Maine 2016 Election Results

Maine held its general election on November 8, 2016, deciding 186 legislative seats. No chamber changed party control.

Highlights

• Split control survived into Gov. Paul LePage's final two years. Republicans kept the Senate, though their edge slipped from 20-15 to 18-17, and Democrats held the House at 77-72-2, a thinner majority than in the past two years, denying LePage the Republican House he needed.
• The Senate majority held through trades in both directions:
  • Democrats gained two Aroostook County seats. Troy Jackson (D), returning after a two-year hiatus, beat Timmy Guerrette (R) in Senate District 1 and was elected Senate minority leader days later; Michael Carpenter (D) beat Ricky D. Long (R) in Senate District 2.
  • Democrats also won two open Republican seats: Shenna Bellows (D) in Senate District 14 and Eloise Vitelli (D) over Guy Lebida (R) in Senate District 23.
  • Republicans ousted two Democratic incumbents: Lisa Keim (R) beat John L. Patrick (D) by about 12 points in Senate District 18, and Dana Dow (R) beat Christopher K. Johnson (D) by about 5 points in Senate District 13.
  Republicans also kept their leader, as Senate President Mike Thibodeau (R) narrowly won his rematch with Jonathan Fulford (D) by about 800 votes in Senate District 11.
• The ballot carried the night's biggest policy changes, several by thin margins:
  • Question 5 made Maine the first state to adopt ranked-choice voting, though Attorney General Janet Mills was among those who raised constitutional concerns.
  • Question 1 legalized marijuana by about half a point; opponents abandoned their recount in December.
  • Question 2, which passed by about a point, added a 3 percent surcharge on income above $200,000 to fund schools. LePage opposed it and urged lawmakers to delay implementation of the surtax.
  • Question 4 raised the minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020 and phased tipped workers up to the same base pay.
  Voters also approved the Question 6 transportation bond and rejected Question 3, which would have required background checks for private gun sales, by about 4 points.
• Across both chambers, 24 legislative seats changed hands and 13 incumbents lost. Several House races came down to a few dozen votes:
  • Owen D. Casas (I) won the open House District 94 seat by 12 votes over Kathleen Meil (D).
  • Robert S. Duchesne (D) held House District 121 by 25 votes over Gary Drinkwater (R).
  • Garrel Craig (R) unseated Arthur Verow (D) by 55 votes in House District 128.

Legislature

• House (151 seats): 78 D, 69 R, 4 other or vacant before the election, 77 D, 72 R, 2 other or vacant after; control stayed with Democrats.
• Senate (35 seats): 15 D, 20 R before the election, 17 D, 18 R after; control stayed with Republicans.

Legislative races

Ballot measures