This seemingly never-ending election cycle is (hopefully) about to reach its conclusion.
Much of the political oxygen has understandably been consumed by the presidential contest, given the deep divisions in this country and the implications of the outcome.
But Maine voters have plenty of other issues to decide this year. So what follows is an overview of the candidate elections, ballot questions, bond measures and other context as we hurtle toward Election Day.
Another electoral split?
For the first time in at least two decades, it appears that neither of the major-party presidential candidates will have made official campaign stops in Maine in 2024, although a small number of higher-profile surrogates did stump in the state.
That’s probably because Maine’s four Electoral College votes appear less up-for-grabs this year. Given the outcome of the past two elections, there's a good chance that Maine will once again split its electors.
Vice President Kamala Harris appears poised to win the left-leaning 1st Congressional District and the statewide vote, earning the Democratic nominee three electors. Trump will likely pick up one elector by winning the rural and more conservative 2nd District, just as he did in 2016 and 2020. But support was so much stronger for the Biden-Harris ticket in the 1st District in 2020 that the Democrats easily carried the statewide vote with 53%.
The relatively few independent polls of Maine voters released so far have shown Harris leading Trump statewide by anywhere from seven to 17 percentage points.
Ranked-choice presidential runoff
Of course, the outcomes outlined above are not guaranteed. And then there is the always-compelling possibility of a ranked-choice runoff in the presidential contest.
Three additional presidential tickets are on Maine’s ballot: Green Party candidates Jill Stein and Rudolph Ware, Libertarian candidates Chase Oliver and Mike ter Maat, and Cornel West and Melina Abdullah on the “Justice for All” ticket.
While none of those tickets have a realistic chance of winning in Maine, even a small percentage of votes for any or all of them could prevent Trump and Harris from winning a majority on the first count if the race between the two is extremely tight. By law, that triggers a ranked-choice re-tabulation. As a result, Maine’s final results likely won’t be known until the following week because it takes days to retrieve all of the locked ballot boxes from every polling place across the state and then days more to confirm each town’s first-count results from election night.
This is not a far-fetched scenario. In 2016, Hillary Clinton defeated Trump with 48% of the vote because the Green and Libertarian candidates received 7% combined. Had Maine’s current law been in effect at the time, the race would have gone to a ranked-choice runoff.
2nd Congressional District
Maine’s 2nd District race is considered the most competitive congressional contest in Maine this year. And with control of the House once again up for grabs, the race has drawn plenty of attention (and tens of millions of dollars) from the national parties and their ideological allies.
The race has turned into a battle for centrist or independent voters as the two major-party contenders — incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden and Republican Austin Theriault — each portray themselves as the best dealmaker to get things done for rural Maine in hyperpartisan DC.
Golden is a moderate Democrat who has managed to win three times in a district that leans increasingly conservative. A former state lawmaker and Marine Corps veteran, the 42-year-old has voted against the Biden agenda and his caucus leadership more often than any other Democrat in the House. At the same time, he’s a strong supporter of abortion rights and preserving access to health care through the Affordable Care Act.
Theriault is a 30-year-old, first-term Republican state lawmaker from Fort Kent who previously raced cars professionally, including in NASCAR. Republicans in Maine and at the national level recruited him to challenge Golden. Theriault supports and was endorsed by Trump while Golden has not endorsed Harris and says he won’t vote for Trump.
Polls suggest that the race is too close to call.
Theriault and Republicans have tried to portray Golden as too liberal for the district and as a “flip-flopper” on key issues like guns, border security and federal spending. On the gun issue, they’ve pointed to Golden’s reversal on banning assault-style weapons immediately following the mass shooting in his hometown of Lewiston.
Golden has responded by pointing to his opposition to Biden administration policies, such as the Green New Deal, and his work with Republicans on issues like guns, border security and veterans benefits. Democrats have also hit Theriault hard on abortion (Golden staunchly supports abortion rights) and have suggested that he could vote with Republicans to “gut” Social Security. Theriault has said he would oppose any efforts from his party to undermine Social Security.
There is also a declared write-in candidate, Diana Merenda of Surry. Merenda is running on an anti-war, anti-military-spending platform and has been critical of Golden’s strong support for Israel during the war in Gaza. Voters will have the option of ranking candidates. A ranked-choice runoff would only take place, however, if no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote.
