AUGUSTA, Maine — Another nationally targeted race is upon Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, the largely rural swath of the state where voters have moved rightward in recent years and Democrats are looking to knock off two-term U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin.
Since the Republican took the seat in 2014, his district has gone from leaning Democratic by party registration to leaning Republican. It went to President Donald Trump in a historic 2016 split of Maine’s electoral votes on the heels of other victories in the area for Gov. Paul LePage and Republicans.
It’s still one of the two dozen or so districts most likely to flip control of the U.S. House of Representatives in November. More than $3.9 million in outside money has flowed into the race with millions more pledged, making it one of the 20 most expensive 2018 races so far by that measure, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Poliquin was leading the Democratic candidate, Assistant Maine House Majority Leader Jared Golden, in the only public poll of the race published last month by The New York Times, though the error margin meant they could have been tied. The race will be decided by ranked-choice voting with two independents whose supporters could break to Golden.
To read the rest of “How Maine’s 2nd District went red and why it matters in 2018,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Michael Shepherd, please follow this link to the BDN online.
