U.S. Sen. Angus King defeated three challengers Tuesday to win a third term that will make him Maine’s oldest-ever senator.
King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, had received 52.5 percent of first-place votes to 34.5 percent for Republican Demi Kouzounas, 10.6 percent for Democrat David Costello and 2.5 percent for independent Jason Cherry when the Bangor Daily News and its national partner, Decision Desk HQ, called the ranked-choice race at 10:06 a.m. Wednesday.
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King, 80, has polled as Maine’s most popular politician and first won election to the Senate in 2012 after serving as governor from 1995 to 2003. He will become Maine’s oldest-ever senator if he serves until at least March 2025, but he has not faced the age and fitness concerns that dogged President Joe Biden, who is 81.
King said during the campaign he was running again amid the “loss of the middle” in the Senate due to various moderates retiring. Kouzounas, a former Maine Republican Party chair whom U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, recruited to run against King, and the other opponents criticized him for not taking enough meaningful action on issues from immigration to housing. But King said in an interview this summer that his work on four committees and seniority were getting him to a point where he felt like “I can make a significant contribution” in the Senate going forward.
