The Opportunity

In 2018, The States Project helped to flip the State Senate, and in 2020, we helped expand the majority that is focused on improving lives. The current majority in the House is vulnerable under new maps, in a climate where the only motivated voters are those who believe that the 2020 election was stolen. With a radical rightwing former governor who says he was “Trump before Trump” attempting to ride the Big Lie all the way back to Augusta, protecting Mainers in 2022 means defending both majorities.

The Stakes

Since 2018, Maine’s majorities have worked to enact policies to secure a healthy, prosperous, and sustainable future:

• Creating a climate action plan
• Implementing a student loan bill of rights
• Enacting equal pay transparency
• Protecting children from lead in schools and daycares
• Securing salary history fairness for job seekers
• Supporting working families with paid sick leave
• Safeguarding online data privacy
• Expanding our democracy through automatic voter registration and pre-registration of voters aged 16-17
• Saving lives by cutting healthcare costs through capping the price of insulin, ending surprise billing, and ensuring safe, low-cost prescriptions

The Landscape

The radical right is already laying the groundwork for a fight for governing power in Maine in 2022:

• The tipping point seat in the State House was decided by just 125 votes in 2020. Under the new maps, Donald Trump carried a majority of districts in 2016; the Maine House is at risk.
• In 2020, four of five TSP-endorsed candidates won their seats with under 10 percent of the vote. Under the new maps, there are a number of vulnerable districts with term-limited incumbents in the Maine Senate. A strong turnout for the radical right could put the chamber in jeopardy in 2022.
• Paul Le Page, a former governor who boasts that he was “Trump before Trump”, has secured the Republican nomination in the gubernatorial race. If he is able to unite the rightwing’s base, it could have a galvanizing effect on the state legislative races.

2021 SPECIAL ELECTION

Fueled by Giving Circles and Give Smart, The States Project drove the most contributions to support Senator Craig Hickman’s effort to win his 2021 special election. By holding a seat that Trump won by 2% in 2016, he made history as the first Black, openly LGBTQ+ Senator to serve in the Maine Senate.

• Though Susan Collins was re-elected statewide, The States Project-endorsees were able to expand the State Senate majority that we helped flip in 2018. Maine has its largest majority in more than 30 years, and more importantly, a majority committed to improving the lives of all Mainers.
• TSP-endorsees Senators Chloe Maxmin and Joe Rafferty both flipped their seats to join first-time Senator Stacy Brenner who held her seat.
• Two of our wins came from districts that Donald Trump carried:
  • Senate President Troy Jackson was re-elected by 18%, a 29-point swing from his district’s presidential performance and one of the biggest over-performances in the country.
  • Two-time endorsee Senator Ned Claxton, a family physician, who won by 235 votes in 2018 was elected to his second term by over 1,500 votes.
• The 2020 Maine electoral results show the importance of sustained, multicycle work in the states. In a year when Maine Democratic State Senate candidates on average performed 3% worse than the top of the ticket, on average The States Project endorsees performed 3% better.

• All 35 of Maine’s State Senate seats were up for election in 2018. In an election when every TSP endorsee was a challenger running to flip a seat, Senators Louis Luchini, Ned Claxton, and Erin Herbig won three critical battleground seats to shift the balance of power and create a new majority and a trifecta.