Maine 2018 Election Results: Mills Beats Moody; King Cruises

PORTLAND, ME — Democratic Attorney General Janet Mills seized on the unpopularity of President Donald Trump and Gov. Paul LePage to defeat Republican businessman Shawn Moody on Tuesday night. Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Angus King Jr., an independent who caucuses with Democrats in the Senate, successfully defended his seat against two challengers, and Republican U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin was in a dead sprint with Democrat Jared Golden.

The "blue wave" and anti-Trump sentiment failed to give Democrats decisive control of Congress, it did give them enough of a boost to take control of the U.S. House for the first time in eight years. Maine voters flooded the polls Tuesday and long lines were seen at multiple polling locations across the state as officials rolled out its new ranked-choice voting system

In the House, the most watched race is between Poliquin, the Republican incumbent and Golden, currently a member of the state House. Many experts thought the district could flip from red to blue, as it did with the governorship.

Governor

Maine was one of 36 states holding elections for governor this year. LePage, who has held the position since 2010, is term-limited, and Democrats pinned their hopes on Mills to swoop in and retake the executive office. She entered the night with good odds, too — the position hasn't seen the same party win back-to-back in more than 65 years.

And the stakes were high. According to Ballotpedia, the state legislature draws new maps for U.S. House and state legislative seats — currently controlled by the Democrats — but the governor can veto the proposals.

Mills served as attorney general from 2009-10 and then again took the office in 2012, where she has held it ever since. Before that, she was a Democrat in the state House.

Moody, her Republican opponent, started a business at 17 years old that became Moody's Collision Centers. He went on to serve on the boards of the University of Maine System and the Maine Community College System.

The race was expected to be somewhat competitive, but the election gurus at FiveThirtyEight said Mills was likely going to win. They gave her an 87.5 percent chance to win, compared to just 12.5 percent for Moody.

According to RealClearPolitics, Mills surged ahead in the polls in recent months. While initially tied in August, two polls conducted in October showed Mills leading by 8 points.

The Cook Political Report, however, labeled the race as one of 10 toss-ups nationwide, suggesting there could've been a surprise.

On The Issues

Mills

Mills has said she wants to expand Medicaid, address the opioid epidemic and improve the state's economy. She believes health care is a human right and said she'll work to make it more affordable and accessible for the middle class, businesses and self-employed workers. Mills also supports implementing universal pre-K for every 4-year-old in the state.

Moody

Moody says he is not a politician, but a job creator. He calls himself a common sense conservative who would prioritize job creation over welfare benefits to lift people out of poverty and trim the budget. Moody wants to focus on lowering health care costs and protect the right to bear arms. When it comes to education, he says he wants parents and local governments to control their children's curriculum and have teachers receive performance-based pay increases.

U.S. Senate

King, an independent who has held the seat since 2012, won a second term against challengers Zak Ringelstein, a Democrat, and Eric Brakey, a Republican. The race wasn't expected to be competitive.

The Cook Political Report said the race was solidly Democratic — King caucuses with the Democrats — and FiveThirtyEight gave King a 99.3 percent chance of winning compared to .7 percent for Brakey and 0 percent for Ringelstein.

According to RealClearPolitics, King had as much as a 27 point lead over Brakey in the polls in August and early October. The most recent poll taken from Oct. 27-29 showed his lead had essentially halved to 13 points, but comfortably far ahead of his opponent.

House

Both House seats were up for grabs on Nov. 6, but just one was expected to be competitive.

1st District

In Maine's 1st District, incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree defeated Republican Mark Holbrook and independent Marty Grohman. He won with 58 percent of the vote.

Pingree, who has held the seat since 2009, is one of the safest Democratic votes in the House and was very likely to emerge victorious Tuesday. In fact, FiveThirtyEight gave Pingree a 99.9 percent chance of winning.

2nd District

Maine's other district, which includes Portland and Augusta, proved to to be much more intriguing, as expected. Poliquin, the incumbent Republican, was essentially tied Wednesday with Golden, a Democrat currently representing the 60th District in the state House of Representatives. While the Cook Partisan Voter index indicates the district leans slightly to the right — it voted for Republicans in the past two presidential elections — the site called the race a toss-up.

FiveThirtyEight also called the race a toss-up, but gave Golden a 59.2 percent chance of winning. RealClearPolitics gave Golden an ever-so-slight advantage at .4, with the latest poll showing him up by 1 point.

On The Issues

Poliquin

Poliquin writes on his campaign website that he is not a politician, but rather a job creator. He opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal and supported speeding up the natural gas permitting process.

Poliquin also supported eliminating the individual mandate and supported penalizing so-called sanctuary cities that refused to cooperate with federal authorities in detaining immigrants living in the country unlawfully.

Golden

Golden says America needs to treat health like a basic right for every American and says he would try to protect coverage for people with pre-existing conditions and try to lower drug prices. He also supports a Medicare-for-all system.

Golden would also try to protect Social Security and Medicare. When it comes to education, Golden plans to propose a universal service program where students can get a two-year education benefit in exchange for two-years of service, including in AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, Teach for America and the military.

Photo credit: Shutterstock