The 2018 Maine gubernatorial election took place on November 6, 2018, to elect the
governor of Maine
The governor of Maine is the head of government of the U.S. state of Maine. Before Maine was admitted to the Union in 1820, Maine was part of Massachusetts and the governor of Massachusetts was chief executive.
The current governor of Maine is J ...
. It occurred along with elections for the
U.S. Senate,
U.S. House
The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...
, and other state and local elections. Incumbent
Republican governor
Paul LePage was term-limited and could not seek re-election to a third consecutive term; he later unsuccessfully sought a third term in
2022
The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...
. This was one of eight Republican-held governorships up for election in a state carried by
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...
in the
2016 presidential election.
The primaries for this election were the first in Maine to be conducted with
ranked choice voting (RCV), as opposed to a simple plurality, after voters passed
a citizen referendum approving the change in 2016. An
advisory opinion
An advisory opinion of a court or other government authority, such as an election commission, is a decision or opinion of the body but which is non-binding in law and does not have the effect of adjudicating a specific legal case, but which merely ...
by the
Maine Supreme Judicial Court
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court is the highest court in the state of Maine's judicial system. It is composed of seven justices, who are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Maine Senate. Between 1820 and 1839, justices served lifetime ...
held that RCV would be unconstitutional for general elections for governor and the state legislature. This led state legislators to vote to delay its implementation pending approval of a state constitutional amendment. Backers of a "people's veto" turned in enough signatures to suspend this law until a
June referendum vote, which restored RCV for future primary and congressional elections.
Governor
Paul LePage threatened not to certify the results of the primary elections, saying he would "leave it up to the courts to decide." He also called the use of ranked-choice voting the "most horrific thing in the world." Secretary of State
Matthew Dunlap said the results would be binding regardless of whether LePage certified them.
The Republican nominee was businessman and
2010 independent candidate for governor Shawn Moody. The
Democratic candidate was
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...
Janet Mills
Janet Trafton Mills (born December 30, 1947) is an American politician and lawyer serving since 2019 as the 75th governor of Maine. She previously served as Maine Attorney General.
A member of the Democratic Party, Mills was first elected a ...
.
State Treasurer
In the state and territorial governments of the United States, 54 of the 56 states and territories have the executive position of treasurer. New York abolished the office of New York State Treasurer in 1926, in which the duties were transfer ...
Terry Hayes and businessman Alan Caron had qualified for the ballot as independents, though Caron dropped out on October 29 and endorsed Mills. Former state senator and former mayor of
Lewiston and
Auburn John Jenkins and perennial candidate Kenneth Capron ran write-in campaigns.
Mills defeated Moody and Hayes with a majority to become the first female governor of Maine. This was the first election since
2006
2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification.
Events
January
* January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute.
* January 12 – A stampede during t ...
that Maine elected a Democratic governor. Mills was also the first gubernatorial candidate to win at least 50% of the vote since
Angus King
Angus Stanley King Jr. (born March 31, 1944) is an American lawyer and politician who has served since 2013 as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States senator from Maine. A Independent politician, political independent, h ...
in
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...
, and the first non-incumbent to do so since
Kenneth M. Curtis in
1966
Events January
* January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko.
* January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...
. Mills also became the first Maine gubernatorial candidate to earn 300,000 votes and received more votes for governor than any other candidate in state history. This also marks the first gubernatorial election since 1982 that a Democrat would win a majority of the popular vote.
Background
Incumbent Republican
Paul LePage was term-limited, having been elected twice consecutively in
2010
The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...
and
2014
The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...
. LePage did not win a majority of the vote either time (receiving 37.6% in a crowded four-way race in 2010 and 48.2% in a three-way race in 2014), with Democrats accusing independent candidate
Eliot Cutler of splitting the anti-LePage vote in both instances, though Cutler finished closer to LePage than Democratic candidate
Libby Mitchell in the 2010 election.
Maine's history of governors elected without majorities, including LePage, was one impetus for the
citizen's referendum to implement
ranked choice voting. Indeed, the last time a gubernatorial candidate received a majority of the vote was in
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...
, when incumbent governor (and current United States Senator)
Angus King
Angus Stanley King Jr. (born March 31, 1944) is an American lawyer and politician who has served since 2013 as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States senator from Maine. A Independent politician, political independent, h ...
