Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows dropped out of the race for U.S. Senate on Sunday, leaving three major candidates to face off at the Democrats’ state convention this week.
Bellows said she was withdrawing to focus on her role as the state’s chief election officer amid attacks on ballot integrity by President Donald Trump.
“Donald Trump’s attacks are only accelerating, and the best way that I can serve our state and country at this moment is by focusing exclusively on my role as Secretary of State,” Bellows wrote in a statement posted to X.
Trump addressed the nation on Thursday, arguing that recently declassified documents show rogue state actors are intent on disrupting U.S. elections and charging that hundreds of thousands of non-citizens were registered to vote, though evidence provided by the White House largely did not back up those assertions. Per the Constitution, state and local officials oversee elections.
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The Justice Department sent a letter to all 50 states this month threatening to prosecute election officials if any noncitizens are found to have voted in any upcoming elections.
Bellows also pointed to the urgency for Democrats in this race, saying the party doesn’t “have a day to waste in unifying around” beating incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November.
Twelve Democrats, including Bellows, have entered the race to replace Platner, the party’s nominee who dropped out this month amid sexual assault allegations, which he denied.
A gathering of 500 delegates will join the 101 members of the state’s central committee to choose a nominee Saturday in Bangor, Maine.
With Bellows’ departure, the frontrunners are considered to be former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, former Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Nirav Shah and former congressional staffer Jordan Wood.
Support for Jackson has surged among delegates after a televised debate last week, according to an analysis released Friday by Bangor Daily News. Among the 3,732 people who could fill those 500 delegate seats, Jackson carried 323 stated endorsements, Shah had 162 and Bellows had 48. The delegates were being chosen this weekend at county caucuses.
Jackson celebrated Bellows’ decision to leave the race, highlighting their “friendship” and “shared values.”
“Defeating Susan Collins will take all of us, and I’m grateful for your commitment to bringing Democrats together around that mission,” Jackson wrote Sunday on X. “Let’s get to work.”
Bellows did not immediately endorse any of the remaining Democratic contenders.
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