Your Vote 2026

The push for a constitutional amendment to overturn the landmark ruling has faced entrenched opposition, but some hope public revulsion at the sheer volume of campaign spending will nudge Congress toward reform.

Baldacci is a state senator, a former mayor and city councilor from Bangor and the brother of former governor and congressman John Baldacci. He joins four other Democrats who have already filed paperwork to succeed Congressman Jared Golden, a Democrat who is not seeking reelection.

Maine U.S. Senate hopeful Graham Platner drew yet another packed crowd to a town hall Tuesday night in South Portland, but this one had a different focus than usual: It called for taxing the rich to fund health care.

AdImpact, an organization tracking political ads, estimates the Maine Senate contest could help draw more than $300 million in spending on congressional races in the state next year. That’s nearly a third more than the record-smashing amount spent in 2020 when Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins secured her fifth term.

Wood leaves a Democratic Senate primary dominated by Gov. Janet Mills and oyster farmer Graham Platner. His decision follows last week's announcement by U.S. Rep. Jared Golden that he won't seek reelection.

Jared Golden made the announcement in a lengthy column published in the Bangor Daily News in which he lamented the increasing hostility in the nation's politics and threats against him and his family.

The poll shows that 58% of likely Democratic primary voters favor Platner. Janet Mills, Maine's two-term governor, who was recruited by national party leaders, was polling at just 24%. None of the other candidates in the crowded field received more than 1%.

For nearly two months, Graham Platner’s bid for the U.S. Senate was marked by momentum and bravado as the political newcomer drew big crowds to his town halls and he channeled Democratic voters’ hopes for a newer, brasher kind of candidate. During an interview in late September, he said, “I’ll just say, it’s been very surreal.” Reality has arrived over the past week. Now comes a test of Democratic primary voters' risk aversion.

Platner says he didn't know about the Nazi affiliation when he got the tattoo as an 18-year-old rifleman in the Marines.

Shah, who lives in Brunswick, was the public face of Maine's response to the COVID pandemic and also held the second-highest position at the U.S. CDC for two years until President Donald Trump regained office.