Sen. Angus King walks into the polls at Brunswick High School with his daughter Molly Tuesday morning. Gregory Rec/personal photographer

U.S. Sen. Angus King was expected to easily win a third term in office on Tuesday, although results were still being drawn and the final outcome still unclear.

The 80-year-old served two terms as Maine’s governor from 1995 to 2003, and before that was a lawyer and founder of an energy conservation firm.

Speaking to reporters before voting early Tuesday in his hometown of Brunswick, King said that “this is the castle of democracy. This is where we can make decisions, where we the people have the power.”

King said he had mixed feelings about seeing his name on the ballot for the last time. He said this would be his last campaign.

“Yeah, because it’s something I’ve done off and on for a while, and it’s kind of a bittersweet moment,” he said. “But I’ve got six more years if I’m successful today, so don’t retire me too early.”

King, an independent, told the Press Herald that one of the reasons he is running for a third term is that the Senate is losing moderates, with U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, independent Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Democrat Joe Manchin of West. Virginia chose not to run for re-election.

“I don’t want to see the Senate turn into the House and become totally partisan,” he said. “We have to keep people in the middle who are willing to talk to each other.”

Sen. Angus King greets Meghan Kissling outside the polls at Brunswick High School in Brunswick Tuesday morning. Kissling was handing out flyers about an upcoming comprehensive plan community meeting. Gregory Rec/personal photographer

King meets with Democrats and has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, and has been outspoken against former President Donald Trump, a Republican, for divisive remarks. When Trump called the riots on January 6, 2021 a day of “love and peace” as pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election, King said Trump was “undermining” American democracy.

“I was there and I know what happened,” King told the Press Herald in October. “It was not peaceful or loving. It was violent.”

King’s Republican challenger, Demi Kouzounas, 68, of Saco, is a former dentist and former chair of the Maine GOP.

“Today, the American dream is slipping away,” Kouzounas said during an October debate with King and Democratic candidate David Costello. Kouzounas criticized King for high inflation and housing costs and the border crisis. “Sen. King has been in politics for nearly two decades and things are not getting any better.”

Costello was considered a longshot and polled in the single digits despite being the Democratic nominee.

“I think Washington is broken,” Costello said during the October debate. “And we need to do a lot more than change who we elect every two to six years.”

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