The 2014 United States Senate election in Maine took place on November 4, 2014. Incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins, who had served in the position since 1997, won election to a fourth term in office with 68% of the vote, a sizable landslide victory. The primary elections were held on June 10, 2014. This was the only Republican-held Senate seat up for election in a state that Barack Obama won in the 2012 presidential election.
As of , this was the last time a Republican won the counties of Cumberland and Knox in a statewide election, and the last time any party carried every county in Maine.
Maine Republican Party Chairman Rick Bennett was critical of Erick Bennett's campaign, stating that he did not believe Erick would get the necessary signatures to get on the ballot. After making it clear the two men are not related, Rick felt that this would be due to Erick's views as expressed on his Facebook page. These included referring to U.S. Representative Mike Michaud as a "closet homo" and criticism of Nelson Mandela, comparing him to Stalin and Karl Marx. Furthermore, Erick Bennett was convicted in 2003 of assaulting his wife, which was upheld by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, though he maintained his innocence. Rick Bennett stated that Erick's views "[did] not represent the views of the Republican Party".
Erick Bennett announced before the primary filing deadline on March 17 that he had left the Republican Party and would run as an independent. Maine law, however, requires that an independent candidate must have not been in a political party by March 1 of the election year in order to run as an independent, meaning Bennett could not legally run as such. The Kennebec Journal reported that Bennett was a write-in candidate for the Republican nomination.
On April 3, 2014, Collins' campaign announced the joint endorsement of Bath Iron Works' labor unions, which the campaign claimed was the first time the unions issued a joint endorsement as well as the first time they endorsed a Republican candidate for federal office.
Collins ultimately defeated Bellows in a landslide, carrying all 16 counties, both congressional districts, and nearly every municipality in the state. Bellows only won the heavily Democratic cities of Portland, Bar Harbor, and Hallowell, as well as a handful of small communities in extremely rural northern and western Maine with only a few dozen votes between them, such as Grand Falls Township and Elliottsville.
To qualify as an independent candidate for the U.S. Senate in Maine, a person needs to submit at least 4,000 valid signatures to the secretary of state by June 1. Any independent candidate must not have been enrolled in a political party after March 1 of the year the election occurs.
Former Republican candidate Erick Bennett announced just before the March 17 primary filing deadline that he had left the Republican Party and would run as an independent, but Maine law required him to have unenrolled as a Republican by March 1 to do so. Therefore, he could not legally run as an independent.
Heading into the 2014 cycle, only 12 U.S. Senate elections had involved two major party female nominees in U.S. history.
With Collins<br />
With Poliquin<br />
With Summers<br />
The election was not close, with Collins winning all 16 of Maine's counties, and the election overall by a margin of 223,251 votes.
Collins won both of the congressional districts in the state, including one which also elected a Democrat.
Official campaign websites (archived)