Pingree wins Maine governor’s race

Former Maine House Speaker Hannah Pingree (D) was projected to defeat Republican Bobby Charles in the state’s gubernatorial race, according to Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ), with Pingree securing a third consecutive term for Democrats.

Pingree will succeed outgoing Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who is term limited. She faced Charles, a former George W. Bush administration official, as well as independent candidate Rick Bennett, a former Republican state Senate president.

DDHQ projected that Pingree defeated Charles by almost 6 percentage points with 29 percent of the vote counted as of 10:32 p.m. EST.

Pingree, daughter of Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), has a long legislative history in the state. She was first elected to the Maine House in 2002 at age 26, later rising to House majority leader and then House Speaker by age 32, becoming the second woman to serve in that role.

She left the state Legislature in 2010 because of term limits, later leading the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future under Mills.

Hannah Pingree emerged from a crowded Democratic primary that included former Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Nirav Shah, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, former clean energy executive Angus King III and former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, who went on to replace Graham Platner as the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate this cycle.

Pingree initially trailed Shah in first-choice votes but won the ranked-choice count on the fourth round, drawing support from voters whose preferred candidates were eliminated.

Pingree entered the final days of the race as the favorite, even as Jackson and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) were locked in a competitive Senate contest. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rated the race “Solid Democrat,” while DDHQ rated the race as “Likely Democrat” and gave Pingree an 85 percent chance of winning the race as of Friday.