Incumbent Jared Golden (D) defeated Dale Crafts (R) and write-in candidates Daniel Fowler (D) and Timothy Hernandez (D) in the general election for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District.
Golden was first elected in 2018, defeating incumbent Bruce Poliquin (R) 50.6% to 49.4%. The election was the first U.S. House election to be decided via ranked-choice voting and the first time an incumbent had been defeated in the district since 1916.
As in 2018, this year’s election made use of ranked-choice voting, a system in which voters rank their preferred candidates rather than voting for a single candidate. If no candidate is the first choice of a majority of voters, the bottom-placing candidate is eliminated and their votes distributed to their voters’ next choice. The process continues until one candidate receives a majority of votes.
This was one of 30 districts Democrats were defending this year that Donald Trump (R) had carried in the 2016 presidential election. That year, he defeated Hillary Clinton (D) 51% to 41% in the district.
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