It will probably be several weeks before voters in Maine know who won the Democratic nomination for the state’s Second Congressional District in a race that could set up one of the country’s most competitive general-election battles.
None of the four candidates were projected to clear 50 percent of the vote Tuesday night, according to The Associated Press, sending the race into what is effectively an instant runoff under the ranked-choice voting system. Local election officials will first eliminate the candidate with the fewest votes and then redistribute those ballots to the remaining candidates based on voters’ next-ranked choices, repeating the process until a contender emerges with a majority of votes. The tabulation typically takes days or weeks to complete.
The triggering of ranked-choice voting in the race comes amid yet another protracted vote-counting process in California, where the top finishers were declared in a contentious governor’s race only on Tuesday, a week after the primary. The process prompted unfounded accusations of election fraud, including from President Trump.
The candidates in Maine are competing for the nomination to succeed Representative Jared Golden, a centrist Democrat who is vacating his seat. The district, a rural one, leans to the right; Mr. Trump carried it in 2016, 2020 and 2024. It is expected to offer Republicans one of their best opportunities to flip a House seat in the midterms.
The candidates include Joe Baldacci, a centrist Democrat and state senator, and two progressives waging competitive campaigns: State Auditor Matt Dunlap and Jordan Wood, a former congressional aide. Mr. Baldacci, a former Bangor mayor, was supported in the primary by the House Democrats’ campaign arm, which said he would be best positioned to win in the district.
Accusations that the G.O.P. intervened in the primary capped off the campaign, with Democrats pointing to a mysterious out-of-state group that poured more than $500,000 into the race to oppose Mr. Baldacci and support Mr. Dunlap.
The winner will face the Republican nominee, former Gov. Paul LePage, in the November general election. Mr. LePage, a two-term governor, has long been a force in Maine politics, though he was soundly defeated by Janet Mills, a Democrat, in the 2022 governor’s race.
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