Nirav Shah, Candidate for Governor speaks during the Maine Democratic Convention in Portland in May 2026.(Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer)
BRUNSWICK — Maine’s Democratic primary for governor remained unsettled Tuesday night, but former health official Nirav Shah appeared to be the candidate to beat in the five-way race after about half of the votes were counted.
Shah had about 27% of the vote as of 11:20 p.m.; former Maine House Speaker Hannah Pingree had 23%; former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson had 22%; and Secretary of State Shenna Bellows had 21%.
Green energy entrepreneur Angus King III looked to be headed for a fifth-place finish, failing to crack double digits.
In a speech to supporters as results began to roll in, Shah sounded confident in his prospects of winning the primary.
“I stand here before you as the clear frontrunner in the Democratic race,” Shah said at his campaign event at Wild Oats Bakery & Café in Brunswick.
At a watch party at Bayside Bowl in Portland, Pingree posed for selfies with supporters and drank a celebratory beer. Delivering remarks to the crowd around 9 p.m., she said she was grateful for all the work that went into the campaign and was feeling optimistic about how the race will turn out.
“I am deeply honored to be your candidate for governor,” Pingree said. “I believe we’re going to win this thing, with your help, and thank you all for being here with me.”
The Associated Press said around 10:45 p.m. that the race would head to a runoff, where a winner will be declared once a candidate garners more than 50% support. It could be a week or longer before results are known, since the runoff requires collecting ballots from across the state, bringing them to a central location in Augusta, retabulating the totals and applying the ranked-choice methodology. The secretary of state’s office said that process may not begin until Friday.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Hannah Pingree listens to a question from the media at Bayside Bowl in Portland on Tuesday night. In the background, fellow candidate Shenna Bellows is seen on a screen. (Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer)
In the runoff, the candidate who garnered the fewest number of first-place votes — in this case, likely King, will be eliminated. The voters who cast their ballots for that candidate will have their votes redistributed based on their next choice. If no candidate earns a majority in the second round, that process of elimination and second-choice tallying will repeat itself until a winner is declared with more than 50% support.
The lack of finality Tuesday night marked an anticlimactic finish to a campaign that was mostly cordial between the five candidates — up until the last few weeks. Several polls had put Shah at the front of the pack, so it wasn’t a surprise that he was leading on election night.
But some of those same polls showed Jackson surging in the race’s final weeks. And Tuesday looked to be the culmination of that momentum.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Troy Jackson laughs while his supporters and staff chant “Troy, Troy, Troy, Troy” after he finished an interview with the media at Bruno’s in Portland on Tuesday night. (Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer)
At his election party, Jackson talked about building a political system that better represents working class Mainers. He expressed frustration that bills that would have improved the lives of workers had been repeatedly blocked by both Republican Gov. Paul LePage and Democratic Gov. Janet Mills.
“I’m more frustrated today than when I first started 20 some years ago because that power and influence does not want to loosen their grip,” he said. “Together, we can loosen that grip.”
Policy-wise, the candidates had many of the same priorities, including standing up to President Donald Trump and addressing Maine’s housing and healthcare access crises.
At debates, the Democrats would often joke that whoever is elected will make their competitors members of their cabinet. Ranked-choice voting also factored into the strategies of the candidates, with Bellows, Pingree and Jackson banding together to endorse each other and encourage their supporters to rank the other two on their ballots.
Shah built his campaign off the rapport he created with Mainers during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he was the face of televised briefings and provided critical updates and advice on the deadly virus.
Anita Fournier, a retired electrologist in Portland, said at her polling place in the city Tuesday that she ranked Shah first on her ballot, citing his leadership through the pandemic.
“He did what he needed to do to support us, and I think he can do that again,” Fournier said.
After casting her ballots, Democratic gubernatorial primary candidate and Secretary of State Shenna Bellows thanks polls workers Tuesday as she leaves the Manchester firehouse. (Joe Phelan/Staff Photographer)
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Daniel Coffrin, also a Portland voter, said he voted for Jackson first, followed by Pingree then Bellows.
“I really like his platform,” Coffrin, 33, said of Jackson. “His ethos speaks to working class values, a broad social safety net and making equity and access to healthcare a priority.”
In separate interviews, two devoted Shah backers provided nearly identical accounts of her their support for him: They admired his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic as a top state public health official, as well as his intellect and attitude — and they objected to the alliance formed by Bellow, Pingree and Jackson with Senate candidate Graham Platner’s de-facto endorsement.
“I really did not like the way they, the other three candidates, grouped together,” Barbara Kent Lawrence, an 83-year-old writer, said.
“I think that’s nasty business,” Ineke Schair, 77, a longtime Freeport resident, said. “I think they really did this to draw votes away from Nirav Shah,” she said, adding that she thought Shah remained an appealing second-choice pick for voters ranking one of the allied candidates first.
The last days of the Democratic primary were its fieriest. Jackson and Shah exchanged jabs over a series of negative attack ads run by outside groups last week, and over the weekend Shah asked the state’s campaign finance watchdog to investigate an anonymous text message sent to voters in support of Jackson, Bellows and Pingree.
State officials have said that they are aiming to start counting the votes in the ranked-choice runoff on Friday, and they hope to announce a winner by the following Friday, June 19.
The Republican primary for governor is also likely headed to a ranked-choice runoff. The winners of the two races will face each other along with independent Rick Bennett in November.
Staff writer Randy Billings contributed to this story.
