Maine Independent Senator Angus King intends to seek third term in U.S. Senate in 2024

(WMTW) - Maine Senator Angus King intends to seek a third, six-year term in the U.S. Senate in 2024, when he will be 80 years old, his office confirmed on Thursday.

An Independent elected in 2012, King caucuses with Democrats.

King was reelected with 54% of the vote in a three-candidate field in 2018.

Communications Director Matthew Felling said, “Senator King feels great, has been an active driver in one of the most productive Congressional sessions in years, and he feels there is still plenty of work to be done. I expect he’ll make an official announcement when campaign season kicks into gear next year.

King previously served two terms as Maine’s governor from 1995-2003 and endorsed Democrat Janet Mills for reelection this year, which she won easily.

King is the junior senator from Maine. Republican Susan Collins, 69, first elected in 1994 and reelected to a fifth term in 2020, is the longest serving woman Republican senator in U.S. history.

In the current Congress, King voted for the Respect For Marriage Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and supports the Electoral College Reform Act.

King voted for the Bipartisan Safer Communites Act, the first federal gun control law in two decades, although it did not go as far as he wanted -- to include universal background checks.

King voted twice to convict former President Donald Trump in his impeachment trials and blamed Trump for inciting the January 6 Capitol Riot.

King supported the Democrats’ broad election reform bill -- which would have made voter registration, absentee ballot voting, and early voting essier, while curbing partisan gerrymandering and voter suppression tactics -- but the bill failed to pass the Senate after passing the House.

King pushed to get several hundred million dollars for broadband expansion in Maine into last year’s Bipartisan Infrastructure law.

Along with Governor Mills and the entire Maine congressional delegation, King has been an outspoken defender of Maine lobstermen from encroaching federal regulations meant to protect endangered North Atlantic Right Whales and against calls to boycott Maine lobster by sustainability rating groups.