State Auditor Matt Dunlap, a progressive Democrat, won the Democratic primary in northern Maine’s battleground House district early Friday, according to state election officials.
The race call came 10 days after voters went to the polls. Elections officials tabulated second-choice votes under the state’s ranked-choice system after no candidate won more than 50 percent of the first-choice vote.
Mr. Dunlap, 61, advanced out of a four-way primary that included a centrist state senator, Joe Baldacci, and a progressive former congressional staffer, Jordan Wood. Mr. Dunlap had narrowly trailed Mr. Baldacci in the initial count of first-place votes, but was lifted to victory by second-choice ballots.
Mr. Baldacci was the runner-up, the Maine secretary of state’s office said early Friday morning, after a protracted vote-counting process.
Mr. Dunlap is set to face the Republican nominee, former Gov. Paul LePage, in the November general election.
The congressional district, Maine’s Second, is currently held by Representative Jared Golden, a centrist Democrat who is vacating his seat. The district is rural and leans to the right; President Trump carried it in 2016, 2020 and 2024. It is expected to offer Republicans one of their best opportunities to flip House a seat in the midterms.
Mr. Dunlap has sought to separate himself from Mr. Golden, questioning Mr. Golden’s decision to join with Republicans on certain issues.
“His votes confused a lot of people,” Mr. Dunlap said in a recent interview.
In winning the congressional primary, Mr. Dunlap overcame an intervention by the campaign arm of House Democrats, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which supported Mr. Baldacci, a moderate.
But Mr. Dunlap received more than $500,000 from the Real Change PAC, a mysterious new political action committee, according to campaign finance filings. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said the spending came as part of a Republican effort to meddle in the race. Mr. Dunlap’s campaign said it had told the group not to spend on its race.
Mr. Dunlap sought to distinguish himself from Mr. Baldacci by dismissing what he called his “incremental approach” to governing. Instead, Mr. Dunlap called for universal health care and universal child care.
Mr. Dunlap was the Maine secretary of state from 2005 to 2011 and from 2013 to 2021. He is a former line cook, fur trapper and nonprofit administrator. He grew up on a farm in Bar Harbor and now lives in Old Town.
In pivoting to the general election, he will take on Mr. LePage, a two-term governor with a reputation as a combative conservative showman. Mr. LePage once described himself as “Donald Trump before Donald Trump.”
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