Thursday afternoon he conceded

Less than two hours after the Maine Secretary of State’s Office said Maine’s 2nd Congressional District election was headed to a ranked choice runoff, Democrat Matt Dunlap conceded the race. 

The secretary’s office said this morning that former Republican Gov. Paul LePage was in the lead with 49.894% of votes. That still fell short of the more than 50% of votes needed to avoid the runoff. 

Maine’s 2nd District race heads to ranked choice runoff. Here’s what to expect.

But shortly after, Dunlap’s campaign said in a statement that they do not believe the runoff will change the results of the race.

“This isn’t the result we were hoping for, and I’m disappointed that we came short,” Dunlap said. “Congratulations to Paul LePage, I wish him the best.”

A spokesperson for the secretary’s office said state law requires the office to still run the ranked choice tabulation for the election.

LePage declared victory in the race yesterday, and said his team “has been calling all the towns that haven’t come in yet, and there is no path to victory for my opponent.” 

After the ranked choice announcement this morning, LePage spokesperson Brent Littlefield said in a statement that the campaign was confident that LePage would ultimately be successful.

“It is very clear from our campaign team’s work yesterday talking one-on-one with local town clerks, and the publicly available numbers, that Paul LePage is the congressman-elect,” Littlefield said.