I never thought I would run for office, but years ago, when my three kids were all under the age of five, I walked through the door one day and heard a message on the answering machine left for my husband, Ben. It was someone from our town calling to ask if he would consider running for town council? And I thought, well actually, that’s a job I can do and somewhere I can make a difference. So I ran for that office, and I won.

While I was serving on my town council, I was also volunteering in schools in my community helping to serve free breakfast. I quickly noticed that the same students were coming every day, and they were coming not because they had left the house too quickly and forgotten to eat, but often because there was no food at home. I knew then that I wanted to do everything I could to tackle the problem at its root, so I decided to run for state legislature.

I’ve always believed that the purpose of public service is to do everything you can to better the lives of the people who elect you. From the Freeport Town Council to serving as Speaker of the State House, I’ve kept that purpose with me — consistently and passionately working to better the lives of the people who elected me to represent them.

Now, I’m running for Senate now for the same reason I got involved in public service in the first place: to fight for Mainers. And I’ve learned along the way that if you’re willing to work with others, it’s still possible to get things done.

Throughout my time in office, I’ve brought people together to:

-Pass legislation to protect and expand access to health care, codifying protections for people with pre-existing conditions into Maine law and controlling and lowering the price of prescription drugs;
-Enact real, meaningful property tax relief for more than 300,000 Mainers, instead of supporting massive tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations;
-Expand job training programs and defending workers’ rights to organize for the pay and benefits they’ve earned;
-Pass the most aggressive goals the state has ever seen for reducing carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050 and for increasing renewable energy production to 80 percent by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050;
-Fight the opioid epidemic by saving lives, creating more beds for treatment, creating long term treatment options, and expanding Medicaid;
-Expand women’s access to health care and reproductive services across the state; and
-Passing a budget that allocated more money in education funding to schools with more economically disadvantaged kids.

I’m really proud of the work we’ve been able to do to help Mainers and make real progress. We need more of that in Washington, and that’s why I’m running for US Senate.

You can find out more at saragideon.com/priorities.

Sara Gideon is a proud mom, wife, sister, daughter and Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives.

Throughout her time in public service, Sara has prioritized listening to Mainers and then working with others to get things done. And under Governors of both parties, Sara has shown an ability to deliver results while standing up for Democratic values.

Whether as a member of her local town council, as a State Representative and now Speaker of the House, Sara has focused on trying to use her office to improve the lives of Maine families.

She’s made expanding access to affordable healthcare a priority by helping pass laws to help ensure insurance companies can’t discriminate against Mainers with pre-existing conditions and crack down on pharmaceutical companies to increase drug pricing transparency and help control the cost of prescription drugs.

Sara’s championed job training legislation to address Maine’s workforce shortage and increase economic opportunity across the state. She passed a landmark bill to provide property tax refunds to Maine homeowners, and Sara’s bipartisan LIFT legislation has focused on expanding educational opportunities to make sure Maine families have a chance at financial independence.

Sara has always stood up for a woman’s right to choose. As newly appointed Supreme Court justices threaten the future of Roe vs. Wade and state legislatures across the country pass laws banning abortion in almost all circumstances, Sara has led the fight to make sure women in Maine remain in control of their health care decisions.

She’s been a leading voice in the legislature to draw attention to and deliver resources to combat Maine’s opioid epidemic. Sara’s work has been credited with giving law enforcement and families the tools they need to help save lives. And when former Governor LePage vetoed Sara’s opioid legislation and mocked those suffering from the crisis, Sara did not back down. Instead, she brought Democrats and Republicans together to override that veto, and again put Maine first.

Sara is running for U.S. Senate because she believes too many politicians in Washington are focused more on the special interests than the interests of the people they’re supposed to represent.

As she always has, in the Senate, Sara Gideon will put Maine first.

Washington is clearly broken – politicians are too responsive to wealthy donors and corporate special interests, promoting their agendas over the people they were elected to represent. Elected officials are failing to make progress on many of the issues that matter most to Maine people, like lowering the cost of
prescription drugs, reducing their tax burden or making health care more affordable, all because special interests hold the power.

Sara voted to strengthen Maine’s clean elections system after it was weakened by federal courts. In the past year, she worked in the state legislature to pass automatic voter registration to make it easier for Maine voters to participate in our electoral process and banned state lobbyists from donating to legislative and gubernatorial campaigns in Maine.

Sara is running for Senate to fight for Mainers, not special interests. In the Senate, she’ll work to end the influence of big money on our elections and officials in Washington by:

-Passing a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United;
-Passing the DISCLOSE Act, which would require dark money groups to disclose their donors and crack down on secret spending in our elections, and the Real Time Transparency Act to increase campaign finance transparency;
-Supporting “No Budget, No Pay” legislation so that Congress isn’t compensated if they fail to do the most basic part of their job: passing a budget;
-Banning former members of Congress from becoming lobbyists;
-Refusing any gifts or meals from lobbyists; and
-Refusing any trips paid for by special interests.

Sara has pledged not to accept any money from corporate PACs in her campaign or as a U.S. Senator, so that Maine people will never have any doubt whose interests she’s representing in the Senate.