The Senate: Closer Than You Think

Republicans didn't do nearly as well in the Senate as they did in the House

On the surface, the Maine Senate was not as agonizingly close as the Maine House. While Republicans gained seats, increasing their margin from the embarrassingly low 13 to a slightly better 15, they still fell quite a bit short of reaching the majority.

This is reflected in the statewide popular votes for Senate seats, too: While Republicans barely trailed Democrats in the House seats, 48.21% - 48.96% (A 0.75% margin, and a swing of 1.98% towards the GOP from 2022), in the Senate they only got 46.09% of the vote statewide to the Democrats’ 52.51% (A 6.4% margin, and a swing of 0.867% towards the GOP from 2022). Even without knowing how many seats Republicans won, this is easy to see visually in terms of the statewide popular vote for legislative candidates: