Voter Guide: Governor’s Race
After eight years with Democrat Janet Mills at the helm, Maine voters will be choosing a new governor in November. The race features three prominent candidates in Republican nominee Bobby Charles, Democratic nominee Hannah Pingree and independent Rick Bennett.
Charles is a lawyer who spent time as a lobbyist and bureaucrat at the federal level. Pingree held a top policy position in the Mills administration and previously served as Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives. She is the daughter of current U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree. Bennett serves in the Maine Senate and was a longtime Republican, even spending time as the state party’s chairman several years ago, before recently becoming an independent.
Votes for two write-in candidates, independent John Glowa and Republican Randy Wilcox, will also count. Unlike the U.S. Senate race, ranked-choice voting will not be used in the general election contest for governor, meaning the winner could potentially receive less than 50 percent of the vote.
On the issues
In partnership with C-SPAN, The Maine Monitor’s elections reporter Matt Junker sat down with each of the three candidates for governor on the ballot for a wide-ranging interview. You can see what they had to say on specific topics, or watch the interviews in full, below.
