Democratic Congressman Jared Golden thanked the people of the 2nd district and his campaign staff and volunteers Thursday morning, noting that his campaign has a commanding lead of 11,000 votes over Republican Bruce Poliquin in the three-way race.
But because neither Golden nor Poliquin reached the 50% threshold, the race will go to a second round of ranked choice voting next week. Meeting with reporters, Golden all but declared victory.
"At this point, although Bruce Poliquin is not ready to concede, the final result is undeniably clear," he said. "The few precincts that remain cannot meaningfully alter the position of this race. In an instant runoff against Bruce Poliquin, we are very confident that our lead will hold and even likely extend by a comfortable margin."
The runoff means that the Secretary of State's Office will tally the second round votes cast for independent Tiffany Bond who trailed Golden and Poliquin.
