Bobby Charles spent years as a D.C. lobbyist. Who were his clients?
Bobby Charles, the former Washington lobbyist, is running for governor of Maine amid scrutiny of his 25‑year career in Capitol Hill
Bobby Charles, a 56‑year‑old Republican from Westbrook, is the most recent challenger to Democrat Hannah Pingree in the 2026 Maine gubernatorial race. The former assistant United States Secretary of State under President George W. Bush announced his candidacy in early 2025 and has since been campaigning across the state, holding rallies in towns from Gorham to Augusta. A CNN poll released on September 9, 2026 shows Pingree with a 52‑percent lead over Charles, who trails with 39 percent. Independent candidate Rick Bennett, a longtime state legislator, is also in the race but has not yet entered the headlines.
Charles’s résumé is as much a record of lobbying work as it is of public service. In 1999 he founded The Charles Group, a consulting firm that has filed nearly 600 lobbying reports with the Maine Legislature from 2000 to 2026. The firm represents a wide range of interests—including defense contractors, aerospace manufacturers, law‑enforcement associations, and advocacy groups for older adults. Its top client has been the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC), a conservative‑leaning seniors’ organization that has paid the firm more than $400,000 between 2011 and 2019 to lobby on healthcare and social‑security legislation. Charles remains the association’s national spokesperson.
Other notable clients have included the California Attorney General’s office (2000–2007), Bell Textron (a helicopter manufacturer), the Major County Sheriffs’ Association, CSS USA Inc. (a storage‑container maker), Westport Pharmaceuticals (a company that once marketed a meth‑resistant decongestant), and, most recently, Voyager Technologies, an aerospace firm working on lunar habitation technology. The firm also claims a “strong relationship” with high‑profile astronauts such as Buzz Aldrin, offering services that range from speech editing to study drafting.
In a press release, Charles said that lobbying has been a small part of his firm’s work. “In 26 years, I have personally sat in a congressional office with a client less than half a dozen times,” he told reporters. “All of that work has prepared me to lead Maine.” He also noted that he would resign from the firm if elected governor.
The story of Charles’s lobbying career has hit a new low when his sister, Anita Charles, published an op‑ed in the Portland Press Herald this week. In the piece, Anita, an active political commentator, calls her brother “out of touch” and confirms that she will vote for Pingree. The op‑ed was published the same week that the campaign’s spokesperson declined to comment on the lobbying reports, stating that Charles was not available for an interview.
The firm’s lobbying history includes work on a number of high‑profile issues. For the California Attorney General’s office, The Charles Group was involved in strategic planning to address the state’s meth‑lab crisis. For Westport Pharmaceuticals, the firm advocated for the use of a pseudoephedrine product that the company claimed could not be converted into methamphetamine; the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration later disputed
