The general election was expected to be competitive. In October, Roll Call named Collins the fourth-most vulnerable senator up for re-election.[1] Collins was one of two incumbent Republican senators running for re-election in a state that Hillary Clinton (D) won in the 2016 presidential election. Clinton defeated Donald Trump (R) in Maine 48% to 45%.
The outcome of this race affected partisan control of the U.S. Senate. Thirty-five of 100 seats were up for election, including two special elections. At the time of the election, Republicans had a 53-45 majority over Democrats in the Senate. Independents who caucus with the Democrats held the two remaining seats. Republicans faced greater partisan risk in the election. They defended 23 seats while Democrats defended 12. Both parties had two incumbents representing states the opposite party's presidential nominee won in 2016.
Maine used ranked-choice voting for federal and certain other elections, meaning a candidate needed more than 50% of the vote to win on the first round of tallying. Click here for more information.
Ballotpedia provided comprehensive coverage of how election dates and procedures changed in 2020. While the majority of changes occurred as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, some changes occurred for other reasons.
Maine modified its voter registration procedures for the November 3, 2020, general election as follows:
Voter registration: The voter pre-registration deadline in the general election was extended to October 19, 2020.
For a full timeline about election modifications made in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, click here.
Undeclared Write-insUndeclared write-in candidates may advance past the first round in some ranked-choice elections. If the official source reports write-in votes by candidate name, Ballotpedia displays them alongside the ballot-qualified candidates. However, if write-in votes are reported without a name, they will instead be included in the total write-in votes figure in Round 1. Please consult the official elections source for more details about unnamed write-in candidate vote totals past Round 1.
0.0
228
0
Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source
Total votes: 819,183
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
Undeclared Write-insUndeclared write-in candidates may advance past the first round in some ranked-choice elections. If the official source reports write-in votes by candidate name, Ballotpedia displays them alongside the ballot-qualified candidates. However, if write-in votes are reported without a name, they will instead be included in the total write-in votes figure in Round 1. Please consult the official elections source for more details about unnamed write-in candidate vote totals past Round 1.
1.2
1,073
0
Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source
Total votes: 88,448
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
This section includes candidate profiles created in one of two ways. Either the candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey or Ballotpedia staff created a profile after identifying the candidate as noteworthy.[2] Ballotpedia staff compiled profiles based on campaign websites, advertisements, and public statements.
Biography: Collins received a B.A. from St. Lawrence University. She worked on the staff of former Sen. William S. Cohen (R-Maine). Collins was staff director of the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on the Oversight of Government Management, commissioner of the Maine Department of Professional and Financial Regulation, New England regional director of the United States Small Business Administration, and deputy state treasurer of Massachusetts. She was the Republican nominee for governor of Maine in 1994.
Key Messages
The following key messages were curated by Ballotpedia staff. For more on how we identify key messages, click here.
Collins said she had been consistently ranked the most bipartisan member of the U.S. Senate.
Collins said her accomplishments included writing the Paycheck Protection Program, securing Medicare for seniors, protecting coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, and writing a bill that helped people with Lyme disease.
Collins' campaign ads said Gideon did nothing during the COVID-19 crisis while Collins got results. The ads said Gideon shut down the state government and that, on the Freeport Town Council, she raised taxes.
Biography: Gideon received a bachelor's degree in international relations and affairs from George Washington University in 1994. She worked as an advertising account executive with USA Today. Gideon served as vice chairperson on the Freeport Town Council. She was assistant majority leader of the state House of Representatives from 2014 to 2016.At the time of the election, Gideon served as speaker of the state House.
Key Messages
The following key messages were curated by Ballotpedia staff. For more on how we identify key messages, click here.
Gideon said she had worked across the aisle. She emphasized that she changed the seating chart in the state House so that Democrats and Republicans were no longer grouped on different sides of the room.
Gideon said her record included protecting insurance coverage for people with pre-existing conditions in Maine, helping control prescription drug costs including capping insulin costs, and passing middle-class property tax relief.
Gideon's ads said Collins had changed during her time in office and that she had been bought by special interests. Gideon criticized Collins' vote for the 2017 tax bill and said she put Social Security and Medicare in danger.
