Is Janet Mills the only Maine Democrat to win a statewide election in 20 years? | Fact brief

Gov. Janet Mills — who won the Blaine House in 2018 and again in 2022 — is the only Maine Democrat to win a statewide election since 2006. Mills has repeated the claim multiple times during her ongoing campaign for U.S. Senate.

Before Mills, the last Maine Democrat to win statewide was Gov. John Baldacci, who won a second term in 2006, according to Ballotpedia, a nonpartisan election information website. 

Since Baldacci’s win, Maine’s only other statewide general election winners have been Sen. Susan Collins and former Gov. Paul LePage, both Republicans, and Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats. 

In that timespan: Collins won reelection to the Senate in 2008, 2014 and 2020; LePage won the governor’s races in 2010 and 2014; and King won his Senate seat in 2012 before being reelected in 2018 and 2024.

Mills is seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Collins in the 2026 Senate race.