, an independent, won reelection with 58.6% of the vote. The last time a non-incumbent candidate received more than 50% of the vote was the
1966 gubernatorial election, which Democrat
Kenneth M. Curtis won over incumbent Republican
John H. Reed with 53.1% of the vote.
Though ranked-choice voting was approved by voters in a
2016 referendum, the
Maine Legislature
The Maine State Legislature is the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Maine. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral body composed of the lower house Maine House of Representatives and the upper house Maine Senate. ...
voted to delay and potentially repeal RCV for all elections after an
advisory opinion
An advisory opinion of a court or other government authority, such as an election commission, is a decision or opinion of the body but which is non-binding in law and does not have the effect of adjudicating a specific legal case, but which merely ...
by the
Maine Supreme Judicial Court
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court is the highest court in the state of Maine's judicial system. It is composed of seven justices, who are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Maine Senate. Between 1820 and 1839, justices served lifetime ...
ruled it unconstitutional for general elections for state offices. RCV supporters succeeded in a people's veto effort to prevent the delay, which suspends it until a June 2018 referendum vote. RCV supporters were victorious in the June referendum, and ranked-choice voting will remain in place for state and federal primaries and federal general elections.
Republican primary
Speculation that U.S. Senator
Susan Collins
Susan Margaret Collins (born December 7, 1952) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Maine. A member of the Republican Party, she has held her seat since 1997 and is Maine's longest-serving member of ...
was considering running for governor arose during the 2015
Maine Legislative session when Representative
Matt Moonen (D-Portland) introduced a bill to strip the governor (LePage at the time) of the power to appoint replacement U.S. Senators in the event of a vacancy and to instead have a special primary and general election. Moonen denied that he was motivated by Collins's possible candidacy, saying he was interested only in counterbalancing Republican-sponsored bills to change how the
Maine Attorney General
The Maine Attorney General is the chief legal advisor and prosecutor of the Maine, State of Maine. The constitutional basis of the office is Article IX, Section 11 of the Maine Constitution, and the holder of the position is chosen biennially by t ...
and
Maine Secretary of State are chosen. Moonen said Collins had told him speculation about her running for governor was "silly."
Collins, who was the
1994 Republican nominee for Governor, told
MPBN News on January 4, 2016, that though she was "baffled" by the rumors about her being interested in running for governor, many had encouraged her to run, and she would not rule it out.
In October 2017, Collins said she would not run for governor in 2018.
No Republican candidate ruled out challenging the results of a ranked-choice primary in court.
Mary Mayhew called for the immediate repeal of RCV, calling it a "scam" and "probably illegal".
The
Maine Republican Party
The Maine Republican Party is an affiliate of the United States Republican Party in Maine. It was founded in Strong, Maine, on August 7, 1854. The party currently does not control the governor's office or either chamber of the Maine Legislatur ...
filed a federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court in
Bangor on May 4, 2018, seeking to bar the use of RCV for its own primary on the grounds that requiring the party to use it violates its
First Amendment
First most commonly refers to:
* First, the ordinal form of the number 1
First or 1st may also refer to:
Acronyms
* Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array
* Far Infrared a ...
rights to choose its nominee as it sees fit. U.S. District Court Judge Jon Levy rejected the suit on May 29.
Candidates
Nominated
*Shawn Moody, businessman and independent candidate for governor in
2010
The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...
Eliminated in primary
*
Ken Fredette, state house minority leader
*
Garrett Mason, state senate majority leader
*
Mary Mayhew, former commissioner of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services
Withdrawn
* Deril Stubenrod, write-in candidate for the U.S. Senate in
2014
The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...
*
Mike Thibodeau, Maine Senate president
Declined
*
Rick Bennett, former chairman of the
Maine Republican Party
The Maine Republican Party is an affiliate of the United States Republican Party in Maine. It was founded in Strong, Maine, on August 7, 1854. The party currently does not control the governor's office or either chamber of the Maine Legislatur ...
, former
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film and television
*'' Præsident ...
of the
Maine Senate
The Maine Senate is the upper house of the Maine Legislature, the state legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Maine. The Senate currently consists of 35 members representing an equal number of districts across the st ...
, candidate for the U.S. Senate in
2012
2012 was designated as:
*International Year of Cooperatives
*International Year of Sustainable Energy for All
Events January
*January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins.
* January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...
and nominee for
ME-02 in
1994
The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations.
In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...
