Matthew Dunlap is the Democratic nominee for Maine's 2nd Congressional District, having won a hard-fought June 9, 2026 primary via ranked-choice voting over state Sen. Joe Baldacci -- who had been backed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee -- along with former congressional aide Jordan Wood and social worker Paige Loud. He will face former Republican Gov. Paul LePage in November for the seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Jared Golden, in a rural district that has voted for Trump in each of the last three presidential elections.

Born and raised on a farm near Bar Harbor, Dunlap graduated from Mount Desert Island High School, where he captained the track team, and went on to earn a B.A. in history and an M.A. in English from the University of Maine, later completing Harvard's Senior Executives in State and Local Government program. He served in the Maine House of Representatives from 1996 to 2004 and then as Maine Secretary of State for a combined seven terms between 2005 and 2021. During President Trump's first term, Dunlap was appointed to a supposedly bipartisan "election integrity" commission; when he determined it was a partisan effort to undermine voting rights, he sued and won, forcing the commission's dissolution. He has served as Maine State Auditor since late 2022, after a brief earlier stint in the role in 2021.

Dunlap served as Maine co-chair for Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign and is a founding board member of the Maine Youth Fish and Game Association and former executive director of the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine. He has been endorsed by the progressive group Our Revolution, National Nurses United, Rep. Ro Khanna, and former Rep. Michael Michaud, the most recent Democrat to represent ME-02 before Golden. He lives in Old Town with his wife, Michelle Dunphy, and their daughter.