As we do every four years, Daily Kos Elections is calculating the results of the 2016 presidential election for all 435 congressional districts, and this series of posts explores the most interesting results on a state-by-state basis. You can find our complete data set here, which we’re updating continuously as the precinct-level election returns we need for our calculations become available. You can also click here to learn more about why this data is so difficult to come by.
Hillary Clinton carried Maine 48-45, a big drop from Barack Obama's 56-41 win in 2012. Clinton carried the 1st District, which includes Portland, 54-39, several points closer than Obama's 60-38 victory. But the rural northern 2nd District was, to borrow from the great Scottish political sage Jamie MacDonald, a catastrofuck. While Obama won the 2nd 53-44, Donald Trump ran away with it 51-41.
Trump's victory not only gave him one extra electoral vote (Maine and Nebraska give an electoral vote to the winner of each of their congressional districts), but it had downballot repercussions as well. Freshman Republican Rep. Bruce Poliquin had defeated Democrat Emily Cain 47-42 during the 2014 GOP wave, and Democrats hoped that a better political climate would lift Cain to victory in her rematch. No such luck: Poliquin won their expensive second battle 55-45.