AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows announced Wednesday she will run for governor in 2026, making the Democrat the first well-known politician to officially declare a bid to succeed Gov. Janet Mills.
Bellows, who became Maine’s top elections official in 2021 and the first woman to hold the role after serving two terms in the Maine Senate, had been widely viewed for months as a candidate to replace Mills, a Democrat who will wrap up her second and final term next year.
The progressive from Manchester will have to make the case she can win over swing voters throughout Maine, such as those who opposed her decision to initially disqualify President Donald Trump from last year’s primary ballot on insurrection-related grounds. It turned her into a lightning-rod figure among Republicans until the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the move.
In an interview ahead of Wednesday’s announcement, Bellows focused on how she grew up poor in rural Hancock County and worked her way through high school and college as a waitress, babysitter and at a local lobster pound, among other jobs. She also noted the Kennebec County district she represented as a senator also backed Trump in 2016.
“I know what it’s like to work hard for everything you have, because I’ve never had anything handed to me,” Bellows said, mentioning the cost of living, child care, education and economic issues as priorities ahead of a kickoff event Wednesday morning in her hometown of Hancock.
Bellows is the best-known candidate to officially declare a gubernatorial bid so far, with former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, only saying earlier in March he is exploring a run for the Blaine House. Democrats have controlled the governor’s office and Legislature since 2018, but an array of Republicans who are looking at the race will feel encouraged by the fact Maine has not consecutively elected governors of the same party since 1959.
Alluding to Mills’ dispute with Trump after the Republican president targeted Maine over its transgender athlete policies, Bellows said the governor “has always demonstrated toughness and pragmatism.” She also said Trump and Republican leaders in Washington constitute “a true threat to our democracy and our way of life here in Maine.”
“We as people here in Maine are going to have to step up, protect ourselves and take care of our own,” Bellows said.
Bellows rose in Maine politics as the head of the ACLU in Maine from 2005 to 2013. She ran a longshot campaign against U.S. Sen. Susan Collins the following year, winning less than 31 percent of votes. She went to the state Senate in 2016 and was elected twice more before stepping down to become secretary of state.
In that role, she has implemented online voter registration and automatic registration at motor vehicle offices. Bellows has also been vocal in opposing Republican-led attempts to institute photo ID requirements for Maine voters and put limits on the state’s no-excuse absentee voting rules. A referendum on that issue is set for November.
Apart from Jackson, other well-known Maine Democrats viewed as potential gubernatorial contenders include U.S. Rep. Jared Golden and Hannah Pingree, who leads the governor’s policy office. The Republican field is still not clear, but former elected officials and business leaders who have never been in office are among the floated names so far.
“We need a governor from Maine and for Maine who understands what families are going through and understands the challenges we’re facing and will fight hard to protect families like the one I grew up in,” Bellows said.
