MAINE: Democrat Jared Golden Flips US House Seat

Bloomberg reports:

Democrat Jared Golden, a U.S. Marine veteran, has defeated two-term Republican Representative Bruce Poliquin in Maine’s Second District, AP projects, as the state’s first use of ranked-choice balloting in a congressional race proved consequential.

Poliquin, the incumbent, led after ballots were initially tabulated, though no candidate had an absolute majority. However, under ranked-choice voting, the lowest-choice candidates were eliminated and their votes reallocated to their second choices. Under that system, Golden, the Democrat, pulled ahead.

With NBC News now projecting that Dem Jared Golden has ousted incumbent GOP Rep. Bruce Poliquin in Maine-2, this means the partisan tally for New England House seats will be:

Dems: 21
Repubs: 0

Of the 12 US Senate seats in New England, 1 will be GOP-held:
Susan Collins.

— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) November 15, 2018

Jared Golden wins the second round of RCV in ME-2 — 139,231 to 136,326 over Rep. Bruce Poliquin. This is a Democratic pick-up.

— Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) November 15, 2018