Election 2022: Maine voters reelect Mills, Pingree

Photo / Jim Neuger Gov. Janet Mills at a press conference outside Becky’s Diner in Portland this morning after winning reelection to a second term.

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By Ann Fisher

Gov. Janet Mills will serve a second term in Augusta as votes tallied Tuesday showed a clear win for the Farmington resident, beating former Gov. Paul LePage with 55.02% of votes to LePage’s 42.9%, according to the Bangor Daily News on Wednesday morning. Independent Sam Hunkler garnered 2.1% of votes cast.

“We’re going to keep taking Maine into the future,” Mills said in her victory speech on Tuesday night. “You sent a clear message — a message that says we will continue to move forward, and we will not go back; we will continue to fight problems, and not one another."

In a closely watched race for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, incumbent U.S. Rep. Jared Golden led with 48.5% of first-choice votes to 44.7% for Republican Bruce Poliquin with more than 80% of returns reported early Wednesday morning.

If Golden falls short of winning a 50% majority of first-choice votes, the race will go to a ranked-choice count, prompting the Democrat to predict: “In the event there is an instant runoff scenario, I expect it to strengthen my margin of victory.”

It’s the second match-up between Golden and Poliquin, who also went head-to-head in 2018. That race was decided in the first ranked-choice run-off for a congressional race in U.S. history, with Golden winning over Poliquin, a two-term incumbent at the time.

U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree handily retained her seat in Maine’s 1st Congressional District to win an eighth term in the U.S. House of Representatives, easily fending off a challenge by Ed Thelander with 63.77% of the votes cast compared to 36.23%.

“With control of Washington hanging in the balance, we have urgent work ahead of us to restore reproductive rights, help working families struggling with global inflation, push back on threats to democracy, and protect our planet from the climate crisis,” Pingree said in a press release.