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Five Mainers are running for governor as Democrats. Only one is backed by a mother who once said: “Women have the ability to change the course of an election.”
In 1999, when then-Maine state Sen. Chellie Pingree uttered those words in an interview for my book, “It Takes a Woman: Women Shaping Public Policy,” she didn’t know that her own daughter would one day run for governor.
Hannah Pingree was raised by her parents on North Haven, an island off Rockland, which provides context for her special brand of leadership. Having witnessed firsthand what public service really looks like from her mom, Hannah, at only 26, leapt into politics, when she was elected to the Maine House in 2002. There she esteemed herself by listening to and providing what people needed, like expanding broadband to rural sites. She fought to improve housing access, and protect Maine’s working waterfronts, too.
Like her mother before her, Hannah has led at every level, having run a small business, chaired the local school board, and directed Gov. Janet Mills’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future., where she expanded access to health care and affordable housing and led critical climate work.
She also worked to lower health care costs, defend reproductive rights, and pass marriage equality.
Hannah is a leader, who shows up and gets stuff done! At this critical time for our state and country, I believe Hannah brings the experience, integrity and determination Mainers can trust to deliver the results we need. Please join me in sending Hannah Pingree to the Blaine House, and witness how she changes the course of this election!
Melissa MacCrae
Brewer
