AUGUSTA, Maine — Democrat Hannah Pingree won her party's nomination for governor of Maine after ranked-choice tabulation of the June 9 primary, party and state officials said Friday.
Pingree, a former speaker of the Maine House of Representatives and former director of the state's Office of Policy Innovation and the Future, will face Republican Bobby Charles in the Nov. 3 general election to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Janet Mills. An independent candidate, Rick Bennett, will also appear on the ballot.
In the Democratic primary, no candidate received a majority of first-choice votes. Nirav Shah led with about 26.8% of first preferences, followed by Pingree with 23.3%, Troy Dale Jackson with 21.1%, Shenna Bellows with 20.6% and Angus King III with 8.2%, according to preliminary results. After multiple rounds of ranked-choice redistributions, Pingree defeated Shah in the final round by 56.2% to 43.8%, state election officials said.
The process, which involved eliminating the lowest vote-getter in successive rounds and redistributing those ballots according to voters' next preferences, concluded early Friday morning.
Pingree, the daughter of U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, has been endorsed by Mills. In her victory statement, she highlighted priorities including housing, health care and climate action. "We have a lot of work to do to make Maine more affordable and to build an economy that works for everyone," she said in remarks reported by local outlets.
Maine uses ranked-choice voting for primaries when no candidate secures a majority. The system was applied after the June 9 contests, in which five Democrats and multiple Republicans competed in an open race.
Republicans selected Bobby Charles as their nominee in a parallel process. Charles will challenge Pingree in a state that has leaned Democratic in recent presidential elections.
Details on final certified vote totals and turnout were still being finalized by the Maine Secretary of State's office as of Friday. The general election will determine the state's next governor amid ongoing debates over affordability, energy and economic development.