*
Susan Collins
Susan Margaret Collins (born December 7, 1952) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Maine. A member of the Republican Party, she has held her seat since 1997 and is Maine's longest-serving member of ...
, U.S. senator and nominee for governor in
1994
The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations.
In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...
* Nick Isgro, Mayor of
Waterville
*
Bruce Poliquin, U.S. representative (ran for reelection)
* Peter Vigue, businessman
Endorsements
Polling
Debate
Results
Democratic primary

Almost all Democratic candidates said that they would abide by the results of the ranked-choice primary, with only
Janet Mills
Janet Trafton Mills (born December 30, 1947) is an American politician and lawyer serving since 2019 as the 75th governor of Maine. She previously served as Maine Attorney General.
A member of the Democratic Party, Mills was first elected a ...
refusing to comment on the issue because it was being heard by the courts.
Candidates
Nominated
*
Janet Mills
Janet Trafton Mills (born December 30, 1947) is an American politician and lawyer serving since 2019 as the 75th governor of Maine. She previously served as Maine Attorney General.
A member of the Democratic Party, Mills was first elected a ...
, Maine Attorney General
Eliminated in primary
* Adam Cote, attorney, Iraq War veteran and candidate for
ME-01 in 2008
* Donna Dion, former mayor of
Biddeford
*
Mark Dion
Mark Dion (born August 28, 1961) is an American conceptual artist best known for his use of scientific presentations in his installations. His work examines the manner in which prevalent ideologies and institutions influence our understanding ...
, state senator and former
Cumberland County Cumberland County may refer to:
Australia
* Cumberland County, New South Wales
* the former name of Cumberland Land District, Tasmania, Australia
Canada
*Cumberland County, Nova Scotia
United Kingdom
* Cumberland, historic county
*Cumberl ...
Sheriff
*
Mark Eves, former
Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives
*
Diane Russell, former state representative
* Betsy Sweet, former director of the
Maine Women's Lobby
Failed to make ballot
* Dominic A. Crocitto
* Steve DeAngelis, schoolteacher
* J. Martin Vachon
Withdrawn
*
James Boyle, former state senator
* Patrick Eisenhart, retired
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...
Commander
*
Sean Faircloth, former mayor of
Bangor and former state senator
* Kenneth Forrest Pinet
Declined
*
Justin Alfond, former state senator and former
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film and television
*'' Præsident ...
of the
Maine Senate
The Maine Senate is the upper house of the Maine Legislature, the state legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Maine. The Senate currently consists of 35 members representing an equal number of districts across the st ...
* Yellow Light Breen, CEO of the Maine Development Foundation
*
Adam Goode, former state representative
*
Troy Jackson,
State Senate
In the United States, the state legislature is the legislative branch in each of the 50 U.S. states.
A legislature generally performs state duties for a state in the same way that the United States Congress performs national duties at ...
Minority Leader
*
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...
, author
*
Chellie Pingree
Chellie Marie Pingree ( ; born Rochelle Marie Johnson; April 2, 1955) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2009. Her district includes most of the southern part of the state, centered around the Portland area ...
, U.S. Representative
*
Hannah Pingree, former Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives
* Lucas St. Clair, nonprofit executive (ran for
ME-02)
Endorsements
''All endorsers are Democrats unless otherwise specified.''
Polling
Results
Green Independent primary
Candidates
Withdrawn
* Jay Parker Dresser, candidate for
ME-02 in
2016
2016 was designated as:
* International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly.
* International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...
* Betsy Marsano, activist
Libertarian primary
Candidates
Withdrawn
* Gilbert P. Doughty
* Richard Light
Independents
Candidates
Declared
* Kenneth A. Capron, perennial candidate, systems analyst and fraud investigator(write-in candidate)
*
Terry Hayes,
Maine State Treasurer[
* John Jenkins, former mayor of Lewiston, former mayor of Auburn and former Democratic state senator(write-in candidate)
Capron and Jenkins failed to qualify for the ballot, but continued their campaigns as write-in candidates.
]
Withdrawn
* Ethan Alcorn, businessman (did not qualify)
*Alan Caron, president and CEO of Envision Maine (endorsed Mills)
* Aaron D. Chadbourne, writer and activist (write-in candidate, endorsed Moody)
Failed to make ballot
* Karmo Sanders, actress
Declined
* Eliot Cutler, attorney and candidate for governor in 2010
The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...
and 2014
The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...
