facebook instagram
Water Safety Tips Every Family Should Know (Before Summer Starts) Read Now
2026 Maine Election Guide
2026 Maine Election Guide Read More
Support Our Work Support Our Work
What Are You Looking For?
Popular Searches

2026 Maine Election Guide

If you’ve been meaning to “look into the election” somewhere between school drop-off, work, practice, dinner, and bedtime, this guide is for you.

This is one of the most important elections Maine has seen in years. On November 3, we’ll choose a new governor, a U.S. senator, both of our members of Congress, and every seat in the Maine Legislature, plus local races like school board that shape our kids’ days in very real ways. The people we elect will make decisions about child care, health care, schools, housing, and the cost of raising a family here.

You don’t need to be a policy expert to vote with confidence. You just need a plan and the right information. So we’ve pulled it all together in one place: key dates, how to vote early or absentee, how to find out exactly what’s on your ballot, and the questions worth asking any candidate, whatever their party.

Gubernatorial Candidates

Hannah Pingree (D)

✔️ Health care: Create a state-backed public health insurance option

✔️ Education: Invest in evidence-based reading and math; opposes diverting public school money to charters

✔️ Immigration: Supports limits on state cooperation with ICE and wants ICE out of Maine

✔️ Housing: Invest $100 million a year in housing production

✔️ Energy: Rein in utility profits and reach 100% clean power by 2040

✔️ Taxes: Double the homestead exemption; supports the new tax on income over $1 million

✔️ Tribal sovereignty: Supports full restoration, as a first-100-days priority

✔️ Data centers: Would pause development until strong protections are in place

 

View Hannah’s campaign website for more: https://hannahforgovernor.com/

Bobby Charles (R)

✔️ Health care: Supports federal Medicaid work requirements; more private-sector involvement

✔️ Education: Overhaul the curriculum; supports charter schools

✔️ Immigration: Would repeal limits on state cooperation with ICE

✔️ Housing: Lower taxes and offer incentives for low-cost and prefab housing

✔️ Energy: Expand natural gas, end solar subsidies, and leave a regional climate coalition

✔️ Taxes: Eliminate the state income tax and cut state spending

✔️ Tribal sovereignty: Has not taken a position

✔️ Data centers: Undecided; will support what’s good for Mainers

 

View Bobby’s campaign website for more: https://www.bobbyformaine.com/

Rick Bennett (I)

✔️ Health care: Put Maine on a path to universal health care; medical debt relief

✔️ Education: Evidence-based curriculums; more state funding for school counselors and mental health staff

✔️ Immigration: Voted for limits on state cooperation with ICE; critical of ICE tactics

✔️ Housing: Help first-time buyers with down payments and mortgage assistance

✔️ Energy: Lower utility profit margins and expand weatherization

✔️ Taxes: Expand property tax relief, especially for older Mainers, and cut state waste

✔️ Tribal sovereignty: Supports full restoration

✔️ Data centers: Supported a temporary moratorium

 

View Rick’s campaign website for more: https://bennettforgovernor.com/

U.S. Senate Candidates

Troy Jackson (D)

✔️ Health care: Supports Medicare for All

✔️ Immigration: Abolish ICE and shift its work to other federal agencies

✔️ Housing: No detailed plan found

✔️ Energy: Blames the Iran war for high fuel prices; supported expanding Maine’s solar credit program

✔️ Taxes: Agrees high earners should pay more into Social Security; opposes tax cuts for billionaires

✔️ Tribal sovereignty: Supports full sovereignty for the Wabanaki Nations

✔️ Foreign policy: Wants to end the Iran war

✔️ Data centers: Should create good union jobs, pay their fair share, protect natural resources, and not raise Mainers’ energy bills

✔️ Trade: Opposes the president’s tariffs and says Collins should have done more to stop them

✔️ Education: As Maine Senate president, helped pass universal school meals and major child care investments

 

View Troy’s campaign website for more: https://www.jacksonformaine.com/

Susan Collins (R)

✔️ Health care: Voted against the final 2025 federal tax and spending law; says Maine could raise its Medicaid payments to hospitals

✔️ Immigration: Reform ICE rather than eliminate it; secured funding for body cameras and de-escalation training, and says too many agents were hired without enough vetting or training

✔️ Housing: Blames state policies for high housing costs and says the core problem is supply

✔️ Energy: Make the U.S. energy independent, expand weatherization, and speed up federal heating aid for Maine

✔️ Taxes: Agrees high earners should pay more into Social Security

✔️ Tribal sovereignty: Supports some expanded tribal authority but says broader sovereignty is up to the state.