Submitted Biography: "I grew up in Maine, and my family has had roots here for generations. I love Maine, its beautiful landscapes, and its kind, hardworking people. I have also had the benefit of spending 11 years outside of the state, living and working in North Carolina, so I have had the chance to see Maine from the outside looking in. I have taught Social Studies and Special Education in private and public school settings in both Maine and North Carolina. I currently teach Social Studies and Religion at a Catholic school in Bangor, where I am also the Student Leadership Team advisor, 8th Grade advisor, Special Education liaison, and alumni liaison. I've been married to my wife, Danielle, a nurse practitioner at Lafayette Family Cancer Institute in Brewer for 35 years. We have 4 adult children, 2 living in North Carolina and 2 here in Maine. We love to hike, camp, kayak, travel, ski, snowshoe, roadtrip, and any other way we can explore this beautiful state, country, and world!
"
Key Messages
To read this candidate's full survey responses, click here.
I am running because I am tired of the negative, hate-spewing rhetoric that has become typical of our political campaigns of late. I am running a campaign of honesty, integrity, and decency , refusing to denigrate my opponents, but choosing to run on my own merits.
Big money is playing to great a part of our political system. Tens of millions of dollars have been spent on this U.S. Senate campaign, often with heavily biased and skewed information about several of my opponents in an effort to influence the election. Much of this money has come from out-of-state donors. I refuse to take part in this effort to dishonestly influence and buy votes. I have pledged to take no campaign donations for this election and have limited my own expenditures to $100.
The Republican and Democratic parties have ceased to work toward the best interests of our country and have, instead, become fully focused on maintaining their own power, to the detriment of our country. In order to have a government that is responsive to the needs of the people, the power of the two party system needs to be broken.
This information was current as of the candidate's run for U.S. Senate Maine in 2020.
Submitted Biography: "I'm Lisa Savage, teacher, organizer, and grandmother and I'm running for US Senate to give Mainers a Senator who will work for people, planet, and peace.
I believe we deserve a government that works for us, not the big banks, weapons manufacturers, fossil fuel giants and corporate lobbyists who are calling the shots in Washington.
As a union vice president and negotiator, I bargained successfully for higher wages and health care benefits for public school educators.
As a teacher in rural Maine, I work with children whose families are struggling to survive in an economy that's just become significantly worse during the COVID-19 pandemic. We were already facing a climate crisis harming our farms, fisheries and coast. Yet with all the urgent needs we face, Congress is making things worse by giving almost 60% of our federal discretionary budget to the Pentagon for endless, unwinnable wars that are making the world less safe.
I believe it's time to say no to politics as usual. As your voice in the Senate, I'll do what it takes to protect our children's future and create a better world for all of us. "
Key Messages
To read this candidate's full survey responses, click here.
Pass Medicare For All: Make quality healthcare a human right. Expand this successful federal program immediately during the pandemic, and include immigrants as recipients of universal, single-payer healthcare.
Adopt a Green New Deal, as the Greens have been advocating for two decades, to tackle the climate crisis and create good union jobs building green energy and transit systems rather than weapons systems that contribute to global warming.
Offer fully funded quality education for all, including free public higher education without student debt. Abolish student debt now to respond to economic distress during the pandemic.
This information was current as of the candidate's run for U.S. Senate Maine in 2020.
Moderated by journalist and political commentator Greta Van Susteren, Candidate Conversations is a virtual debate format that allows voters to easily get to know their candidates through a short video Q&A.
Click below to watch the conversation for this race.
Ranked-choice voting
Ranked-choice voting in Maine
Maine uses ranked-choice voting for all federal and state-level (e.g., governor, state senator, and state representative) primary elections. Ranked-choice voting is used in general elections for federal offices only (i.e., U.S. Congress and the presidency).[3]
Click here for information on the history of ranked-choice voting in Maine.
How ranked-choice voting works
Broadly speaking, the ranked-choice voting process unfolds as follows for single-winner elections:
Voters rank the candidates for a given office by preference on their ballots.
If a candidate wins an outright majority of first-preference votes (i.e., 50 percent plus one), he or she will be declared the winner.
If, on the other hand, no candidates win an outright majority of first-preference votes, the candidate with the fewest first-preference votes is eliminated.
