Former Maine House Speaker Hannah Pingree made her expected entrance Tuesday into the 2026 race to succeed Gov. Janet Mills.
Pingree officially launched her gubernatorial campaign Tuesday morning after insiders viewed her for months as a likely Democratic candidate. Pingree planned a full day of kickoff events Tuesday in Rockland, Lewiston, Biddeford and Portland.
The 48-year-old daughter of U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat from Maine’s 1st District, became director of Mills’ policy office in 2019 and served in that influential role until departing in May. That move was widely viewed as setting the stage for a gubernatorial bid from the North Haven resident who served as House speaker from 2008 to 2010.
Pingree joins a field that is wide open by way of Mills being termed out of office next year and already includes those who are related to sitting politicians. The addition of Pingree to the race could result in questions over whether Mills will make an endorsement for the primary, given that many Augusta have referred to Pingree as “lieutenant governor” while she was in office.
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Pingree oversaw a broad range of issues as head of the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future, running point on offshore wind, long-term energy planning and the state’s work to both quantify and fight the housing affordability crisis.
At age 32, she was the second woman ever elected to be Maine’s House speaker. She has been seen as a rising star in state politics since then, but she demurred on several opportunities to run for high office citing her young family. She had not commented on speculation about her political future before announcing her run for governor.
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson and former clean energy executive Angus King III, the son of U.S. Sen. Angus King, are among the Democratic candidates to date, while the Republican field will likely grow after figures such as lawyer Bobby Charles, real estate agent David Jones and Sen. Jim Libby of Standish have already announced bids.
Pingree figures to get major support from environmental and national Democratic groups as part of a political apparatus tied to her mother, but the other Democrats in the race have constituencies as well. The progressive Maine People’s Alliance has endorsed Bellows, while several labor unions are backing Jackson.
Maine has not consecutively elected governors of the same party since the 1950s, giving Republicans hope in 2026. But Maine Democrats have enjoyed plenty of electoral success in the past decade, buoying their hopes of holding the Blaine House after controlling Augusta for Mills’ entire tenure.
