Election 2026
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The Bangor Daily News will stream its inaugural BDN Election Night Live on Tuesday as results come in from one of six toss-up U.S. Senate races with control of the chamber on the line.
The show will track every major race on Maine’s ballot, from the seismic Senate contest to the open 2nd Congressional District seat and the race for governor. Viewers can watch from 8 to 11 p.m. on the BDN’s website and social media platforms, where they will be able to send questions to the panel. You can also submit questions anytime before through the Q&A form at the bottom of this story. The show could run longer if races are still undecided.
We will closely follow U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Democrat Troy Jackson in a race that could decide control of the Senate. Decision Desk HQ, the BDN’s election results partner, gives Jackson a 60% chance of winning. As of Friday, it gives Democrats a 62% chance of taking the Senate.
The show will feature live views of the races. Maps will show results town by town as they arrive. Other screens will show where votes are still out, which towns could still swing a race, how places are tracking against past campaigns, how the parties’ seat counts stand in the Legislature and how Maine fits into the national fight for the Senate.
Two strategists — Republican Joe Turcotte and Democrat Rachel Irwin — will help me analyze results as they come in. Both are veterans of these kinds of campaigns and intersected with each other while working for their state parties more than a decade ago.
Turcotte, who lives in Augusta, is vice president at Foxhole Strategies. He was the Republican National Committee’s Maine state director and President Donald Trump’s Maine state director in 2020, then managed former Gov. Paul LePage’s 2022 campaign for governor.
Irwin, a Brewer native, founded Double Tap Democracy, which works with social media creators and runs digital ads for campaigns and causes. She is working on this year’s U.S. Senate race and previously worked for Senate Democrats’ campaign arm.
Other guests will join the show, including BDN reporters with updates from candidates’ election night parties and insight from polling places.
A close Senate race may not end Tuesday night. If blank ballots and write-ins keep both candidates under a majority, Maine would hold its first statewide ranked-choice count in a general election, and that could take a week or more.