Democrat Hannah Pingree, the former Maine House speaker, will be Maine’s next governor after defeating Republican lawyer Bobby Charles and independent state Sen. Rick Bennett in Tuesday’s election.
Pingree had 48.9% of votes to 42.9% for Charles and 8.2% for Bennett when the Bangor Daily News and its national partner, Decision Desk HQ, called the race at 10:29 p.m. Tuesday.
It is the first time since 1958 that Maine voters elected a governor from the same party as the outgoing one. That year, Democrat Clinton Clauson won the seat held by Democrat Edmund Muskie, who left for the U.S. Senate. Every change in governor since has brought in a new party or an independent following a party candidate.
The North Haven Democrat and daughter of U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree will succeed term-limited Gov. Janet Mills, whom she served as a top adviser. She won the nomination in June as a unity candidate in a fractious, populist year for Democrats, coming from behind in a five-way ranked-choice count with backing from both Mills and a progressive alliance blessed by Graham Platner.
“Tonight, Maine chose caring for your neighbors over noise and negativity, and leadership that gets things done by working together. That is who I am. That is who we are,” Pingree said after the BDN and DDHQ called the race. “And to everyone who voted for someone else: I heard you, and I will work every day to earn your trust and be a governor for this entire state.”
Mills congratulated Pingree on her victory and invited the Governor-elect and her family to visit the Blaine House in Augusta this month.
“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 said.
The general election was never close in public polling. Pingree led Charles in every public poll after the primary, often by double digits, in a race overshadowed by the U.S. Senate fight between Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Democrat Troy Jackson and, to a lesser degree, the 2nd District race.
The race drew $20.6 million in ads including the primaries, according to AdImpact, short of the $26.8 million spent in the 2022 race between Mills and Republican Paul LePage. Pingree’s campaign spent $3.5 million on ads across the primary and general election to about $550,000 for Charles’.
Charles called Pingree to concede the race. Some in the crowd at the Republicans’ election night party groaned when Charles shared the news.
“Back in April of last year, I launched this campaign with a very simple idea: that Maine deserves high-integrity government that works for the people who pay for it,” Charles said. “Tonight the voters have made their decision and I respect it.”
Charles hugged his supporters after announcing his concession.
Charles, a former federal official and Washington lobbyist, won a crowded Republican primary with a social media- and AI-driven campaign but got little outside help beyond No Nonsense PAC, a group funded in part by out-of-state conservative donors that reported nearly $1 million in spending. He cast Pingree as part of a Democratic system in Augusta that let fraud and corruption fester, including corruption allegations against her that the BDN found no evidence of.
Pingree tied Charles to President Donald Trump, who is unpopular in Maine, citing federal healthcare cuts and rising prices from tariffs and the Iran war. Charles’ campaign also drew a nearly $23,000 state fine for accepting contributions over legal limits.
Bennett, a former Maine Republican Party chair, pitched himself as an independent alternative but polled in the single digits. No Nonsense PAC also promoted him to progressive voters in an effort to siphon support from Pingree, which Bennett called “cynical.”
Pingree has pledged to invest $100 million a year in housing and to let towns tax wealthy out-of-state second-home owners at higher rates.
She will take office in January facing a gap of more than $1 billion in the next two-year state budget, according to a forecast from Mills’ administration. She must send lawmakers a balanced proposal by early February.