Hannah Pingree wins Maine governor’s race
Hannah Pingree hugs her father after announcing to her family that the governor’s race had been called for her at the Democratic watch party in Portland on Tuesday. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)
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Former Maine House Speaker Hannah Pingree has won the race to succeed Gov. Janet Mills, ensuring that the Blaine House will remain under Democratic control for at least four more years.
Pingree, 50, a North Haven resident who led Mills’ policy office from 2019 to 2025, consistently and comfortably led polling of the gubernatorial contest against Republican Bobby Charles and independent Rick Bennett in the months leading up to Tuesday’s election.
The Bangor Daily News and Decision Desk HQ called the race for Pingree at 10:29 p.m., and the Associated Press followed at about 11:30 p.m. By midnight, about two-thirds of the state’s ballots had been counted, and Pingree had about 54% of votes, compared to 38% for Charles and 8% for Bennett.
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Pingree walked on stage at the election night party for Maine Democrats a few minutes after 11 p.m. to tell an enthusiastic crowd that Charles and Bennett had called her to concede.
“I don’t know if you guys have been watching TV, but we’re winning everywhere across this country,” Pingree said at the Holiday Inn by the Bay in Portland.
Gov. Janet Mills cheers while U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree talks to the audience at a watch party in Portland on Tuesday. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)
Her husband, Jason, and teenage children, Elsie and Oscar, joined her. Pingree focused on Elsie early on in her speech, recalling what her daughter told her last year when the family first discussed Pingree’s gubernatorial bid.
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“You said, ‘You should do it mom, but you better win,’ We did it. We won,” Pingree said before hugging her daughter.
Governor-elect Hannah Pingree is joined by her family on stage at the Maine Democratic watch party at Holiday Inn by the Bay in Portland. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)
The candidates also awaited other results Tuesday night in races for the Legislature that will determine whether Democrats keep majorities in the House and Senate, or whether the next governor will work with at least one Republican-controlled chamber.
Pingree will become Maine’s 76th governor by succeeding Mills, a 78-year-old from Farmington who is termed out of office after becoming the first woman to win the Blaine House in 2018.
Bobby Charles concedes the governor’s race at Hilton Garden Inn in Bangor. (Derek Davis/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image
It’s the first time Maine has elected governors from the same party to three consecutive terms since 1952.
Mills congratulated Pingree on her “decisive victory” late Tuesday night. “Tonight, Maine people chose Hannah Pingree to lead our state for the very same reasons I asked her to serve in my administration eight years ago: her deep experience, sound judgment, and relentless optimism for Maine’s future,” Mills wrote in a statement.
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Hannah Pingree greets a voter outside of Yarmouth High School on Tuesday. (Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer)
At the Longley School in Lewiston in the afternoon, Pingree said she was heartened by the high voter turnout — which is on pace to set a record — and signs of encouragement she had seen earlier in the day. Bennett also stopped by the school, which is named after the state’s first independent governor. “In all the conversations that we’ve had, up and down the state, people are ready for a change,” he said.
In a race that often took a backseat to the U.S. Senate battle, Charles and other critics sought to tie Pingree and Mills together to blame them for affordability concerns that include rising electricity and housing costs.
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Pingree dealt with climate, energy and housing matters, among other issues, while leading the wide-ranging policy and innovation office under Mills, who had endorsed Pingree in a crowded Democratic primary.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bobby Charles shakes hands with a voter on Tuesday at the Auburn Senior Community Center. (Libby Kamrowski Kenny/Staff Photographer)
The anti-Pingree arguments from Charles, a 66-year-old Leeds lawyer who served in drug and domestic policy roles under several former Republican presidents, and from Bennett, a 63-year-old former state senator from Oxford who previously chaired the Maine Republican Party, were not persuading voters who responded to polls.
On the campaign trail, Pingree highlighted her bipartisan work when she was a young state lawmaker, including her stint as the Maine House speaker from 2008 to 2010. She will face the ongoing housing and energy-related challenges upon taking office in January, along with issues such as a potential state budget gap of more than $1 billion and healthcare debates amid birthing centers closing in rural Maine.
A voter walks toward the counting machines after filling out a ballot Tuesday afternoon at the Augusta Civic Center, the one polling place for Augusta residents. (Joe Phelan/Staff Photographer)
Pingree has said she disagreed with Mills on certain issues, including tribal sovereignty, and also expressed pride in the Mills administration’s efforts to boost housing production following a state-commissioned study that found Maine needs up to 84,300 more homes by 2030 to meet current needs.
She also blamed President Donald Trump for his sweeping tariffs and the war in Iran for driving up costs. Her housing plan includes investing $100 million a year to build and preserve “affordable and attainable” homes. Pingree has also pledged to fight back against Trump if he and his administration continue a pattern that intensified last year of targeting Maine, its federal funding and immigrants in the state.
An attendee watches the results roll in at the Maine Democratic watch party at Holiday Inn by the Bay in Portland on Tuesday. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)
Pingree’s mother, U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, also cruised Tuesday to a 10th term representing Maine’s 1st Congressional District, which could put Maine in a historically rare, if not unheard of, category of having a mother and daughter hold a congressional seat and governorship at the same time.
At a watch party in Portland, Pingree, 71, celebrated her win around 10 p.m., called her daughter “an extremely competent young woman” and said “it’s looking like a very good night,” as national results trickling in continued to mostly favor Democrats.
Staff Writer Penelope Overton contributed reporting.
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Tagged: bobby charles, election 2026, governor's race 2026, hannah pingree, Rick Bennett
Billy covers politics for the Press Herald. He joined the newsroom in 2026 after also covering politics for the Bangor Daily News for about two and a half years. Before moving to Maine in 2023, the Wisconsin. More by Billy Kobin
