Maine: who should earn your vote for Congress in 2026

Opinion · The paper’s scorecard

Maine: every race for Congress on the 3 November 2026 ballot, and how the candidates measure up against our standards.

Sitting and former members are scored on the same key votes, read from the official House and Senate roll calls; each vote links to the record. Candidates who have never served in Congress have no votes to score, and outside the battlegrounds we have not researched them, so they are marked as not scored. Where only one candidate could be measured, the mark rates that record on its own; it is not a verdict on the opponent. How the marks work · All states

U.S. Senate D+4

No endorsement

A battleground: read our full case, with every source.

District 1 D+11

No mark

Chellie Pingree

Democrat · incumbent

Scored on 27 key votes · total -1

✗Smaller government
~Small business over giants
✓Live and let live
✗Light touch on tech
~Free speech
✓No surveillance state
✓Home first, open trade
~Checks on power
✗Right to bear arms
✗Hard on violent crime

With us (12)

Voted for the 2022 antitrust package funding merger enforcement with fees on the largest deals. Source
Voted for the Respect for Marriage Act. Source
Voted against the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which civil-liberties groups opposed as a limit on campus speech. Source

Against us (15)

Voted against the Limit, Save, Grow Act tying the 2023 debt-limit increase to spending cuts. Source
Voted against the 2025 package cancelling about $9 billion in approved spending. Source
Voted against a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution. Source

Ronald Russell

Republican

No congressional voting record; not scored

District 2 R+4

No mark

Jared Golden (D): incumbent retiring.

Matthew Dunlap

Democrat

No congressional voting record; not scored

Paul LePage

Republican

No congressional voting record; not scored

Photo credits. Official congressional portraits are works of the U.S. government and in the public domain.