Pingree & Charles Win Nominations for Governor; Dunlap to Face LePage in CD 2
Last Friday, the Maine Secretary of State announced the party nominees for Governor and the Second Congressional District after the votes were tabulated in the ranked-choice primary election. Democrats have chosen former House Speaker Hannah Pingree of North Haven and Republicans nominated lobbyist Bobby Charles of Wayne for Maine Governor. Both candidates will face unaffiliated candidate Rick Bennett in the November election. In the Congressional race, Democrats nominated State Auditor Matt Dunlap to face Republican Paul LePage.
In a statement, Pingree, 49, said her campaign will focus on creating more affordable housing to allow young people to stay in Maine, lowering health costs and “standing up against Donald Trump’s reckless attacks.”
“Heading into November, I need all of you—whether I was your first choice or your fifth or you didn’t participate in the primary at all—because beating Bobby Charles and Rick Bennett requires a diverse coalition of Mainers in this state pulling together,” said Pingree.
300 union members and other Mainers canvassed as volunteers with the Maine AFL-CIO to support our brother Troy Jackson for Governor, knocking on over 25,000 doors across Maine. Although he didn’t prevail in the election, we are proud of the campaign Troy ran and the working class issues he elevated. We're also proud of the labor primary campaign program we ran with a robust field, member to member, mail and independent expenditure program. For us, Troy is not just a politician with the right policies. He’s family and he has fought for us his entire career.
“While the final result didn’t go how we wanted, I’m proud of what we built over the last years,” said Jackson in a statement. “We were never supposed to come this far. We didn’t have the corporate PAC money. We didn’t have many friends in high places. We didn’t have big budget TV ads or high priced galas. What we had was the energy, passion, and creativity of thousands of working class Mainers who poured themselves into this campaign. I’m forever grateful.”
He continued, “I want to extend my sincere congratulations to my friend Hannah Pingree for securing the Democratic nomination for Governor. Rest assured that what we built here together does not end today. It begins.”
On Primary Election Day, the first-choice votes were as follows:
Shah: 58,606
Pingree: 50,552
Jackson: 45,959
Bellows: 44,770
King: 17,860
Last place finisher Angus King III was the first candidate eliminated in the ranked choice tabulation. About 60 percent of his voters picked a second choice and a plurality went to Pingree, with Shah close behind, followed by Bellows and Jackson.
Round 1: King Second-Choice Votes
1) Pingree: 37% (+4,808)
2) Shah: 33% (+4,254)
3) Bellows: 18% (+2,279)
4) Jackson: 13% (+1,638)
Bellows fell about 548 votes behind Troy Jackson, so she was the next one eliminated. About 90 percent of Bellows’ supporters picked second and third choice candidates. 48 percent them chose Pingree, 29 percent picked Jackson and 23 percent picked Shah. This propelled the North Haven Democrat into the lead.
Round 2: Bellows Second & Third Choice Votes
1.) Pingree: 75,671
2.) Shah: 72,681
3.) Jackson: 60,010
In the third round, 72 percent of Jackson voters chose Pingree next and 28 percent selected Shah, giving her a 25,000-vote margin over the former Maine CDC director. Thankfully, the majority received the “anyone but Shah” message.
Final Tally:
1. Pingree: 111,750
2. Shah: 86,950
Pingree, who is the daughter of First District Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, previously served four terms as a State Representative from 2002 to 2010 and one term as Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives. Pingree earned a 100% pro-labor voting record with the Maine AFL-CIO during her time in the Legislature. She worked very closely with the Firefighters union on priority workplace safety legislation of theirs. She has consistently opposed efforts to repeal collective bargaining rights and supported bills to allow forestry workers and child care workers to unionize.
She has pledged to support the right of public sector workers’ right to strike and to make arbitration on economic issues binding for public sector workers like teachers and firefighters. Pingree says she would also support a Constitutional Amendment banning right-to-work for less laws and safe staffing for hospitals.
Bobby Charles won the Republican nomination for Governor with 59,873 votes, or 60.3%, over runner-up Ben Midgley, who received 39,499 votes, or 39.7%, in the seventh and final round. Charles, 65, grew up in Wayne and worked under Republican President Ronald Reagan and for Republican President George H. W. Bush in the Office of Domestic Policy. He also served as a Naval Intelligence Officer and Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) under President George W. Bush. He is currently President and Managing Member of his Washington D.C. lobbying firm, The Charles Group.
Charles faced criticism in the GOP primary for his unrealistic plan to cut $4 billion out of the state budget and eliminate the income tax while also cutting property taxes. In a debate, Republican gubernatorial candidate Garrett Mason said Charles’ plan would tank the economy. Such a plan would require laying off a substantial portion of the state’s workforce.
State Senator Rick Bennett of Oxford, 63, is also running for Governor as an “independent” who is unaffiliated with any party. A former Maine Republican Party Chairman, Bennett changed his party affiliation in June, 2025. Although he initially supported President Donald Trump and served as an elector for Trump in 2016, Bennett has since become a Trump critic.
Bennett’s record on labor is quite mixed. Bennett has a lifetime 51% labor voting record. He voted for right-to-work for less in 2023, but voted against it in 2025. He has supported some labor priorities. However, he opposed safe nurse-patient ratios in hospitals, a millionaire’s tax, Buy American legislation and addressing forced overtime in the paper industry.
Dunlap Wins Democratic Nomination for Congress
State Auditor Matt Dunlap of Old Town clinched the Democratic nomination to succeed Rep. Jared Golden for Congress, defeating State Senator Joe Baldacci, Jordan Wood and progressive social worker Paige Loud. Dunlap will face former Republican Governor Paul LePage in the general election. After winning the primary, Dunlap, 61, took aim at his opponent Paul LePage for his record of rejecting millions of federal dollars to provide MaineCare to 90,000 Maine people, cutting taxes for the rich and shifting the tax burden to property taxes and “embarrassing our state on a national level.”
“Together, we're going to defeat Paul LePage one more time and make sure he's never on the ballot again,” said Dunlap. “While we're at it, we're going to fight to advance policies that will actually help Mainers — like Medicare for All, affordable childcare, a lower cost of living, and stopping this illegal war in Iran.”
Dunlap is a former union member and husband of CWA 1400 member and former State Rep. Michelle Dunphy (D-Old Town). Dunlap supports the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would crack down on union busters and make it easier to form unions. Dunlap opposed President Trump’s “unnecessary blanket tariffs," but supports "strategically applying tariffs” to hold foreign companies and countries accountable for unfair trade practices that harm local industries. Dunlap has also prioritized federal funding for rural hospitals and reproductive rights.
He was born and raised in Bar Harbor and served in the Maine House from 1996 to 2004, chairing the Committee on Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. An avid hunter, he also served briefly as the Executive Director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine. From 2004 to 2011 and from 2013 to 2020, he served as the Maine Secretary of State.
Republican nominee Paul LePage, 77, served as Maine's Governor from 2011 to 2018 where he earned a reputation for being virulently anti-worker. During his eight years as Governor, Paul LePage relentlessly waged a war on workers, eliminated collective bargaining rights, blocked measures to increase the minimum wage from a measly $7.50 an hour, demonized public employees and robbed workers' pensions to give the rich a tax break. For a full run-down of Paul LePage’s dismal record on unions and workers’ rights visit our webpage.