Maine's Political Pulse

While public polling in the contest has been scarce, Bobby Charles has drawn the most scrutiny from his rivals.

With the primary elections just a month away, the five Democrats running for Maine governor are each working to distinguish themselves in a race that’s been both issue-oriented and remarkably civil, at least so far.

This week, Mills, who's been trailing Platner in publicly available polling, launched an attack ad that leans heavily on one of her strengths to try to expose a potential weakness in her opponent’s resilient candidacy: women voters.

The fight for the House District 94 seat in Lewiston is a preview of — or perhaps an early skirmish in — this fall’s larger battle between the parties for state houses in Maine and across the country.

The prospects of ramped-up federal immigration enforcement in Maine’s two largest cities elicited strong responses from state and local elected leaders that — not surprisingly — fell largely along partisan lines. Plus the 2026 money race and Platner gets personal.

The past year delivered a lot of big surprises and Rep. Jared Golden's sudden decision to abandon his reelection bid was among them. Maine Public chief politics correspondent Steve Mistler and fellow politics correspondent Kevin Miller recently sat down with Rep. Jared Golden for a lengthy conversation about the factors that led to his decision.During the conversation, he spoke about the warring factions within the Democratic Party; how some Democrats refuse to recognize the electoral realities of the 2nd Congressional District that he represents; and yes, about that infamous column he wrote before the 2024 election that made so many Democrats angry. He also had a few things to say about why he drew a primary challenger this year from former Secretary of State Matt Dunlap.

AdImpact, an organization tracking political ads, estimates the Maine Senate contest could help draw more than $300 million in spending on congressional races in the state next year. That’s nearly a third more than the record-smashing amount spent in 2020 when Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins secured her fifth term.

The longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history is over. But with little to show for it, the mostly Democratic politicians who ended the standoff now face intense backlash.

The results from Tuesday’s referendum election highlighted new challenges for conservative activists hoping to use Maine’s citizens’ initiative process to implement long-sought changes to election law, while also challenging the supremacy gun rights groups have historically had over firearms laws.

On Tuesday, Maine voters will settle long-running policy debates over voter ID and guns during an off-year election that has been overshadowed by events in DC and primary contests that won't be decided until next year.

For nearly two months, Graham Platner’s bid for the U.S. Senate was marked by momentum and bravado as the political newcomer drew big crowds to his town halls and he channeled Democratic voters’ hopes for a newer, brasher kind of candidate. During an interview in late September, he said, “I’ll just say, it’s been very surreal.” Reality has arrived over the past week. Now comes a test of Democratic primary voters' risk aversion.

State House correspondent Kevin Miller spoke with political science professor Jim Melcher from the University of Maine-Farmington about Gov. Janet Mills' bid for the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins next fall.

Proponents of Question 2 argue that the existing law — often referred to as Maine’s yellow flag law — is a failed experiment that was not used to stop a gunman in Lewiston from killing 18 people and injuring and traumatizing countless others in 2023 despite warnings about his deteriorating mental health.

The competing narratives about Question 1’s true objectives and potential impacts are perhaps best epitomized by the names of the groups leading the fight on either side: Voter ID for ME and the Save Maine Absentee Voting Coalition.

There’s a bonafide primary contest among Democrats in the Maine race for the U.S. Senate. And one of the leading contestants, Gov. Janet Mills, isn't even an official candidate yet.

Defeating Susan Collins is Graham Platner’s primary goal, but he and his campaign also signaled that they’re gearing up for a potential fight against power brokers in the Democratic National Committee.

The 2026 gubernatorial election is 16 months away, yet Republican hopeful Bobby Charles has already managed to break through the mostly routine campaign rollouts by the rest of the ever-growing field of candidates.

The Maine Legislature wrapped up this year’s session on Wednesday night. Here's what they got done and still have left to do.

This week we’re gonna catch up on the latest from the State House where the Legislature is racing toward the end of the session. There’s a lot going on. But we’re going to focus on a few highlights, starting with a conflict between Democrats and Republicans over a "red flag" bill that will appear as a ballot measure in November.

Nearly one year after President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in the hopes of stopping certification of the 2020 election, the Maine House of Representatives debated a resolution commemorating the assault on Congress that ultimately led to the conviction of more than 1,270 rioters.

Some members of Congress, including most of Maine's delegation, are increasingly uneasy with President Donald Trump's tariffs — but efforts to curtail his power are likely going nowhere.

Welcome to April and a political news cycle that never stops. This week we’re going to focus on a few developments with the goal of providing a little clarity and context that isn’t always achievable when news breaks and deadlines loom.