Maine ranked-choice primaries lift second-place Democrats to victories

Maine’s ranked-choice system turned two closely watched Democratic contests into a public test of coalition politics, with ballots reshuffled in Augusta until a candidate crossed 50 percent. The state’s tabulation opened June 12 at 1 p.m. at the Maine Department of Public Safety Headquarters, was open to the public and livestreamed, and was set to wrap before the Juneteenth holiday.

Under Maine rules, a candidate must win more than half of first-choice votes to take a race outright. If no one does, the lowest finisher is eliminated round by round until one contender secures a majority in the final count. In the Democratic governor primary, five candidates sought the nomination to succeed term-limited Gov. Janet Mills, and no one cleared the first-round threshold.

AP reported that Hannah Pingree led the first round with 50,078 votes, or 23.3 percent, while Nirav Shah led the field with 57,703 votes, or 26.8 percent. The ballot also included Troy Jackson, Shenna Bellows and Angus King III, two candidates whose family names carried immediate recognition in a race where personal networks mattered as much as ideology. By the final round, Shah had expanded his total to 86,950 votes, showing how transfers from eliminated candidates can decide a race that starts without a majority winner.

The same dynamic reshaped Maine’s 2nd Congressional District. Matt Dunlap won the Democratic primary after a ranked-choice runoff, defeating state Sen. Joe Baldacci, whom the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee backed, and former congressional chief of staff Jordan Wood. Politico said the three leading candidates finished within 3 percentage points in the June 9 primary, while Paige Loud finished first-round with about 10 percent. Once ballots were redistributed, Dunlap emerged on top and will now face former Republican Gov. Paul LePage in one of the country’s most important battleground districts.

That seat carries unusually high stakes. Jared Golden chose not to seek reelection, Republicans see a chance to flip the district, and Donald Trump carried it three times, including by 9 points in 2024. LePage also knows the terrain, having won the 2nd District in his 2022 gubernatorial comeback attempt even while losing statewide.

Maine first used ranked-choice voting in a June 12, 2018 primary, and the June 9, 2026 primary stretched across the ballot, including U.S. Senate, both House seats, governor, all 35 state senate districts, all 151 state representative districts and selected county offices. The results show why the system remains a national test case: it can elevate candidates who are not first-place winners on election night, or it can simply reveal which contenders can build the broadest coalition once lower choices are removed.