Two Republican legislative primaries settled with ranked-choice run-offs

Among the wave of results announced late Thursday are two Republican primaries for the Maine Legislature that were determined by ranked-choice tabulations after no candidate captured a majority of first-choice votes during last week’s election.

Dexter Bridges Jr. emerged as the winner of the race for Maine House of Representatives District 58, which includes towns in both Franklin and Kennebec counties, while state Rep. Chad Perkins clinched Senate District 4, which encompasses all of Piscataquis and parts of Penobscot counties.

In the three-way race for House District 58, Jeffrey Harris was eliminated in the first round of tabulations, followed by Lawrence Bessey.

Bridges will now face incumbent Rep. Sharon Frost, an independent who votes with Democrats, in the November general election. Frost narrowly won in 2024, and the seat was previously held by a Republican — making it one of a handful of seats that could flip to Republicans. It has switched back and forth between the two major parties historically. 

Bridges was the frontrunner based on first-choice votes tallied on Election Day, with 37.4%,  followed closely by Bessey with 37.3% while Harris received 25.2%. 

Two legislative races head to ranked-choice voting, plus three recounts announced

Bessey announced he’d dropped out of the race in March but still appeared on the ballot because he hadn’t notified the Secretary of State’s Office. 

In the four-way primary to replace term-limited Sen. Stacey Guerin, her husband, Joseph Guerin, was runner up. Gregory Pierce was eliminated in the first round, followed by Zachary Wood.

Perkins will face Democrat Lisa Kalp of Corinth in the November general election.

Before the ranked-choice tabulations, Perkins had led with 47.9% of first-choice votes, followed by Joseph Guerin with 32.2%, Wood with 15.8% and Pierce with 4.1%.

The ranked-choice tabulations, all livestreamed on the Secretary of State’s YouTube, began in Augusta on Friday with staff logging results from every ballot. That took up the bulk of the week-long process. Meanwhile, actually running the tabulation formula in accordance to the state law on Thursday produced results in a matter of minutes. 

The formula eliminates last-place candidates first and redistributes their votes to the next-ranked candidate. That process repeated until one candidate received more than 50% of votes.