Special Report: Maine's 2nd District Goes to Ranked Choice — LePage's 5,418-Vote Edge and a Nov. 9 Tabulation

The Maine Secretary of State certified that neither Paul LePage nor Matt Dunlap cleared 50% of first-choice ballots. Tabulation begins Monday in Augusta. In a night of Democratic House gains, this open seat is one of the few realistic Republican pickups still on the board. Here is the process watch.

By Clara Hughes

Most of the House map broke blue. Maine's sprawling 2nd District — more than 27,000 square miles, the largest district east of the Mississippi, the Secretary of State noted — is refusing to behave. This Special Report is the numbers-and-process desk for CD-2 alone, as they stood when this was written Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. The first-choice table Maine's 487 municipalities reported 341,248 total ballots in the race, the Secretary of State's Nov. 5 release said: Paul LePage (R) 170,263 votes (49.894%); Matthew Dunlap (D) 164,845 (48.307%); declared write-ins 123 (0.036%); blank votes 6,017 (1.763%). Because no candidate received more than 50% of total ballots cast, ranked-choice tabulation was ordered for Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, at 10 a.m. at the Maine Department of Public Safety Headquarters,