Governor Janet T. Mills (D) With Scott Ogden, Communications Director, at East End Community School on Mujoy Hill Late This Afternoon.  She was Greeting Voters and Thanking Them for Their Support on Election Day.

Governor Janet T. Mills (D) last night won reelection to a second term as Maine’s governor.  The following are her victory remarks that came shortly before midnight on Election Day:

Guess What?!

We’re NOT going back!

We’re going to keep taking Maine into the future!

This week was an emotional time – but there were signs.  Early signs of victory.  At polling places across the state today, I got such a warm reception from all kinds of people.

An older man proclaimed that he was a lifelong Republican but that he voted for me.

Women gave me hugs.  And women of every age in every town came out to vote today to protect their fundamental rights.

A woman came up to me in Lewiston and said,” Thank you for expanding MaineCare, Governor Mills.  It saved my life.”

Another woman told me that the first time she voted was for John F. Kennedy in 1960.

And so, this campaign ends as it began – with listening to the people of Maine, hearing your concerns, telling you the truth and delivering solutions, not vittriol.

Earlier this year, we launched a campaign focused on you – the people of Maine – because you are what moves  us forward, what makes us strong.

Well tonight, you sent a clear message – a message that says we will continue to move forward and we will not go back, we will continue  to fight problems and not one another.

And just look at what we have accomplished together in our four years:

We confronted a pandemic better than nearly every other state in the nation;

We delivered one of the best inflation relief measures in the country;

We expanded health care to more than 95,000 people;

We expanded access to safe and legal abortion in the State of Maine;

We fully funded schools for the first time in our history, we raised teachers salaries, we delivered free meals for all kinds in every school and we provided free community college;

We are fighting climate change to protect this place we love, after eight years of inaction and denial;

Friends, all of this is not because of me.  It is because of you.

And I say to you tonight that you deserve every ounce of hard-won progress we have achieved, and you have earned all the progress that is going to come.

Tonight would not have been possible without the thousands of Maine people who supported our campaign, who voluntered to make calls and knock on doors and I am forever grateful for the time and talents you gave.  From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

(There is more to the statement issued from the Governor’s office, but I’m not going to reprint it all)!!