Politics
Our political journalists are based in the Maine State House and have deep source networks across the partisan spectrum in communities all over the state. Their coverage aims to cut through major debates and probe how officials make decisions. Read more Politics coverage here.
Populists and progressives from U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner in Maine to contenders backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani have dominated this primary season, often sparking questions about Democratic divides heading into November and beyond.
But those dynamics played out far differently in Maine’s race to replace Gov. Janet Mills. Former House Speaker Hannah Pingree, a longtime player in Augusta who fought for progressive issues such as marriage equality and reproductive rights and later ran Mills’ policy shop, is a frontrunner in early polls against Republican Bobby Charles and independent Rick Bennett.
Pingree, whose mother is U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-North Haven, successfully navigated a ranked-choice primary that featured a pair who were arguably more progressive in former state Senate President Troy Jackson and Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, and another who were more centrist in former public health chief Nirav Shah and Angus King III.
She was backed by many establishment figures from Mills to Democratic lawmakers, while also supported by the environmental community. Though groups like Maine People’s Alliance backed Bellows and the Maine AFL-CIO and other unions endorsed Jackson, Pingree joined a Platner-led strategic ranked-choice alliance with her more progressive opponents.
Now, her aggressive proposals to invest in housing, healthcare and expanding the millionaires’ tax to address affordability issues, are helping to rally some of the same Democrats who wanted the newcomer Platner to face Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins instead of the twice-elected Mills.
“Mainers want two things in a governor: standing up to President Donald Trump and getting stuff done,” said Democratic strategist David Farmer, who backed Pingree in the primary. “Yes, people are angry, but they also want power in the hands of folks who can get things done and who you aren’t necessarily going to hear about every day in the news.”
Several Democratic sources said Maine voters are not easily placed in the typical boxes or dynamics playing out on the national level. They also said voters know that expectations are different for the Blaine House and Congress, and that neither Platner’s rise — nor the tight polls in the Senate contest compared with the governor’s race — are surprising given widespread frustration with Republican-controlled Washington and Collins’ staying power.
“Hannah is and always has been a strong Democrat, but her measure of success is, ‘What did I get done today?’” said Emily Cain, a former lawmaker and strategist who serves as Pingree’s campaign treasurer. “That is who she is and that’s what people want in a governor.”
At a Maine AFL-CIO event in Auburn last week, Jackson urged unions to get behind Pingree. He acknowledged it was a hard campaign, but said “she’s always been willing to stand up for us.”
Megan Smith, a community organizer for Maine People’s Alliance, said it’s been disheartening to see national Democrats claim the party has a big tent while Platner and other progressives have come under increasing attacks from inside and outside the party. Still, many Mainers want candidates who can shake up politics with “bold policies” in the mold of Mamdani, Smith said.
“He got elected and he’s doing the things he said he would do,” she said. “That’s something people in Maine are looking for as well. Maybe it’s not always tied to the most progressive candidate, but the focus is, ‘Is this candidate going to do what they said?’”
Smith and other progressives credited Pingree for being more progressive than Mills, citing the former speaker’s push to pass a tribal sovereignty bill within her first 100 days if elected, along with higher taxes on the wealthy and second-home residents, a public healthcare option and more accountability for utilities.
The latest poll from The New York Times, Portland Press Herald and Siena University showed Pingree at 50% support compared with Charles’ 36% and Bennett’s 8%. Pingree was up big on Charles in a Fox News poll that omitted Bennett. But Democrats cautioned it’s still early.
Charles has run an untraditional digitally driven campaign that toppled several other newcomers who spent millions more on TV advertising. He says he will target fraud and wasteful spending, and end “woke” policies on transgender athletes and needle exchange programs. He has said he wants to build a coalition including unenrolled voters and conservative Democrats. But he has also embraced Trump, whose low approval rating has many Republicans concerned about keeping control of Congress after November.
Charles has lumped Pingree and Bennett with Mills and what he characterizes as wasteful government in Augusta. He shared a post from a supporter on Facebook Thursday: “It’s so hot in Maine this week that even Hannah Pingree and Rick Bennett are looking for a tax freeze.”
Bennett’s support in the Times poll was similar to Eliot Cutler’s in 2010, who went from 7% in June to almost 36% on Election Day. The survey showed heavy support from independents, older voters and rural Mainers, must-win groups for Charles in a Democratic-leaning state.
Just as Charles blasts Bennett as a liberal based on votes on contentious issues in recent years, Democrats are quick to point to the Oxford state senator’s background as a Republican leader before becoming independent a little more than a year ago.
“The dynamic playing out inside the Democratic Party is part of a broader problem in American politics,” Bennett said Thursday. “Both major parties have spent too much time managing their own agenda, pleasing party insiders, and fighting among themselves while working families become more and more disconnected from the system.”