1st Congressional District
By comparison, the 1st District race has attracted little attention from the national parties or outside groups.
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree is progressive Democrat seeking a ninth, 2-year term representing Maine’s left-leaning, southern district. Pingree owns an inn and an organic farm on the island of North Haven. In Congress, she serves on the powerful House Appropriations Committee as well as the House Agriculture Committee.
Her Republican challenger is Ronald Russell, a Kennebunkport resident. Russell retired after a 30-year career in the U.S. Army, serving as an Airborne Ranger and in the special forces as a Green Beret. He also worked in the defense industry and ran a small business before moving back to his native Maine in 2021.
Ethan Alcorn of Saco is also on the ballot as an independent or unenrolled candidate. Alcorn, who has previously run for governor and in local races, has worked in the nonprofit sector and in landscaping.
With three contenders, 1st District voters will also be able to rank the candidates. Pingree has won all of her previous reelection campaigns with between 58% and 63% of the vote.
U.S. Senate
Independent U.S. Sen. Angus King is asking voters for a third term after 12 years in the Senate. He faces three challengers — Republican Demi Kouzounas, Democrat David Costello and independent Jason Cherry — in the ranked-choice election. But King is considered the favorite, given his name recognition and popularity among many Democrats and independents.
A former two-term governor who lives in Brunswick, King caucuses with the Democrats but has sought to carve out a reputation for himself as a moderate who is able to work with both parties on contentious issues. King serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Veterans Affairs Committee, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Kouzounas is a Saco dentist and veteran of the U.S. Army who served as chairwoman of the Maine Republican Party for six years until 2023. She was a vocal supporter of Trump during his presidency and his first reelection campaign. During her Senate campaign, Kouzounas has described herself as a centrist while accusing King of supporting Democratic policies that she said drove up inflation and energy costs and have led to a crisis on the southern border.
Costello is a Brunswick resident who spent nearly two decades working primarily overseas for the U.S. State Department. He later worked for the mayor of Baltimore and then held various positions in state government, including as deputy secretary of the Maryland Department of the Environment. Costello has said that he would work harder on traditional, Democratic policy priorities, such as Medicare for all, than King.
The fourth candidate is Cherry, an independent who worked for the FBI for 20 years and as a criminal defense attorney. The Unity resident has called for term limits, an age cap of 80 for senior positions in the U.S. government (King is currently 80) and keeping the current Social Security eligibility age at 62.
The fight to control the State House
Voters will fill all 186 seats in the Maine Legislature this year as well. And both parties are spending big to keep or win control of the two chambers.
Legislative elections are typically overshadowed by races for Congress, governor or president. Yet state legislators enact the laws that directly impact daily life in Maine through taxes, regulations, education policies and more.
Additionally, major policy changes often start in the states and then trickle up to the federal level. That’s why state house elections have become a top priority for the national Democratic and Republican parties in recent years.
Democrats currently have a 12-seat advantage over Republicans in the 151-member House, with two independents also serving. The partisan gap is even more pronounced in the Maine Senate, where Democrats outnumber Republicans 22 to 13. But control of the Senate has also flipped more often in recent decades.
If history is any guide, many of those local races won’t be especially competitive. Twenty-four incumbents in the House don’t even have an opponent, according to an analysis by The Maine Monitor. But the state parties and national groups are spending millions of dollars on individual races.
Ballot questions
In addition to candidate races, Maine voters statewide will cast ballots on five questions — three asking to approve general obligation bonds (state borrowing), one ballot initiative on campaign finance and a one regarding the state flag design. Here’s a bit more on the five statewide issues, in the order they’ll appear on the ballot.
QUESTION 1: Do you want to set a $5,000 limit for giving to political action committees that spend money independently to support or defeat candidates for office?
This is a fairly simple-sounding question whose authors have lofty aspirations beyond Maine.
Question 1 is all about campaign spending. It asks voters whether they want to set a $5,000 limit on how much individuals or organizations can give to political action committees that make “independent expenditures.” More commonly known as super PACS, these committees spend money to support or oppose candidates outside of the campaigns, hence why it’s referred to as “outside” or independent expenditures.
