“Gubernatorial primaries were the top draws for each party”
“One Republican operative told me this looked like a worrying sign for their party.”
Augusta, Maine — Republican operatives and candidates are clearly frustrated by reporters and pundits stating the obvious: Maine Democratic primary turnout toppled Republican turnout.
Republicans are hitting the panic button and claiming that this is the second highest turnout in a Republican gubernatorial primary. The problem? Their turnout is still about half of the Democratic gubernatorial turnout.
Even more troubling for their chances, several leading Democratic gubernatorial candidates individually outperformed the GOP current front-runner, Bobby Charles.
While some Republicans are desperately trying to spin the numbers, others are honestly and publicly expressing their valid concern.
Bangor Daily News: Republicans are worried after Maine Democrats’ strong primary turnout
Strong Democratic turnout in Tuesday’s primaries has sparked concerns among Maine Republicans heading into what is looking like a difficult November midterm election for President Donald Trump and his party.
More than 200,000 voters cast ballots in the Democratic Senate primary, which was up from 162,000 in the party’s 2020 primary and nearly doubled the turnout of the Republican gubernatorial primary.
…some conservatives were worried.
One party operative cited the 75% of unenrolled voters requesting Democratic primary ballots rather than Republican ones.
Portland Press Herald: Maine Democrats buoyed by voter turnout — a troubling sign for Republicans
Democratic-leaning voters appeared to be more enthusiastic for the midterm elections — a potentially troubling sign for Republicans looking to hold onto an important U.S. Senate seat while trying to take control of the Blaine House and state Legislature.
With about 93% of the expected votes counted in Tuesday’s primary, both parties have already exceeded the number of ballots cast in the last competitive primary. But Democrats saw the largest gains, driven in part by independents who can now vote in party primaries.
Ronald Schmidt, a political science professor at the University of Southern Maine, thinks Democrats had higher turnout because of the attention on their gubernatorial primary and the U.S. Senate race, which is a must-win for both parties.
The Maine Republican Party did not respond to questions about Republican voter turnout and what it may signal for the fall.
Gubernatorial primaries were the top draws for each party.
As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 208,000 ballots had been counted in the Democratic gubernatorial primary with about 93% of the expected votes tallied, The Associated Press estimated.
Meanwhile, about 110,000 ballots had been counted in the Republican gubernatorial primary with 89% of the vote tallied.
Unenrolled voters are factoring into the party primaries in ways never before seen — and those voters chose Democratic ballots by a 3-to-1 margin.
Bangor Daily News: High Democratic turnout is a worrying sign for Republicans
We are going to get very close to 200,000 Democratic votes in this year’s primaries. There were only 132,000 or so in 2018, another great year for Democrats.
One Republican operative told me this looked like a worrying sign for their party.
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