Take a deeper look at Maine’s ranked-choice runoff results
Staffers work toward the end of a dayslong ranked-choice runoff process to determine the final outcomes in key Maine primary races, including both gubernatorial primaries, on Thursday night at the Department of Public Safety headquarters in Augusta.(Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)
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Results in Maine’s five ranked-choice runoffs arrived early Friday morning after state officials, campaigns and media stayed up well into the night to report the outcome.
No candidate had garnered at least 51% of first-place votes in last Tuesday’s primary election, triggering the runoff that sees the last-place candidate eliminated and the second- and third-place choices from their supporters reallocated to the remaining candidates. The retabulation process continues until one candidate receives a majority.
That work was done over more than five days at the Maine Department of Public Safety headquarters in Augusta. Here’s a breakdown of each round of voting in the three key primaries:
Governor — Democrats
Hannah Pingree, 49, of North Haven, a former Maine speaker of the House and official in the Mills administration, won the Democratic nomination for governor after four rounds of voting.
She overcame an early lead from Nirav Shah, gaining some momentum from an alliance with Troy Jackson and Shenna Bellows.
Governor — Republicans
By contrast, Bobby Charles held on to the lead in his party’s primary for governor, emerging as the winner in an eight-way race.
Some of his fellow candidates had announced alliances and rankings favoring each other and excluding the front-runner. But those strategies were not enough to crack Charles’ sizable lead heading into the runoff, and enough of his opponents’ supporters apparently selected Charles in their rankings in order to hand him a victory.
U.S. House — Democrats
State Auditor Matt Dunlap won the Democratic primary for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, overcoming state Sen. Joe Baldacci’s initial lead.
He will now look ahead to a November showdown with Paul LePage, the 77-year-old former Republican governor. Both parties view the seat as potentially key this fall to determining whether Republicans hold onto their narrow House majority or not.
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Tagged: election 2026, public service