Currently there is no limit on how much people or groups can donate to super PACs. And in very competitive races, it’s often deep-pocketed super PACs with wholesome or benevolent-sounding names who are paying for the nonstop TV attack ads or the mailers choking mailboxes.
The initiative is a project of a Massachusetts group, Equal Citizens, that was founded by Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig. They tried this in Alaska and Massachusetts but were blocked by the courts there. So they turned to Maine, where supporters helped get the initiative onto the ballot.
The express intent here is to put this issue before the U.S. Supreme Court. Supporters say that even though super PACs aren’t supposed to coordinate with candidates or campaigns, it happens all too frequently. Wealthy donors can spend hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to “independently” support a candidate, who then coincidentally takes a special interest in whatever issue that deep-pocketed donor cares about.
That’s illegal, but it’s the classic quid-pro-quo. And this group thinks that this issue is ripe for the Supreme Court, so they’re banking on someone challenging the constitutionality of Maine’s ballot initiative if it passes on Tuesday.
QUESTION 2: Do you favor a bond issue of $25,000,000 to provide funds, to be awarded through a competitive process and to leverage matching private and federal funds on at least a one-to-one basis, for research and development and commercialization for Maine-based public and private institutions in support of technological innovation in the targeted sectors of life sciences and biomedical technology, environmental and renewable energy technology, information technology, advanced technologies for forestry and agriculture, aquaculture and marine technology, composites and advanced materials and precision manufacturing?
That’s a lot of words. But Question 2 is a bond measure that would provide $25 million for investment in research, development and commercialization in industries with ties to Maine’s economy. If approved, the $25 million would go to the Maine Technology Institute, which is a quasi-governmental agency that gives out grants and loans. An advisory board would then accept applications for grants for projects in those fields.
QUESTION 3: Do you favor a $10,000,000 bond issue to restore historic buildings owned by governmental and nonprofit organizations, with funds being issued contingent on a 25% local match requirement from either private or nonprofit sources?
Another bond measure, this would authorize the state to borrow $10 million to restore historic buildings. The money would be handed out by Maine’s Historic Preservation Commission, and only historic buildings that are owned by government agencies or nonprofit groups would be eligible. In order to receive the grant, the recipient would have to come up with 25% of the total cost in “matching funds.”
QUESTION 4: Do you favor a $30,000,000 bond issue to invest in the design, development and maintenance for nonmotorized, motorized and multi-use trails statewide, to be matched by at least $3,000,000 in private and public contributions?
If approved by voters, this would be Maine’s first-ever bond measure specifically earmarked for trails. The $30 million in borrowing would pay for design, construction and maintenance of recreational trails around the state. These would be for both motorized and non-motorized use — so it could be hiking trails, ATV trails, or for multi-use trails that cater to a range of activities.
Maine has literally tens of thousands of miles of trails that are important to both state residents and the broader tourism economy. This would create a new trails program within the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands to oversee a competitive grant program.
QUESTION 5: Do you favor making the former state flag, replaced as the official flag of the State in 1909 and commonly known as the Pine Tree Flag, the official flag of the State?
Question 5 has received the most buzz among the five ballot measures. Basically, it’s asking voters whether they want to stick with the current flag — featuring the state seal against a blue background — or swap it for what’s often referred to as the Pine Tree flag. That flag features a green pine tree and a blue star against a beige background. The Pine Tree flag is already everywhere in Maine: on bumper sticks, hats, t-shirts, coffee mugs and, of course, atop flagpoles. But this would make it official.
The proposed flag design is an altered version of Maine’s first state flag, which flew over state buildings for about a decade in the early 1900s. For reasons that aren’t totally clear, the Legislature decided to replace it with the one showing the state seal, potentially as a way to honor the state’s many Civil War veterans who flew similar banners as part of the Union Army.
Maine’s current flag is a fairly common design so there’s been a push in recent years to bring back the more unique, original flag. Opponents have dismissed the proposed re-design as childish and said the current flag better honors the state’s farming and fishing heritage.
Consumers have clearly already spoken, given the popularity of the old-but-new-again design. The question is: will the majority of voters agree?
