New campaign finance reports show that close to $3 million was spent on candidates for Maine governor by outside groups in the first quarter of 2026, a sign that spending is starting to ramp up as the June primary approaches.

Candidates themselves last filed campaign finance reports in January, and won’t have to do so again until the end of the month, while political action committees were required by the state to file reports about their latest spending on Friday.

In the race for governor, Republicans appear to have an advantage so far when it comes to outside spending.

Leading the way is former Maine Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason, who saw more than $2 million in outside spending on his behalf by the Restoration of America PAC Maine, which is funded by national Republican donors Richard Uihlein and Thomas Klingenstein.

Uihlein also gave an $800,000 donation last fall to Safeguard Girls Sports, a ballot question committee supporting a citizens initiative that would require transgender students to participate in school sports based on the sex they were assigned at birth.

The group’s $2.2 million in spending on Mason went to television ads. It raised more than $5 million in the first quarter of 2026, and finished March with $2.8 million on hand.

Also benefiting from outside spending is Jonathan Bush, a businessman and cousin of former President George W. Bush. Bush benefited from $340,000 in television ads this quarter by Maine Dream, Inc., whose biggest donors include Jim Davis, the billionaire owner of Boston-based New Balance.

On the Democratic side, former Speaker of the Maine House Hannah Pingree is supported by Maine Conservation Voters, an environmental group that endorsed her late last year.

Maine Conservation Voters has spent more than $200,000 in support of Pingree, with the money going to television and social media ads and polling. They announced the details of their ad campaign this week, saying they plan to remind voters across the state of “Hannah’s long track record of success.”

Other candidates have seen groups raise money to support them, but have yet to benefit from any significant spending.

Working Mainers First, a political action committee funded by union groups that is supporting former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, a Democrat, has raised $100,000.

314 Action Victory Fund, a group dedicated to electing scientists that has endorsed former Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Nirav Shah, also a Democrat, reported raising $60,000.

And Reclaim Maine, a group supporting Republican Bobby Charles, has raised $50,000 and spent about $12,000 on online advertising.

Ballot question committees — PACs that support or oppose ballot questions — were also required by the state to file campaign finance reports Friday.

Safeguard Girls Sports, the referendum group funded by Uihlein, did not report any new contributions, and spent only around $8,000. A different group, Protect Girls’ Sports in Maine, had raised $82,000 and spent close to $70,000 as of January in support of the question on trans students in sports.

Their latest filing was not available on the state’s website Saturday, but available data showed they spent around $30,000 and took in $19,000 this quarter, with most of those contributions coming from the Washington, D.C.-based conservative group Heritage Action.

The Campaign for Free and Fair Schools, a coalition of organizations opposing the referendum, has raised only about $2,500 in cash but has received thousands of dollars in in-kind donations from groups including GLAD Law, the Maine Voices Network and the Maine Women’s Lobby Education Fund, according to state campaign finance data.

Spending around the ballot initiative will likely ramp up closer to the November election, when the referendum will appear before voters.