Sen. Angus King walks into the polls at Brunswick Junior High School with his daughter Molly on Tuesday morning. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

U.S. Sen. Angus King easily won a third term after building a commanding lead over two rivals.

King had 51.8% of the vote with 92% of votes reported Wednesday afternoon.

Republican Demi Kouzounas was in second with 34.4%.

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

Speaking to reporters before voting early Tuesday in his hometown of Brunswick, King said he had mixed feelings about seeing his name on the ballot for likely the last time. He has said this would be his final campaign.

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

King, an independent, told the Press Herald that one reason he ran for a third term is that the Senate is the loss of moderates, with U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, independent Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia choosing to not run for reelection.

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

Sen. Angus King greets Meghan Kissling outside the polls at Brunswick Junior High School in Brunswick on Tuesday morning. Kissling was passing out flyers about an upcoming comprehensive plan community meeting. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

King caucuses with the Democrats and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, and he has been outspoken against former President Donald Trump, a Republican. When Trump called the Jan. 6, 2021, riots a day of “love and peace” as pro-Trump rioters broke into the U.S. 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 wasn’t peaceful or loving. It was violent.”

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

“Today, the American dream is slipping away,” Kouzounas said, during an October debate with King and Democratic nominee 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 aren’t getting better.”

Costello was considered a long-shot candidate, and has been polling in the single digits, despite being the Democratic nominee.

“I believe 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.”