AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) A state lawmaker who flouted mask requirements in the Maine State House and fought against pandemic restrictions has resigned from his seat because of his wife’s death from COVID-19.
Rep. Chris Johansen, R-Monticello, told House Speaker Ryan Fecteau in a letter this month that he needs to tend to his family farm. His wife, he wrote, had been dedicated to the farm, freeing him to serve in the Legislature.
He was one of seven lawmakers who was stripped of committee assignments for refusing to wear masks in the State House after leaders required them.
Johansen, whose resignation was first reported by the Bangor Daily News, reiterated his opposition to rules designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus, citing his belief in “the principle that government doesn’t get to tell you how to live your life.”
“I feel there is still much to be done to roll back the expansion of state power that we have witnessed these past two years,” he wrote.
Johansen, and his wife, Cindy, contracted COVID-19 over the summer, and both were ill. His wife, who has asthma, shared some of her experiences on social media before her death. Several weeks after she died, Chris Johansen attended an Augusta rally against the state’s vaccination mandate for health care workers.
