[7] At age eleven, after his father beat him and broke his nose, he ran away from home and lived on the streets of Lewiston, where he at times stayed in horse stables and at a "strip joint".

[6][8] After spending roughly two years homeless, he began to earn a living shining shoes, washing dishes at a café, and hauling boxes for a truck driver.

[10] LePage applied to Husson College in Bangor, but was rejected due to a poor verbal score on the SAT because English was his second language.

"[26] In the general election, LePage was backed by local Tea Party activists and faced Democratic state senator Libby Mitchell, and three independents – Eliot Cutler, Shawn Moody, and Kevin Scott.

In his victory speech, LePage promised he would shrink government, lower taxes, decrease business regulation, and put "Maine people ahead of politics".

[32] He later backed off the reference to entering a congressional run, but stated that he would have a family meeting to discuss the possibility of him not seeking re-election, citing the passage of a 2013–2014 budget by the legislature—in override of his veto of it—as the type of devastating mistake that Maine could not recover from.

[34] At 12:04 AM on November 5, the Bangor Daily News declared that Paul LePage had won re-election to a second term, defeating Democratic Congressman Mike Michaud and independent candidate Eliot Cutler.

In a speech at the 73rd annual Maine Agricultural Trades Show, he stated his view supporting child labor adding "If the revenues go up, I can go golfing.

[40][41][42][43] In the 2015 session of the Legislature, LePage promised to veto every bill sponsored by a Democrat, regardless of its merits, in retaliation for the rejection of his proposal for a constitutional amendment referendum to eliminate Maine's income tax.

[48] One of his last acts as governor was to pardon former Republican state representative Jeffrey Pierce for a felony drug trafficking conviction 35 years prior.

[57] He was also critical of King for switching his 2014 gubernatorial election endorsement from independent candidate Eliot Cutler to Democratic nominee Mike Michaud.

The Maine Legislature approved six additional agents, two prosecutors, and two judges in the 2015–16 state budget, but LePage criticized that as "chump change" and has asked for more.

[83] On November 18, 2013, LePage pledged $10,000 from his official contingency account to a program run by Portland-based LearningWorks for helping new immigrants learn the English language.

[85] LePage supported increased use of fossil fuels, vetoed clean energy bills, sought to eliminate environmental regulations, was the lone Atlantic coast governor to promote offshore drilling, refused to issue voter-approved conservation bonds, attempted to tax protected forestland and/or open it to development, and refused to put up signs to direct tourists to the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument designated by former president Barack Obama.

"[86][87][88][89] LePage has claimed, despite an abundance of scientific research to the contrary, that climate change may be beneficial, arguing that the opening of the Northern Passage through the melting of arctic ice could have an advantage for Maine.

[93] Speaking before a conservative women's group in Falmouth on October 14, 2013, LePage said that "About 47 percent of able-bodied people in the state of Maine don't work ...

[138] LePage had previously indicated his interest in the 2022 election based on whether Governor Janet Mills could implement Maine's Medicaid expansion referendum in what he believes to be a sustainable way.

[144][a] LePage is known for his bombastic and off-the-cuff remarks that have, during his tenure as mayor of Waterville and governor of Maine, drawn domestic and national controversy as well as critical acclaim.

[146] At the beginning of his term as governor, he was criticized for refusing either to attend Martin Luther King Jr. Day events in Portland or Orono or to meet with Maine representatives of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), telling the press the group could "kiss my butt".

[178][179] On July 8, 2012, LePage said, while discussing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was "the new Gestapo" due to their role in enforcing the law.

"[180][183] A day later, LePage issued a written statement stating that his intent was not to "insult anyone, especially the Jewish community, or to minimize the fact that millions of people were murdered," and that his message had been "clouded" by his use of the word "Gestapo".

[186] Although LePage described the meeting as "cordial",[187][188] the workers described it as pressuring and used to intimidate them to give more rulings on unemployment claim appeals in favor of businesses, as well as to state that they were doing their jobs poorly.

[187] The situation spurred statewide backlash including a federal investigation of the alleged intimidation, which concluded that LePage's administration improperly acted with "what could be perceived as a bias toward employers".

[187][189][190] On May 23, 2013, LePage announced that he would move his office out of the Maine State Capitol and work from The Blaine House due to what he called efforts by majority Democrats in the Legislature to censor his speech.

[191] This included the refusal of the Appropriations Committee to allow him to address them on May 19, and later being asked to obtain permission from the Legislative Council to have a TV outside of his office displaying the number of days since his budget was proposed.

He further stated people like Jackson, a logger by trade, "ought to go back into the woods and cut trees and let someone with a brain come down here and do some good work," along with other negative personal remarks.

[205][206] On June 30, 2014, the website Talking Points Memo reported that LePage had met eight times with members of the sovereign citizen movement between January and September 2013.

[207][208][209][210] In June 2015, Good Will-Hinckley, a charitable organization for at-risk youths that runs two charter schools, hired Democratic House Speaker Mark Eves to be their next president.

[222][223][224]He later invited reporters from the Portland Press Herald and WMTW to an interview to explain the comments, saying that I wish it were 1825 and we would have a duel, that's how angry I am, and I would not put my gun in the air, I guarantee you ...

[239] LePage revealed to radio station WLOB on January 11, 2017, that he had undergone bariatric surgery and lost 50 pounds (23 kg), after his doctor warned that he was at risk of diabetes if he did not lose weight.