* Angus King, U.S. Senator and former governor ( running for re-election)
* Peter Vigue, businessman
* Richard G. Woodbury, former state senator
General election
After the primaries, most prediction models had the race as a tossup, noting Paul LePage's two victories and Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...
's narrow margin of victory in the state in the 2016 presidential election. Others considered it to be a pick-up opportunity for the Democrats. Both Moody and Mills received the backing of outside money, with one PAC spending in excess of $1 million on television advertising in the state to support Mills's candidacy.
On October 12, Jonathan Martin of ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' published an article detailing a sex discrimination complaint filed against Moody and his business in 2006, which Moody settled for $20,000, resulting in the complaint being withdrawn. The complaint alleged that Moody went to the residence of a female employee and fired her for having a child just days after delivering the child via an emergency caesarean section
Caesarean section, also known as C-section, cesarean, or caesarean delivery, is the Surgery, surgical procedure by which one or more babies are Childbirth, delivered through an incision in the mother's abdomen. It is often performed because va ...
. Moody denied the allegation through a spokesperson and later on Twitter.
Though the first poll of the race saw Mills and Moody tied for first place with Hayes and Caron lagging behind, by the end of October, four different polls were released, each showing Mills with an eight-point lead over Moody. ''FiveThirtyEight
''FiveThirtyEight'', also rendered as ''538'', was an American website that focused on opinion poll analysis, politics, economics, and sports blogging in the United States.
The website, which took its name from the number of electors in the U ...
'' declared the race "Likely D" when its gubernatorial projections were released in October, though other prediction models maintained the race as a tossup.
On October 29, in a press conference at the main branch of the Portland Public Library, Caron dropped out of the race and endorsed Mills. His name remained on the ballot, but any votes cast for him were regarded as blank.
Shortly before 10 pm on election night, Hayes conceded the race. At 12:15 am on November 7, Moody conceded the race to Mills, and shortly thereafter Mills declared victory at Democratic headquarters in Portland. Mills became the first Maine gubernatorial candidate to receive more than 300,000 votes in a single election. Mills also became the first Maine gubernatorial candidate to win a majority of the vote since Angus King won nearly 59% of the vote in his re-election bid in 1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...
, and became the first candidate to win a majority of the popular vote for a first term since Kenneth M. Curtis defeated incumbent governor John H. Reed in 1966
Events January
* January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko.
* January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...
, though Curtis and Reed were the only candidates in that race.
The general election used plurality voting
Plurality voting refers to electoral systems in which the candidates in an electoral district who poll more than any other (that is, receive a plurality) are elected.
Under single-winner plurality voting, and in systems based on single-member ...
, not ranked-choice voting.
Predictions
Endorsements
* ''Endorsements in bold were made after the primaries on June 12, 2018.''
Debates
Polling
if ranked-choice voting were used
Results
By county
Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic
* Franklin (largest town: Farmington)
* Hancock (largest town: Ellsworth)
* Kennebec (largest town: Augusta)
* Lincoln (largest town: Waldoboro)
* Sagadahoc (largest town: Bath
Bath may refer to:
* Bathing, immersion in a fluid
** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body
** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe
* Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities
Plac ...
)
* Waldo (largest town: Belfast
Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...
)
*York
York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...
(largest town: Biddeford)
By congressional district
Mills won one of the two congressional districts. Moody won the other, which elected a Democrat.[https://davesredistricting.org/maps#viewmap::9fd5b08c-1830-4d60-a0c8-387c764ecfb0]
See also
* 2018 United States gubernatorial elections
References
External links
Maine Secretary of State – Elections Division
Candidates
at Vote Smart
Vote Smart, formerly called Project Vote Smart, is an American non-profit, non-partisan research organization that collects and distributes information on candidates for public office in the United States. It covers candidates and elected offic ...
Candidates
at Ballotpedia
Ballotpedia is a nonprofit and nonpartisan online political encyclopedia that covers federal, state, and local politics, elections, and public policy in the United States. The website was founded in 2007. Ballotpedia is sponsored by the Lucy Bur ...
Official campaign websites
Kenneth Capron (I) for Governor
Terry Hayes (I) for Governor
John Jenkins (I) for Governor
Janet Mills (D) for Governor
Shawn Moody (R) for Governor
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maine Gubernatorial Election, 2018
Gubernatorial
2018
Events January
* January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency.
* January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...
2018 United States gubernatorial elections