Augusta, Maine – Today, the Maine Democratic Party is announcing the process to fill the Senate nominee vacancy. Maine Democrats have issued a call to hold a nominating convention on July 25, during which 601 delegates will vote on the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. Full details of the plan are available here.

More details about media access to the convention will be forthcoming. Members of the media should direct questions and press requests to conventionpress@mainedems.org.

Key Points:

• The Maine Democratic Party will hold a nominating convention on July 25, 2026 to determine the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate.

• To be eligible for the convention, candidates must be registered Democratic voters, must file a written Declaration of Intent to Seek the Democratic Nomination with the Chair of the Maine Democratic Party, and must collect 500 nominating signatures from individuals who were registered Democratic voters in Maine as of the June 9, 2026 Maine Democratic Primary election. Full rules can be found here.

• The convention will be made up of 601 delegates from all 16 counties. Of those delegates, 101 will be members of the Democratic State Committee, who have been duly elected by Maine voters. The remaining 500 will be delegates appointed from each county.

• Each county will be apportioned one third the amount of delegates it received at the 2026 state convention. The 2026 delegate apportionments were assigned based on the turnout of the 2024 primary.

• To select delegates, county chairs will call a special nominating meeting in which all Democrats registered in the county as of June 9, 2026 can participate and vote.

• In accordance with Maine law, only registered Democrats can vote in special nominating meetings and participate as convention delegates.

• The nominating convention will provide each qualifying candidate the opportunity to address delegates prior to voting.

• Voting will be conducted in rounds until one candidate reaches a majority. The five candidates receiving the highest number of votes in the first round will advance to the second round. Each subsequent round will eliminate the lowest vote-getter until one candidate is chosen.

• The convention will be livestreamed. For safety reasons, only credentialed delegates, credentialed press, and staff will be permitted to attend in person.

Maine Democratic Party Chair Charlie Dingman released the following statement:

“The Maine Democratic party’s call to convention provides the most inclusive, representative, and transparent process possible under these unprecedented circumstances. Today, we are announcing that we will hold our nominating convention on Saturday, July 25, where 601 delegates, from each of Maine’s 16 counties, will vote to choose our new nominee. The convention will be fair, representative, and as transparent as possible as we all come together in service of our ultimate goal: defeat Susan Collins and win this Senate seat.

“In coordination with our legal counsel, we have put together a plan for a nominating convention that will allow us to nominate a qualified candidate who has the energy and support to defeat Susan Collins, sending a Senator who works for all of us to Washington in her place.

“The stakes are incredibly high, with an unhinged billionaire-driven federal regime that must be held in check. We are up against a timeline that we did not choose, and we face legal limitations, because our laws never anticipated this unusual challenge. We have worked hard to create a process that is inclusive of varying viewpoints and diverse backgrounds of Democrats across the state of Maine, legally sound, and fair to all candidates who seek the nomination.

“We are proud that this is one of the most open and inclusive processes that any state party has ever undertaken to replace a Senate nominee. It will require an immense amount of work, resources, and coordination over the next 17 days. We believe it is worth it in order to be as transparent as possible, and to honor the enthusiasm, energy, and deep desire for positive change that Maine Democrats have shown in this election cycle.

“This election year has focused more sharply than ever on the ideals that we share as Democrats and the urgency of turning those ideals into concrete improvements in the lives of Maine people. As we embark on this process together, we will be guided by those ideals: that our working people shouldn’t struggle to put food on the table while billionaires have record wealth and don’t pay their fair share, that hardworking women and men in our fields, forests, waters, offices, stores, and factories, and those they care for, deserve health care, fair pay, enough to eat, a roof over their heads. That women deserve to have their rights restored across this country after Susan Collins ripped away their reproductive freedom and allowed our federal courts to become threats to, instead of protectors for, our rights.

“Our message to Mainers is this: While these circumstances are unprecedented, your state party is ready and capable of rising to this challenge. We are committed to a fair and transparent process. We are committed to a process that is legally sound and unimpeachable. And we are committed to a process that delivers a nominee who will achieve our common goal: replace Susan Collins with a true champion of our rights, who will resist and repudiate a cruel and monumentally corrupt regime, instead of enabling it as our Susan Collins has.”