AUGUSTA, Maine – Former state deputy Craig Hickman maintained a district of the capital in the Maine Senate in the Democratic column in a special election victory on Tuesday over a Republican businessman.
Hickman, a 53-year-old Winthrop farmer who served four terms in the House last year, won 62.6 percent of the vote against 37.4 percent for Will Guerrette of Pittston. Bangor Daily News and Decision Desk HQ, its partner in the results of national elections, called the race at 8:48 pm. Democrats will retain a 22-13 majority in the Senate after Hickman’s victory.
“I just have faith in people and I feel that if I can communicate who I am, where I come from and what I stand for, I think people will support and support me,” he said on Tuesday.
The seat became vacant after Democrat Shenna Bellows refused to take office after being appointed secretary of state in December after winning a third term in the Senate. Maine Senate District 14, which includes the south and west of Kennebec County from the Gardiner area to the Winthrop lake region, is a district of great influence conquered in 2016 by former President Donald Trump, a Republican, but taken in 2020 by the President Joe Biden, a Democrat; and US Senator Susan Collins, a Republican.
Bellows first took the seat of long-term Republican control in a three-way race in 2016 and withstood only average electoral challenges in his next two races. Late last year, Hickman quickly consolidated Democratic support for the nomination and faced no opposition when it came time for his party to choose a candidate.
The elected senator was an interesting figure in his time in the Chamber. While running a progressive campaign for Secretary of State last year, he voted against strict arms control measures and sponsored the country’s first food sovereignty bill signed by former Governor Paul LePage, a Republican conservative who chose Hickman to praise in a speech.
Hickman, a Milwaukee native who is the adopted son of a Tuskegee aviator and a Harvard University graduate, will only be the second black person to serve in the Maine Senate after John Jenkins, a former mayor of Lewiston and Auburn who died in last year, and the first to act in both legislative chambers. He will take the oath early on Wednesday.
The race between Hickman and Guerrette was straightforward, but expensive. External groups dumped more than $ 200,000 in the district, in addition to spending between candidates. Democrats filed an ethics complaint against Guerrette last week for lack of disclosure on an electronic board, but the Republican was not penalized by a state watchdog.
Personal participation was small in Hallowell’s Democratic stronghold on Tuesday night, when Laura Donovan said she voted for Hickman because she liked her views on the environment, an issue that “worries her a lot”.
BDN writer Caitlin Andrews contributed to this report.