeatedly, improve the City’s credit rating, increase the rainy day savings fund, and maintain strong support for local education – all without cutting services.”

LePage served two terms as Maine’s 74th governor from 2011 to 2019. In 2022, he ran against Democrat Janet Mills and was defeated.

Mills suspended her senatorial campaign, although her name remains on Tuesday’s primary ballot against Platner’s.

According to a November 6 Fox News article, Maine’s second district flipped from “toss-up” to “leans Republican” after Golden announced his retirement.

With a current razor-thin Republican majority in the U.S. House, the seat could determine the chamber’s balance of power in 2027.

“Former Governor Paul LePage will be a tremendous Congressman for the amazing people of Maine’s 2nd Congressional District!” Trump wrote in Monday’s post.
 
“A proven America First Fighter, Paul has been with us from the very beginning, helping us, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! In Congress, he will work hard to Grow our Economy, Strongly Advocate for Maine’s Great Lobstermen, Cut Taxes and Regulations, Promote MADE IN THE U.S.A., Unleash American Energy DOMINANCE, Safeguard our Elections, Keep our Border SECURE, Stop Migrant Crime, Strengthen our Military/Veterans, and Defend our always under siege Second Amendment.
 
“Paul will most likely be running against a Radical Left Democrat named Matt Dunlap, who loves High Taxes, High Interest Rates, Expensive and Unreliable Electricity, Open Borders, and Transgender for Everybody, among other CRAZY ideas, but the good news is that Paul LePage is a WINNER, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement. Election Day is Tuesday, June 9th. GET OUT AND VOTE FOR PAUL — HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!
 
“Find your Voting Location here: swampthevoteusa.com/maine/.”

According to Microsoft‘s AI feature CoPilot on Tuesday morning, a search for “Paul LePage natural born Citizen” yielded the conclusion that “Paul LePage is a natural-born citizen of the United States. He was born in Lewiston, Maine, on October 9, 1948, to parents of French Canadian descent. Under U.S. constitutional law, anyone born on U.S. soil to at least one U.S. citizen parent is considered a natural-born citizen, regardless of the citizenship status of the other parent.”