✔️ Foreign policy: Voted against several resolutions to end the Iran war but has backed others

✔️ Data centers: Decide case by case

✔️ Trade: Opposes the tariffs on Canada and won exemptions for Maine products like pulp, concrete and road salt

✔️ Education: No public position found

 

View Susan’s campaign website for more: https://susancollins.com/

U.S. House of Representatives District I Candidates

Chellie Pingree (D)

✔️ Health care: Longtime cosponsor of Medicare for All; voted against the 2025 federal tax and spending law over its Medicaid and ACA cuts

✔️ Immigration: Calls current ICE actions unconstitutional and opposes ICE arrest quotas

✔️ Housing: Expand the Low Income Housing Tax Credit to build more affordable rentals

✔️ Energy: Invest in renewable energy and increase federal heating assistance

✔️ Taxes: Wealthy Americans and corporations should pay their fair share

✔️ Tribal sovereignty: Helped extend Violence Against Women Act protections to Wabanaki women

✔️ Foreign policy: Opposes the Iran war and has repeatedly voted for war powers resolutions to end it

✔️ Data centers: No public position found

✔️ Trade: Says tariffs can be useful but the president’s arbitrary use of them has hurt Maine businesses

✔️ Education: No public position found

 

View Chellie’s campaign website for more: https://chelliepingree.com/

Ron Russell (R)

✔️ Health care: Opposes government-run health care and restoring the ACA subsidies; would have voted for the 2025 federal law despite its Medicaid cuts

✔️ Immigration: Supports immigration enforcement and opposes sanctuary policies; wants the Biddeford shooting investigation made public

✔️ Housing: Lower energy costs and inflation to bring down building and mortgage costs

✔️ Energy: End renewable energy subsidies and build more U.S. fuel refineries

✔️ Taxes: Says taxes are too high

✔️ Tribal sovereignty: Wabanaki Nations should get the same benefits as other tribes nationwide

✔️ Foreign policy: Supports the Iran war and keeping ground troops as an option; supports aid to Ukraine, but not a “blank check”

✔️ Data centers: No public position found

✔️ Trade: No public position found

✔️ Education: No public position found

 

View Ron’s campaign website for more: https://ronrussellforcongress.com/

U.S. House of Representatives District II​ Candidates

Matthew Dunlap (D)

✔️ Health care: Restore ACA subsidies and reverse Medicaid cuts; supports Medicare for All long term

✔️ Immigration: Keep ICE but change how it operates; would cut its extra funding and add oversight if it doesn’t

✔️ Housing: Make it easier for affordable housing developers to get financing; take on private equity buying up homes

✔️ Energy: Short-term heating oil relief and long-term investment in domestic renewable energy

✔️ Taxes: Supports a billionaire tax

✔️ Tribal sovereignty: Supports restoring full sovereignty to the Wabanaki Nations

✔️ Foreign policy: Would vote to end the Iran war and wants stronger congressional oversight of the president

✔️ Data centers: Supports standards so data centers benefit workers, ratepayers and local communities

✔️ Trade: Opposes blanket tariffs; wants Congress to have more say over them

✔️ Education: Supports free public college and affordable child care

 

View Matt’s campaign website for more: https://www.mattdunlapforuscongress.com/

Paul LePage (R)

✔️ Health care: Opposes Medicaid expansion and Medicare for All; backs the federal rural health fund and cracking down on fraud

✔️ Immigration: Tough on illegal immigration; says ICE has “run roughshod” in Maine but opposes new limits on it from Congress

✔️ Housing: Federal housing funds should focus on older Mainers; says illegal immigration strains housing supply

✔️ Energy: Restrict diesel exports and suspend fuel taxes to lower costs

✔️ Taxes: Supported the 2025 federal tax and spending law; says high earners should pay more into Social Security

✔️ Tribal sovereignty: Opposed expanding tribal sovereignty as governor

✔️ Foreign policy: Opposes the Iran war but wants regime change there and no nuclear Iran, without U.S. ground troops

✔️ Data centers: Strong supporter, if they generate their own power

✔️ Trade: Doesn’t support the current tariffs on Canada and wants both sides back at the negotiating table

✔️ Education: No detailed plan found; has focused on keeping transgender athletes out of girls’ sports

 

View Paul’s campaign website for more: https://lepageforcongress.com/

More Information...

Register to Vote

Missed the online registration deadline? You can still register. Maine lets you register in person at your town or city office, right up through Election Day, including at your polling place.

Bring:

  • Proof of identity, like a driver’s license or state ID
  • Proof of residency, like a utility bill, lease or bank statement with your current address

Not sure if you’re registered? Check your status and find your polling place with the Maine Voter Information Lookup.

Request an Absentee Ballot

Every registered Maine voter can vote absentee. No excuse needed.

  • Request online: absenteeballotrequest.sos.maine.gov
  • Or contact your town clerk: Find your municipal clerk
  • Track your ballot: Once you request it, you can follow its status online through the Secretary of State.
  • Returning it close to the deadline? Skip the mail and use a ballot drop box outside your municipal office.

Important Dates

  • Now through Oct. 29: Early in-person voting (in-person absentee) at your town or city hall
  • Oct. 29: Last day to request an absentee ballot
  • Nov. 3, Election Day: Polls open as early as 6 a.m. in some towns and close at 8 p.m. Hours vary by town, so check with your clerk.
  • Nov. 3 by 8 p.m.: Absentee ballots must be received by your town, not just postmarked

Every issue in this guide, from child care and health care to housing, energy and our schools, comes down to who we send to Augusta and Washington. Parents carry so much of the weight of these decisions, and we deserve a say in them. You don’t need to have every answer to vote with confidence. You just need a plan. So pick your day, check your registration, bring a friend, and bring the kids along if you can, because showing them how we participate is one of the best lessons we can give. See you at the polls, Maine!