AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine Democrats are tapping Glenn Curry of Belfast to run for Senate in Waldo County after current state Sen. Erin Herbig declined to run for re-election in District 11 this fall because she was named Belfast city manager. She begins that position on Monday and will complete her senate term.
The seat, which covers all of Waldo County, is one of the most competitive in Maine, and will likely be a target for Republicans in the state as they look to take back majority control in the Senate. Democrats flipped the Senate after a wave year in 2018 and currently control 21 of the body’s 35 seats.
Curry, who currently works in student services at University of Maine at Augusta’s Rockland Center, has run for Senate once before, losing to former state Sen. Michael Thibodeau, R-Winterport, in 2012. Thibodeau held the seat for eight years, but was term-limited in 2018, allowing Herbig to win the open seat.
On the Republican side, retired U.S. Marine Col. Duncan Milne of Liberty announced in January he would run for Herbig’s seat.
Other competitive Senate seats include District 20 in Androscoggin County, where first-term state Sen. Ned Claxton, D-Auburn, edged out former state Rep. Eleanor Espling, a Republican, by just 235 votes in 2018. Businessman and Navy veteran Matthew Leonard is running against Claxton this year.
In District 7, which covers much of Hancock County, former Republican state Sen. Brian Langley of Ellsworth has filed to run for the seat he held from 2010 until 2018, when he did not seek re-election due to term limits. Sen. Louis Lucchini, D-Ellsworth, won the open seat in 2018. Businessman John Linnehan of Ellsworth also is seeking the Republican nomination this year.