Ben Midgley, Republican candidate for governor, recently sat down with Matt Gagnon and Harris Van Pate to discuss his story and the 2026 campaign.
Ben is an entrepreneur with a successful career in the fitness industry. He got his start by cleaning gym equipment in exchange for a membership, which quickly spun off into doing, in his words, “virtually every job you could do” in fitness. Eventually he rose to become an executive, serving as the president of Planet Fitness. Most recently, Ben was a founding partner and former CEO of Crunch Franchising, a company he steered for 15 years from a startup into a billion-dollar business.
We discussed his journey and what made him decide to run for governor. We discuss Maine’s economy, property taxes, housing, education and other major issues facing the state into the future.
This interview is the fifth in a series of interviews that Maine Policy Institute is conducting with those seeking to be elected governor of Maine. If you missed our prior conversations with Bobby Charles, Jim Libby, David Jones or Owen McCarthy, make sure you head to our interview archive to catch up on them today.
Maine Policy does not endorse candidates or involve itself in political campaigns. We are bringing you conversations like this so you may better understand the priorities of individuals who seek powerful positions in Maine’s government.