A former lawmaker and a Bangor city councilor are competing in Tuesday’s special election for an open Maine House of Representatives seat.
Voters will pick a new representative for House District 24, which covers all of Veazie and parts of Bangor, Brewer and Orono. Maine State Treasurer Joe Perry held the seat before his Democratic colleagues elected him in December to the constitutional officer position.
Democrats will expect Sean Faircloth, who served five terms in the Maine House and Senate and then held a seat on the Bangor City Council from 2014 to 2017, to win Tuesday’s race. On the Republican side is Carolyn Fish, who is serving her first term on the Bangor City Council.
Faircloth, who briefly ran for governor in 2018 and for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2002, founded the Maine Discovery Museum in Bangor and was the executive director of the city’s Together Place Peer Run Recovery Center until 2023. He has mentioned climate, women’s rights, economic development and affordable housing among his top issues.
Fish, a real estate agent, said in a January announcement of her bid that she sees small businesses and families struggling to make ends meet due to the rising cost of housing, groceries, child care, health care and other expenses.
The seat has leaned heavily Democratic in recent years, with Perry carrying it by 29 percentage points in November. That election brought a razor-thin margin to the House, which has 75 Democrats, 73 Republicans and two unenrolled members who lean Democratic.
Voters can visit their municipality’s website for more information on Tuesday’s election, but polls will be open until 8 p.m. Tuesday.
