2024 Maine Republican presidential primary
The 2024 Maine Republican presidential primary was held on March 5, 2024, as part of the Republican Party primaries for the 2024 presidential election. 20 delegates to the 2024 Republican National Convention were allocated on a winner-take-most basis.[1] The contest was held on Super Tuesday alongside primaries in 14 other states. This was a semi-closed primary where party members may only vote in their respective party's primary, but unenrolled voters may choose a party's primary to participate in. This change in law from Maine's previous closed primary went into effect on May 14, 2022, without Gov. Janet Mills' signature.[2]
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On December 28, 2023, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows declared that Donald Trump is ineligible to appear on the state's primary ballot under the Fourteenth Amendment due to his role in the January 6 United States Capitol attack.[3] Following the Supreme Courts unanimous decision in Trump v. Anderson that Trump should remain on the ballot, Bellows withdrew the ban.
Electoral system
As with all statewide elections in Maine since 2016, the primary will take place using ranked-choice voting. However, the Maine Republican Party, which is opposed to ranked-choice voting, has stated that it will disregard the final results if there is an automatic runoff, only recognizing the first round results.[4] If a candidate gets over 50% in the first round, there will be no automatic runoff, but if no candidate gets over 50%, then the last place candidate will be eliminated and their votes distributed to whoever their voters marked as their second choice, and so on, until a candidate reaches over 50%. This could lead to the state recognizing one winner based on the ranked-choice results and the Republican Party recognizing a different one based on whoever won the plurality of votes in the first round.
Chris Christie qualification controversy
Former Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie failed to make the Maine primary ballot, as he did not submit the required 2,000 signatures to the Secretary of State by the November 20 deadline. Christie attempted to appeal the decision, but the Maine Superior Court upheld the secretary's ruling.[5]
Attempted disqualification of Trump
On December 15, 2023, two challenges to Trump's eligibility as a candidate for the primary election via Section 3 of the 14th Amendment were presented to the Maine Secretary of State, Shenna Bellows.[6][7]
On December 28, 2023, Bellows announced Trump's ineligibility in a 34-page ruling,[8] arguing that he "used a false narrative of election fraud to inflame his supporters."[9] However, removal from the ballot has been stayed to permit time to appeal.[10] On January 2, 2024, Trump appealed the ruling to the Maine Superior Court, arguing that Bellows is biased and that she has "no legal authority to consider the federal constitutional issues presented by the challengers".[11] Maine Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy did not make a decision on January 17 and instructed Bellows to let the United States Supreme Court first decide its ruling in Trump v. Anderson and to issue a new ruling within 30 days once the Supreme Court ruling is given. Trump remains on the ballot in the meanwhile.[12] Bellows appealed to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court on January 19.[13] The Supreme Court ruled on March 4 in favor of keeping Trump on the ballot; Bellows withdrew the ban shortly afterwards.[14]
Candidates
Official candidates on the ballot
The following candidates were announced by the Maine Department of the Secretary of State on December 1.[15]
- Ryan Binkley (withdrawn on February 27, 2024)[16]
- Nikki Haley
- Donald Trump
- Doug Burgum (withdrawn on December 4, 2023)[17]
- Vivek Ramaswamy (withdrawn on January 15, 2024)[18]
- Ron DeSantis (withdrawn on January 21, 2024)[19]
Failed to make ballot
Endorsements
- U.S. Senator
- Susan Collins, (1997–present)[21]
- State Representative
- Mike Soboleski, Member of the Maine House of Representatives from the 73rd district (2022–present)[22]
Polling
| Poll source | Date(s) administered | Sample size[a] | Margin of error | Liz Cheney | Ron DeSantis | Nikki Haley | Mike Pence | Mike Pompeo | Vivek Ramaswamy | Chris Sununu | Donald Trump |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Digital Research Inc. | Mar 22 – April 22, 2023 | 192 (LV) | – | 10% | 27% | 3% | 5% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 59% |
- Maine's 2nd congressional district
| Poll source | Date(s) administered | Sample size[a] | Margin of error | Nikki Haley | Mike Pence | Other | Undecided | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Redrawing of congressional districts after the 2020 redistricting cycle | |||||||||||
| Inauguration of Joe Biden | |||||||||||
| 2020 presidential election | |||||||||||
| SurveyUSA | Jun 30 – July 6, 2020 | 604 (LV) | ± 4.1% | 12% | 30% | 36%[b] | 21% | ||||
Results
| Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Actual delegate count | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bound | Unbound | Total | |||
| Donald Trump | 79,034 | 71.92% | 20 | 0 | 20 |
| Nikki Haley | 27,912 | 25.40% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ron DeSantis (withdrawn) | 1,191 | 1.08% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Vivek Ramaswamy (withdrawn) | 440 | 0.40% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ryan Binkley (withdrawn) | 299 | 0.27% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Blank ballots | 1,022 | 0.93% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total: | 109,898 | 100.00% | 20 | 0 | 20 |
| Source: [23] | |||||