Independent US Sen. Angus King leading 3 challengers in Maine

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Independent Sen. Angus King was ahead in his bid for a third term in Maine early Wednesday, but with much of the vote yet to be counted, it was unclear whether ranked voting would be needed to decide the four-way race.

A candidate must receive a majority of votes under Maine’s ranked voting. If not, an extra voting round means a winner won’t be formally declared for a week under the system that allows voters to rank candidates in order on the ballot. Under the system, the last-place candidate is eliminated, those voters’ second-choices are applied, and votes are reallocated.

King, who was first elected to the Senate in 2012, said he can help bridge the gap in an increasingly divided Washington, expressing worry that “we’re losing the middle in the Senate.”

“I think I have a role to play to bridge the divide, to listen to people, to bring people together and to compromise to solve these difficult issues,” he said when he launched his reelection bid.

King was challenged by Republican Demi Kouzounas, a former GOP state chair, dentist and U.S. Army veteran, and Democrat David Costello, a former senior government official who led the Maryland Department of the Environment and the climate and clean energy program at the Natural Resources Council of Maine. Also in the race was another independent, Jason Cherry.

The 80-year-old former governor would be the oldest senator in state history if he completes the term ending in 2030, but he was not dogged during the campaign by questions about his age like President Joseph Biden was before stepping down as the Democratic presidential nominee.

King has survived a pair of cancer scares. He was treated for malignant melanoma — a skin cancer — at 29 and had surgery for prostate cancer in 2015.

In Washington, he is part of an increasingly small number of senators in the middle with the departure of Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, and Republican Sen. Mitt Romney.

King has long said he doesn’t want to be tied to any party, though he caucuses with Democrats, and that served him well in a state where independents used to represent the largest voting bloc. But both major parties have overtaken unenrolled voters in sheer numbers in recent years.

A ballot drop box for voting in the election is shown in Portland, Maine, on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Patrick Whittle)

Voters fill out their ballots on Election Day Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024 at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, Maine. (AP Photo/Joel Page)

Halloween decorations and political signs for the election are displayed along the street Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, in Portland, Maine. (AP Photo/Patrick Whittle)

FILE - David Costello, Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate from Maine, right, speaks with Grace Jameson, of Saco, Maine, left, on Main Street in Saco, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald via AP, File)

FILE - Maine GOP Chair Dr. Demi Kouzounas speaks about efforts to repeal ranked choice voting at a news conference outside the State House, Monday, June 15, 2020, in Augusta, Maine. Demi is running for the U.S. Senate in Maine(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

FILE — Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, speaks with reporters at the Senate subway on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, March 12, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)

Election workers process absentee ballots at Portland City Hall on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Portland, Maine. (AP Photo/David Sharp)

A person submits his ballot on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024 in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo/Joel Page)

Voters fill out their ballots on Election Day Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, Maine. (AP Photo/Joel Page)

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez won reelection in New Mexico’s swing district along the U.S.-Mexico border, in a rematch against the Republican he ousted in 2022.

GOP challenger Yvette Herrell waged her fourth consecutive campaign for Congress in the majority-Latino district that stretches from the border to Albuquerque.

Separately, U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich won reelection Tuesday to a third term in New Mexico, defeating Republican nominee Nella Domenici — the daughter of longtime U.S. Sen. Pete V. Domenici — in her first bid for public office.

In the 2nd Congressional District, Democratic state lawmakers redrew congressional boundaries in 2021 to divvy up a politically conservative, oil-producing region among three districts.

Vasquez, a former Las Cruces city councilor, has invoked his knowledge of the border region and its economy as the U.S.-born son of immigrants from Mexico. His campaign has proposed safeguards against cartels that smuggle drugs or migrants, a humanitarian approach to asylum-seekers and support for abortion rights.

Herrell, a real estate agent and former state legislator, campaigned this year alongside Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson in favor of hard-line immigration enforcement policies. She has denounced oversight of the border under President Biden while advocating for a return to efforts by former President Donald Trump to expand the border wall and to enforce requirements that asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court.

The district still includes portions of the oil-rich Permian Basin, and Herrell has cast herself as a staunch advocate for the energy industry in the No. 2 state for petroleum production after Texas. Vasquez unsuccessfully proposed creation of a compensation fund for uninsured medical costs related to air pollution and heat-related illness, in a bill geared toward oilfield workers.

