Maine US Senate 2026
Election day is November 3, 2026. A statewide contest in Maine.
Who is favoured in Maine US Senate?
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What the Maine US Senate election decides
The Senate confirms federal judges and cabinet officers, ratifies treaties, and can stop legislation the House passes. With a six-year term and a hundred-member chamber, a single seat is a larger share of the institution than any House district, which is why Senate races draw national money into state contests.
Each state sends two senators regardless of population, so this seat carries the same weight as California's or Wyoming's. Maine voters fill it alongside all 2 of the state's House seats and the governorship, and a Senate term runs six years, spanning two future Congresses and, in this case, the next presidential election.
How Maine votes
Maine splits politically between its more liberal southern coast around Portland and a rural, working-class north. It allocates electoral votes by congressional district, uses ranked-choice voting, and rewards candidates with independent profiles. That backdrop is the ground any Maine campaign fights on, and it is what the Electorate HQ simulation reads first when it weighs a ticket's platform against this contest.
About this race
The 2026 United States Senate election in Maine will be held on November 3, 2026, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the state of Maine. Republican incumbent Susan Collins is seeking a sixth term. She is being challenged by Democratic former state Senate president Troy Jackson. The election will be conducted with ranked-choice voting.
In the June 9 primaries, Collins was the only candidate to qualify for the Republican nomination. Sullivan harbor master Graham Platner won the Democratic primary over Governor Janet Mills with the support of progressive leaders, but withdrew from the race on July 10 following sexual assault accusations and other controversies. Jackson was chosen to replace Platner via a nominating convention held on July 25.
As Collins is the only Republican senator representing a state that President Donald Trump did not win in any of his three presidential campaigns, the race is considered to be among the most competitive in 2026. Democrats have not won a Senate election in Maine since 1988.
Latest coverage of the Maine US Senate race
Six write-in candidates file for Maine U.S. Senate race, prompting ranked-choice votingIn a competitive Maine Senate race, women voters could be the decidersMaine’s U.S. Senate race grows with six write-in candidatesMaine’s U.S. Senate race to include 6 write in candidates, triggering ranked choice votingHow Troy Jackson went from Maine logger to Democratic nominee for Senate against Susan CollinsResults from the June 9th Primaries in Maine, Nevada, North Dakota, and South CarolinaWhere things stand in the Susan Collins-Troy Jackson Maine Senate raceWomen in Maine may choose the victor in this year's Senate raceThe rest of the Maine ballot
Every Maine House district, the counties inside each one, and an address lookup that resolves your exact districts are on the Maine state page.
Other 2026 races in Maine
Analysis covering Maine
Twenty-six states elect a senator and a governor on the same day in 2026
The overlap between the Senate class and the gubernatorial cohort is a coincidence of two unrelated calendars, and it decides where money goes.
The 2026 Senate map covers 62% of the country and 70% of the states
Thirty-five of fifty states vote for Senate this year. Weighted by people rather than states the share drops, and that gap is the design of the chamber.