AUGUSTA – A second-term Democratic lawmaker from Lewiston who was defeated in the July 11 primary has said he will not serve out the remainder of his term but instead will give up his seat in the House of Representatives.

William Cote’s letter of resignation was forwarded Tuesday by Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky to Gov. Angus King.

Cote’s resignation would bring the number of vacancies in the 151-seat House of Representatives to two.

Nancy Chizmar of Lisbon, a four-term Democratic House member from District 84 who was running for the state Senate, died in May.

Vying in the November general election to succeed her in representing part of Lisbon will be Democrat Deborah Danuski of Lisbon Falls and Republican Robert Berube of Lisbon.

Democrats originally held a House majority over Republicans of 89-61, with one House seat occupied by an independent.

The two vacancies combined with the recent registration change of Portland Rep. John McDonough from Democrat to Republican change the composition of the House to 86-62-1.

McDonough lost his Democratic primary election in District 32, part of Portland, to Edward Suslovic and is now seeking re-election as a Republican.

Suslovic beat McDonough in the primary by 587-433.

Also running in District 32 is Green Independent candidate Joshua Dolby.

In his July 21 letter to Gwadosky, Cote said his resignation would be “effective immediately.”

Cote’s bid for a third House term was derailed last month when he was defeated in a contest for the Democratic nomination by Paul Samson. Samson, who beat Cote 394-173, subsequently withdrew and was replaced by William Walcott.

Walcott now faces Republican Larry Caron in the November general election to represent part of Lewiston.

“I served District 87 well for four years,” Cote wrote in his letter to Gwadosky. “I enjoyed it while it lasted. So it saddens me to write this letter but I need to move on now.”

Gubernatorial spokesman Tony Sprague said there was no immediate response from the governor.