On abortion access, Herrell has downplayed Congress’ role and says she’ll defer to state law after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade. She previously supported legislation in Congress to restrict abortion access.

New Mexico abortion laws are among the most liberal in the nation. Vasquez supports initiatives in Congress to uphold abortion rights.

During her term in Congress, Herrell joined Republicans on Jan. 6, 2021, in rejecting the certification of Biden’s election victory in Arizona and Pennsylvania. She also voted against a bipartisan 2021 law that invested billions in America’s infrastructure.

The district’s voting age population is roughly 56% Latino — with centuries-old ties to Mexican and Spanish settlement — and 5% Native American, traversing the Mescalero Apache Reservation, four pueblo communities, outlying portions of the Navajo Nation and land holdings of the Oklahoma-based Fort Sill Apache Tribe.

Meanwhile in a hard-fought Senate race, Heinrich won over voters while highlighting his work on infrastructure, energy policy and an expansion of national security spending at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He’s been an advocate for gun safety and voiced support for an overhaul of Senate filibuster rules that can be easily used to hinder or block votes.

Domenici, a former executive at hedge fund giant Bridgewater Associates, failed to gain traction while touting her business know-how and concerns about crime, inflation and public education.

She characterized the U.S.-Mexico border as a crisis of crime and drugs, and advocated for expanding alternatives to traditional public schools.

The Senate candidates clashed on abortion rights as New Mexico increasingly serves as a destination for care for patients traveling from nearby states where the procedure is banned. Heinrich supports an expansion of federal abortion guarantees, while Domenici emphasized state rights and said she'd focus on efforts to reduce unintended pregnancies through education and birth control.

Domenici said she’d vote for Trump, though she didn’t mention him much while campaigning. Trump lost the 2020 vote in New Mexico by an 11% margin. Domenici’s father was the last New Mexico Republican to serve in the Senate, retiring after six terms in 2009.

He was the longest serving New Mexico senator, who chaired powerful Senate budget and energy committees.

Boisy Pinon votes on Election Day with her daughter, Emili, 9, by her side at the Bernalillo County Visitor Center in the South Valley of Albuquerque, N.M., on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Chancey Bush/The Albuquerque Journal via AP)

Natalie Garcia, 38, wears gemstone heels while she votes on Election Day at the Clerk's Annex in northwest Albuquerque, N.M., Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Chancey Bush/The Albuquerque Journal via AP)

Daniel Barth, 38, center, waits in line to cast his vote on Election Day at the Bernalillo County Visitor Center while the sunsets in the South Valley of Albuquerque, N.M., on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Chancey Bush/The Albuquerque Journal via AP)

Kassandra Varela casts her vote on Election Day while her 4-year-old son, Apollo, waits by her side at the Bernalillo County Visitor Center in Albuquerque, N.M., on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Chancey Bush/The Albuquerque Journal via AP)

People wait in line to vote on Election Day at the Bernalillo County Visitor Center while the sunsets in the South Valley of Albuquerque, N.M., on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Chancey Bush/The Albuquerque Journal via AP)

Mariana Quiroz and Ethan Hernandez wait in a long line to cast their vote at Las Cruces, N.M., City Hall to cast their ballots on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Eddie Moore/The Albuquerque Journal via AP)

Joey Ferno, 4, plays on the floor while his mother Whitney, top, casts her ballot at the Your Vote Center in Petroglyph Plaza on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Albuquerque, N.M. (Gino Gutierrez/The Albuquerque Journal via AP)

People enter Las Cruces, N.M., City Hall to cast their ballots on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Eddie Moore/The Albuquerque Journal via AP)

Voters cast their ballots at the Your Vote Center in the Andalucia Shopping Center on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Albuquerque, N.M. (Gino Gutierrez/The Albuquerque Journal via AP)

FILE - Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., listens during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, May 2, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)

FILE - Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Nella Domenici is seen, Feb. 6, 2024, in Santa Fe, N.M. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee, File)

FILE - Republican candidate for New Mexico's 2nd Congressional District Yvette Herrell speaks at a campaign event in Las Cruces, N.M., Aug. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton, File)

FILE - Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M., speaks during a news conference to announce the bipartisan Southwest Caucus, June 15, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)