Maine voters weigh Senate control, open governor race Tuesday

LePage, Dunlap face off for open 2nd District seat

Maine voters go to the polls Tuesday in an election that could determine control of the U.S. Senate. Republican Sen. Susan Collins is seeking a record sixth term against Democrat Troy Jackson, and voters will also fill open seats for governor and the 2nd Congressional District.

Republicans hold a 53-47 Senate majority, and defeating Collins is a key stepping stone for Democrats, who need four additional seats to retake the chamber. Collins is the only Senate Republican to represent a state that former Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris carried in 2024, and she has been considered one of the chamber’s most vulnerable GOP incumbents in all five of her reelection campaigns.

Collins received 51% of the vote in her 2020 reelection bid, her poorest showing since the 49% she received in her first successful run in 1996. Democratic opponents have never surpassed the 44% mark in her five previous races. If reelected, she would become Maine’s longest-serving U.S. senator in May 2027.

Jackson, a former logger and former Republican, serves as president of the state Senate as a Democrat. After an unsuccessful run for the Democratic nomination for governor, he was chosen by delegates at a state convention in July to replace Graham Platner as the Democratic nominee to challenge Collins. Platner easily won the June primary but withdrew from the race in early July after controversies over a tattoo he once had that was recognized as a Nazi symbol and a sexual assault allegation he has denied.

Despite his late entry, Jackson has far outraised Collins since July, putting him slightly ahead of her total haul for the entire cycle. Both candidates have drawn significant support from outside groups, including more than $30 million in ad spending on Collins’ behalf from the super PAC affiliated with Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune. With outside spending factored in, pro-Collins forces have outspent pro-Jackson forces in advertising since Sept. 1, $65 million to $55 million, according to AdImpact.

In the 2nd Congressional District, Golden’s announcement in November that he would not seek a fifth term gives Republicans a key pickup opportunity. Trump won the district in 2024, along with its one electoral vote, and Maine is one of two states that allocates some of its presidential electoral votes by congressional district. Democratic state Auditor Matt Dunlap faces former two-term Republican Gov. Paul LePage for the seat. LePage has slightly outraised Dunlap, although the Democrat has remained competitive.

The race to succeed Mills pairs Democrat Hannah Pingree, a former state House Speaker and the daughter of Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree, against Republican Bobby Charles, a former U.S. State Department official. Independent state Sen. Rick Bennett, who previously served as state Senate president as a Republican, is also on the ballot. The governor’s office in Maine frequently changes party hands — the state has not elected consecutive governors from the same party in 74 years.

Maine uses ranked choice voting in general elections for federal office, but not for governor or the state legislature. Voters rank candidates in order of preference; if no candidate receives a majority of first-place votes, the last-place candidate is dropped and votes cast for that candidate are reallocated among the rest of the field according to the preferences of the dropped candidate’s voters, a process that repeats until one candidate emerges with a majority. Although the Senate and 2nd District races each have only two candidates listed on the ballot, both contests are subject to ranked choice voting because of declared write-in candidates.

Election administration in Maine is highly local. The state is divided into 16 counties, but elections are run by its hundreds of cities and towns, a practice common in New England. Portland, by far Maine’s most populous city, forms the heart of the state’s Democratic base. The two congressional districts largely track the state’s political demographics: the 1st District along the Southern Maine Coast is heavily Democratic, while the massive 2nd District to the north includes the bulk of the smaller, more rural areas where Trump performed best in 2024.

Polls close at 8 p.m. ET. About 677,000 votes were cast in the 2022 race for governor, and about 36% of that vote was cast early in-person or by mail. Mail ballots may be processed before Election Day, but tabulation may not begin until after polls close. Maine’s most populous cities and towns vary in how and when they release vote results, but results from all vote types tend to be released together over the course of the night.

In the 2024 general election, the Associated Press first reported results at 8:44 p.m. ET, 44 minutes after polls closed. About 50% of the total vote had been counted by 12:54 a.m. ET, counting stopped for the night at 4:11 a.m. ET, and by 3:13 p.m. ET the day after Election Day about 90% of the vote had been counted.

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it determines there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. Under a 2025 law, recounts in Maine are automatic if the vote is tied. A candidate for statewide or multicounty office may request and pay for a recount, although the charges are waived if the margin is not more than 1% of the total votes cast or not more than 1,000 votes, whichever is less. The AP may declare a winner in a race subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.