Vice President Kamala Harris has opened an 8-point lead over former President Donald Trump in Maine, the latest Pine Street State poll released Friday showed.
The online survey of 1,502 adults, most of whom were likely voters, was conducted by The New Hampshire University Survey Center from July 24-25. It showed that 48% favored Harris, the presumptive Democrat presidential nominee, and 40% favored Trump, the Republican nominee. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 2.5 percentage points.
Unlike all other states except Nebraska, Maine awards two electoral votes based on the statewide vote and one for each of its two congressional districts. George H.W. Bush in 1988 was the last Republican to win all four Maine electoral votes and the last to win Maine's 1st Congressional District. Trump won the 2nd Congressional District, which is mostly central and northern Maine, in 2016 and 2020.
In the poll, Harris leads Trump 56%-36% in the 1st Congressional District and Trump leads 44%-40% in the 2nd.
The poll was heavily weighted toward Democrats, with 47% identifying as Democrats compared with 39% who identified as Republicans, and 36% who said they were registered Democrats compared with 28% who said they were registered Republicans.
The poll was the first for Maine since President Joe Biden suspended his reelection campaign and endorsed Harris. An April poll by Digital Research Inc. showed Biden had just a 51%-49% lead over Trump; he won Maine's statewide vote by 9 percentage points in 2020.
Harris has a 42% favorability rating in Maine in the New Hampshire University poll, compared with 36% for Trump and 34% for Biden.
Almost half (49%) said they wanted Harris to be the Democrat nominee, with 33% saying someone else and 17% unsure. Among non-Harris supporters, 25% said they preferred Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running as an independent, to be the Democrat nominee, with 20% saying Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., and 3% said former first lady Michelle Obama.
Harris has yet to choose a running mate, and the poll showed that 21% preferred Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, 17% said Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, and 7% favored Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.