Republican congressional candidate Austin Theriault has pulled the plug on the recount of his race against 2nd District U.S. Rep. Jared Golden.
Theriault requested the recount after Golden, a Democrat, emerged from a ranked-choice runoff with a lead of more than 2,700 votes — less than 1% of the more than 400,000 votes cast during the election.
While the recount was expected to take weeks to finish, Theriault announced Wednesday that he no longer wished to pursue it.
The announcement came after the hand count of larger towns in the district showed no mathematical path for the Republican to overcome the deficit.
Golden's victory is the narrowest of his congressional career, which began after he defeated former Republican U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin in 2018 after a ranked-choice runoff.
