Verified reporting
Reporting: what Maine confirmed Thursday
Former Maine Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican, won the race for Maine's 2nd Congressional District after the state's ranked-choice tabulation, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said Thursday, November 12, according to the Portland Press Herald. The Bangor Daily News described the figures as unofficial results from the secretary of state's office.
After the ballot review and tabulation, LePage finished with 170,890 votes to 165,432 for Democrat Matt Dunlap, the state auditor, a margin of 5,458 votes, or 50.8% to 49.2%, the Press Herald reported. NEWS CENTER Maine reported the confirmed shares as 50.81% and 49.18%.
The outcome itself was not in suspense. LePage declared victory at a Bangor press conference the day after the election, and Dunlap conceded a day later, according to the Press Herald. The Bangor Daily News reported that the final margin falls outside the threshold for a state-funded recount.
The seat flips from Democratic control. It has been held since 2019 by Rep. Jared Golden, a centrist Democrat, in a district the Bangor Daily News notes President Donald Trump carried three times. LePage will be the only Republican in Maine's congressional delegation, and the Press Herald reports he will be the only Republican from New England in Congress.
Legal / factual context
Context: why a 5,000-vote lead still went to a runoff count
Maine law requires a ranked-choice tabulation when no candidate wins a majority of first-choice votes, and the Press Herald reports that all ballots cast, including blanks, count toward that initial total. Municipal returns reported by NEWS CENTER Maine showed LePage at 170,263 votes to Dunlap's 164,845, with 123 votes for declared write-in candidate Gregory Ward and 6,017 blank votes. That left LePage, by the Press Herald's count, 362 votes short of a majority when the tabulation began Monday.
Once ballots that ranked no one were set aside, LePage had a majority in the first round, the Bangor Daily News reported. Of 1,243 write-in ballots, 254 ranked Dunlap next and 180 ranked LePage. The Press Herald reported that officials spent three livestreamed days verifying ballots, including hand reconciliation of ballots tabulators could not read, before Director of Elections Heidi Peckham ran the ranked-choice numbers at about 1:30 p.m. Thursday. LePage's margin grew by 40 votes through the process.
The broader Maine picture went the other way. The Bangor Daily News and Press Herald report that Democrat Troy Jackson unseated Sen. Susan Collins, Democrat Hannah Pingree won the governor's race, and Democrats expanded their legislative majorities. The Press Herald described LePage as one of only three Republicans so far this cycle to flip a Democratic-held House seat. LePage, 78, attended new-member orientation in Washington this week. His adviser Brent Littlefield said in a Thursday statement that LePage will "work with anyone, regardless of Party, to put Maine first."
Sources and reading
- Paul LePage's victory confirmed after ranked-choice count, state says (Portland Press Herald, Nov. 12, 2026)
Bellows confirmation; final totals 170,890 to 165,432; 5,458-vote margin; 362 votes shy entering tabulation; three-day livestreamed review; Littlefield statement. - Paul LePage wins Maine's 2nd District after ranked-choice count (Bangor Daily News, Nov. 12, 2026)
Unofficial results; write-in reallocation; outside recount threshold; Golden seat since 2019; only Republican in delegation. - Paul LePage's election win confirmed after final ranked-choice voting count (NEWS CENTER Maine, Nov. 12, 2026)
50.81% to 49.18%; municipal returns; declared write-in Gregory Ward; 6,017 blank votes.
Reporting above is based on the cited records. The section labeled “Our view” is editorial opinion. This article is not legal advice. Our Gadsden Flag is an independent brand, not a government or military organization.
Conservative commentary · Our view
Our View: rural Maine showed up, and the count proved it
Congratulations to Paul LePage and to the voters of Maine's 2nd District. In a cycle the Press Herald itself calls a blue wave, rural Maine refused to be carried along by it. LePage won by running up margins in small towns and working communities that Washington too often treats as an afterthought. That is a lesson every conservative should take to heart: elections are won by people who show up, not by national headlines.
Credit is also due to Matt Dunlap, who conceded when the math was clear. Graceful concessions are part of what keeps self-government stable, and they deserve to be noticed whichever party offers them.
But this race is also a case study in why we remain skeptical of ranked-choice voting. A candidate who led by more than 5,000 votes, and whose opponent had already conceded, still waited more than a week for a centralized, spreadsheet-driven tabulation in Augusta to confirm what every voter already knew. Maine's officials ran an open process, livestreamed and observed, and we give them credit for that. Yet complexity is not a virtue in elections. The simpler the rules, the easier it is for ordinary citizens to understand, audit and trust the outcome. One person, one clearly counted vote, decided at the precinct, remains the best guardian of public confidence.
Finally, LePage's own message is worth holding him to. He arrives as a freshman in what the Press Herald describes as a heavily Democratic House. Working across the aisle to put Maine first is fine, so long as it never means trading away the principles his voters sent him to defend: limited government, fiscal discipline, secure borders and the Second Amendment rights that rural Mainers exercise every hunting season. Maine sent a fighter back into public life. Now he needs to fight for them.
United in Freedom. Defended by Patriots.