Maine’s races were all over the map
By Jessica Piper and Michael Shepherd, Bangor Daily News Staff
Maine saw a mixed election on Tuesday, Nov. 3 as U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden won here and President Donald Trump salvaged one of the state’s four Electoral College votes from the 2nd Congressional District.
Those Democratic and Republican splits played out in uneven ways in parts of the increasingly divided state. It led to fractured local elections won by fresh faces and marked by big changes in cities and more rural areas.
Among the state’s most interesting ones: Dr. Richard Evans (D-Dover-Foxcroft) over Rep. Norman Higgins (I-Dover-Foxcroft) and Chad Perkins (R-Dover-Foxcroft) in House District 119.
NEW REPRESENTATIVE — Supporters talk with state Rep.-elect Richard Evans of Dover-Foxcroft at the opening of the Piscataquis County Democratic Headquarters in Dover-Foxcroft in 2018.
In perhaps the most surprising legislative election of the night, a Democrat will hold the district representing Dover-Foxcroft, Milo, Brownville and other nearby communities in Piscataquis County, the most conservative county in Maine. Past that, Evans is a veteran and physician who will be just the fifth Black legislator ever sent to Augusta, the capital of the nation’s whitest state.
He needed some luck. Perkins and Higgins, a former Republican, split the right-of-center vote to allow the Democrat to snag the seat with just 35.7 percent of votes. Maine’s ranked-choice voting system does not apply to state general elections because of constitutional issues and Republican opposition to the method. It cost them here.