Former President Donald Trump is the projected winner of the Maine Republican presidential primary – marking his second victory in the Pine Tree State in recent days.
The Associated Press called the race for Trump soon after polls closed at 8:00 p.m. and results rolled in.
Maine has 20 delegates that are up for grabs, and a candidate can win them all with an outright majority in the vote total, as NBC News noted. Trump is likely to do so, considering that Nikki Haley is his lone opponent remaining in the race. However, several other candidates, who have suspended their campaigns, appeared on the ballot Tuesday, News Center Maine reported.
Maine typically goes by a ranked-choice primary, but the AP notes the state GOP is “basing its presidential delegate allocation on the first round of voting and will not consider any results of the ranked-choice voting,” according to News Center Maine.
Moreover, this was Maine’s first “semi-open primary,” meaning unenrolled or unaffiliated voters could vote in either the Democrat or Republican primaries. Unenrolled voters account for about 29 percent of the state’s registered voters, WGME reports.
Trump’s victory on Tuesday follows another major win for him and his campaign in Maine on Monday. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled to keep him on the ballot in Colorado, overturning the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision that cited Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment to remove Trump from the ballot.
Days after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled against Trump on December 19, 2023, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D) concluded Trump was ineligible for the ballot in her state, partly citing the insurrection clause. That decision hinged on the Colorado ballot case, and after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Trump Monday, Bellows withdrew her determination, as Breitbart News reported.
FILE – Secretary of State Shenna Bellows attends the inauguration of Gov. Janet Mills, Jan. 4, 2023, at the Civic Center in Augusta, Maine. Bellows, a Democrat, is warning against the broad sharing of voter registration data amid a legal fight with a conservative-backed group. She says her office wants to make sure that no voters are harassed or threatened because of their decision to register and cast a ballot. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)
“Consistent with my oath and obligation to follow the law and the Constitution, and pursuant to the Anderson decision, I hereby withdraw my determination that Mr. Trump’s primary petition is invalid,” Bellows said Friday.
Maine is one of 15 states making their voices heard in Republican nominating contests on Super Tuesday, where CBS News notes a combined 865 delegates are at stake.