Maine gubernatorial election, 2018
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The 2018 Maine gubernatorial election will take place on November 6, 2018, to elect the next Governor of Maine. It will occur along with elections for the U.S. Senate, U.S. House, and other state and local elections. Incumbent Republican Governor Paul LePage is term limited and cannot seek re-election to a third consecutive term in office.
This gubernatorial election was scheduled to be the first in Maine to be conducted with ranked choice voting, as opposed to a simple plurality, after voters passed a citizen referendum approving the change in 2016. However, an advisory opinion by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court holding that ranked choice voting would be unconstitutional led to state legislators voting to delay its implementation until 2021 pending approval of a state constitutional amendment to permit it.
Speculation that U.S. Senator Susan Collins was considering running for governor arose during the 2015 Maine Legislative session when Rep. Matt Moonen (D-Portland) introduced a bill to strip the governor (currently Republican Paul LePage) of the power to appoint replacement U.S. Senators in the event of a vacancy and instead have a special primary and general election. Moonen denied that he was motivated by Collins possibly running and was only interested in counterbalancing Republican-sponsored bills to change how the Maine Attorney General and Maine Secretary of State are chosen. Moonen stated that he spoke with Collins and she called speculation about her running for governor "silly." Collins, who was the 1994 Republican nominee for governor, told MPBN News on January 4, 2016 that she was "baffled" by the rumors about her being interested in running for governor, and that many have encouraged her to run, but said she would not rule anything in or out. In October 2017, Collins said she would not run for governor in 2018.
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