Maine 2014 Election Results

Maine held its general election on November 4, 2014, deciding 186 legislative seats and the office of Governor. Control shifted: the Senate moved from a 19-15 Democratic majority to a 20-15 Republican majority.

Highlights

• Paul LePage (R) won a second term and Democrats kept the House, leaving a split legislature under a Republican governor. In December the Senate chose Michael D. Thibodeau (R), who had won his own Senate District 11 race by 135 votes, as the seventh Republican Senate president since 1968. The House re-elected Mark Eves (D) as speaker after an unexpected challenge from Republican leader Ken Fredette (R).
• LePage beat Mike Michaud (D) by about 5 points, with independent Eliot Cutler, who had nearly won in 2010, held to about 8 percent. Michaud lost despite high-profile defections from Cutler supporters, including U.S. Sen. Angus King. The Press Herald credited LePage’s focus on welfare reform and his stance on illegal immigration.
• Catherine Breen (D) won Senate District 25, but not until January. She led Cathleen A. Manchester (R) on election night, a recount reversed the result, and the new Republican majority provisionally seated Manchester. A special committee then found that 21 ballots for Manchester had been counted twice during the recount. Manchester said she would resign, and Breen was sworn in in January.
• The Democratic senators Republicans beat on the way to a Senate majority included Colleen M. Lachowicz (D), who lost her bid for re-election in Senate District 16 to Scott Cyrway (R), and James Boyle (D), whom Rep. Amy F. Volk (R) unseated in Senate District 30 in the year’s costliest legislative election. In the House, Democrats kept a smaller majority, 79-68-4.
• Voters passed all 6 bond issues and rejected Question 1, a ban on bear baiting, hounding, and trapping. It was the second time in 10 years they had rejected an identical proposal. Backers outraised opponents, but the state wildlife department strongly opposed the measure.

Legislature

• House (151 seats): 89 D, 58 R, 4 other or vacant before the election, 79 D, 68 R, 4 other or vacant after; control stayed with Democrats.
• Senate (35 seats): 19 D, 15 R, 1 other or vacant before the election, 15 D, 20 R after; control moved from Democrats to Republicans.

Statewide races

Legislative races

Ballot measures