With no other candidates challenging Mills or LePage in their respective primaries, the campaign started out with most prediction models giving Mills a slight edge over LePage. However, Maine had not elected a governor from the same party as the President since
1990, and some Democrats were afraid that Democratic president
Joe Biden's low approval ratings would hurt Mills. Access to
abortion became a crucial issue following the
Supreme Court's ruling in ''
Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade'' and eliminated the constitutional right to abortion, effectively returning the issue to the states. Following the leak of the draft opinion, Mills released a statement saying "I do not consider the rights of women to be dispensable. And I pledge that as long as I am governor, I will fight with everything I have to protect reproductive rights and to preserve access to reproductive health care in the face of every and any threat to it – whether from politicians in
Augusta or Supreme Court Justices in Washington." After the release of the draft opinion, LePage stated he supported some abortion restrictions, but pledged to preserve access to abortion in cases of rape, incest and life of the mother. and a 2018 statement in support of overturning
Roe v. Wade. LePage would continue to struggle with questions on abortion, and a stumble in a debate with Mills on the topic led to national headlines. while outside groups unaffiliated with either campaign broke records for spending, mostly on negative ads. Ads supporting Mills's candidacy or opposing LePage's candidacy accounted for over $9 million in spending, while ads supporting LePage or opposing Mills accounted for over $7 million. Polls released after the primaries showed Mills having a moderate-to-large lead over LePage, with the closest poll showing her ahead by six points. Mills was declared the winner by the Associated Press shortly before midnight on November 8. LePage did not immediately concede the race, but did concede on November 9 with a written statement. In his election night remarks, LePage concluded that he "missed the message" on abortion. Some observers saw the results as symbolic of the decline of the once-dominant
Maine Republican Party, and Maine's movement towards becoming a solid
blue state. In the election, Mills broke her own record set four years earlier for most votes received by a Maine gubernatorial candidate.
Predictions Post-primary endorsements Polling Aggregate polls Graphical summary Debates Results By county By congressional district Mills won 1 of 2 congressional districts with LePage winning the remaining one, which elected a Democrat. ==See also==