Read all of our coverage of Maine's 2026 election or stay up to date with the latest developments through the Maine Political Report in your inbox or text messages from politics editor Kirby Wilson.

Douglas Rooks is an editor, columnist and author. His biography of Maine Gov. Ken Curtis, “Transformational,” has just been published. He welcomes comment at [email protected].

Ten days after Maine’s June 9 primary, the most consequential outing for ranked-choice voting since it began in 2018, results finally emerged.

In two major races, the order of finish was reversed, with the election-night leader losing and the second-place finisher vaulting to the top.

In the 2nd Congressional District, Matt Dunlap won the Democratic nomination over Joe Baldacci. This was not really a surprise. The top three candidates were closely bunched, and since both Dunlap and Jordan Wood had staked out positions to the left of Baldacci, it made sense their voters’ second choice would be the like-minded candidate.

It was different in the Democratic race for governor. Having compiled a substantial lead, 7,500 votes, Nirav Shah seemed poised to prevail over the closely bunched second- through fourth-place finishers.

But the ranked choices were not random, as they were in the Republican race for governor.

Though there was no doubt Bobby Charles would win, he and second place finisher Ben Midgley gained roughly equal votes throughout seven elimination rounds.

Not so with Democrats. The eventual winner, Hannah Pingree, picked up disproportionate support, swamping Shah in the last two rounds by more than 2-1.

The reason for this was likely a pact announced late in the campaign by Pingree, Troy Jackson and Shenna Bellows. They asked supporters to rank the other two candidates ahead of Shah, and the stratagem worked, with Pingree gaining a margin almost equal to Charles’ in the final round.

This outcome creates doubt in some voters’ minds. A candidate alliance wasn’t in the original brief for ranked-choice voting Now that it has succeeded, we can expect more in the future.

The task now for Pingree, after pulling in only 23% of support initially, will be convincing backers of other candidates that she represents them, too.

In a year most voters say they want change, Pingree embodies the Maine Democratic establishment. She was endorsed by outgoing Gov. Janet Mills, served for years in Mills’ administration and is the daughter of current 1st District Rep. Chellie Pingree.

As a former speaker of the House, an admired legislator and a capable administrator well-grounded in her community, Pingree has all the prerequisites to become a successful governor.

As we learned in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary, however, experience alone isn’t enough.

Nothing would establish Pingree’s independence and self-confidence as much as inviting her principal rival to serve as commissioner of Health and Human Services, the most important cabinet office.

In the primary, Shah was cast as the outsider. His principal credential was the work he did for Gov. Mills as director of the Maine CDC, and after that under President Joe Biden as deputy director of the federal CDC. Shah would be well-suited to make difficult changes needed to rectify well-documented management failings at DHHS.

Pingree will also need to move decisively to find competent, independent-minded commissioners for two other important but poorly led departments, Education and Transportation, whose performance has been declining through three administrations.

Sixty years ago, after some first-year reverses, Gov. Ken Curtis decided to find aides who were “smarter than he was,” and he assembled a brilliant cast. Not since Angus King has any governor adopted that principle — though King never said so out loud.

As we look to the fall campaign, some things are obvious. One is that the nationally important Senate race between Graham Platner and five-term incumbent Susan Collins will dominate coverage. Platner blew away all records, winning 72% over Mills, and his 150,000 votes were 30,000 more than any previous Democratic nominee.

More important, while in 2018 Democratic voters were marginally more numerous than Republicans, Democrats had 70,000 more votes for governor this year in the first “open primary” where unenrolled voters could participate.

They chose a Democratic ballot by 3-1. This adds up to a substantial “enthusiasm gap” that could increase; Republicans are saddled with a unpopular president winding down his futile war of aggression against Iran. Inflation is still dramatically higher than when he took office.

Platner, Dunlap and Pingree all stand to benefit, here. Those creating scenarios where independent Rick Bennett wins the governorship, or helps elect Charles, need to rethink.

While Bennett is an attractive candidate, he’s also a lifelong Republican. The counter example is the disgraced Eliot Cutler, a lifelong Democrat who ran as an independent in 2010 and 2014, and unquestionably pulled votes from the Democratic nominees. Simply put, Bennett will not help Charles.

If Pingree wins, the real question is whether, after a hyper-partisan election, she can become the “governor of all the people” we’ve so lacked. About that, we may have some signs as early as this summer.