All first-preference votes for the failed candidate are eliminated, lifting the second-preference choices indicated on those ballots.
A new tally is conducted to determine whether any candidate has won an outright majority of the adjusted voters.
The process is repeated until a candidate wins a majority of votes cast.
Example
Assume that there are four candidates for mayor in a hypothetical city. The table below presents the raw first-preference vote totals for each candidate.
Raw first-preference vote tallies in a hypothetical mayoral race
Candidate
First-preference votes
Percentage
Candidate A
475
46.34%
Candidate B
300
29.27%
Candidate C
175
17.07%
Candidate D
75
7.32%
In the above scenario, no candidate won an outright majority of first-preference votes. As a result, the candidate (Candidate D) with the smallest number of first-preference votes is eliminated. The ballots that listed candidate D as the first preference are adjusted, raising their second-preference candidates. Assume that, of the 75 first-preference votes for Candidate D, 50 listed Candidate A as their second preference and 25 listed Candidate B. The adjusted vote totals would be as follows:
Adjusted vote tallies in a hypothetical mayoral race
Candidate
Adjusted first-preference votes
Percentage
Candidate A
525
51.22%
Candidate B
325
31.71%
Candidate C
175
17.07%
On the second tally, Candidate A secured 51.22 percent of the vote, thereby winning the election.
Note: The above is a simplified example used for illustrative purposes. Specific procedures vary by jurisdiction and according to the nature of the election (i.e., whether it is a single-winner or multi-winner contest).
The Ballotpedia Power Index (BPI) is an election forecasting tool which factors in polling averages from RealClearPolitics and share prices on PredictIt to project the overall chances of each candidate winning election. It is updated every weekday. The following chart displays the BPI for this race dating back to August 20, 2020. As of October 28, 2020, the RealClearPolitics polling average for this race was no longer available. Ballotpedia halted updates to the BPI for this race but left the existing chart up for historical purposes.
Campaign finance
This section contains campaign finance figures from the Federal Election Commission covering all candidate fundraising and spending in this election.[7] It does not include information on fundraising before the current campaign cycle or on spending by satellite groups. The numbers in this section are updated as candidates file new campaign finance reports. Candidates for Congress are required to file financial reports on a quarterly basis, as well as two weeks before any primary, runoff, or general election in which they will be on the ballot and upon the termination of any campaign committees.[8]
Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2020. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee."
** According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election.
*** Candidate either did not report any receipts or disbursements to the FEC, or Ballotpedia did not find an FEC candidate ID.
Ballotpedia provides race ratings from four outlets: The Cook Political Report, Inside Elections, Sabato's Crystal Ball, and DDHQ/The Hill. Each race rating indicates if one party is perceived to have an advantage in the race and, if so, the degree of advantage:
Safe and Solid ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge and the race is not competitive.
Likely ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge, but an upset is possible.
Lean ratings indicate that one party has a small edge, but the race is competitive.[9]
Toss-up ratings indicate that neither party has an advantage.
Race ratings are informed by a number of factors, including polling, candidate quality, and election result history in the race's district or state.[10][11][12]
This section lists noteworthy endorsements issued in this election, including those made by high-profile individuals and organizations, cross-party endorsements, and endorsements made by newspaper editorial boards. It also includes a bulleted list of links to official lists of endorsements for any candidates who published that information on their campaign websites. Please note that this list is not exhaustive. If you are aware of endorsements that should be included, please click here.
Click the links below to see endorsement lists published on candidate campaign websites, if available.
October 14, 2020: Campaign finance reports showed Gideon had raised $70 million to Collins' $27 million.[23]
October 6, 2020: A Pan Atlantic Research poll showed Gideon with 47% and Collins with 40%. The margin of error was +/- 4.5 percentage points.[24]
October 4, 2020: A poll commissioned by Bangor Daily News showed Gideon with 44% to Collins' 43%. The margin of error was +/- 4.4 percentage points.[25]
September 28, 2020: A Data for Progress poll showed Gideon with 46% to Collins' 41%. The margin of error was +/- 3.7 percentage points.[26]
September 23, 2020: A Colby College poll showed Gideon with 45% to Collins' 41%. The margin of error was +/- 3.4 percentage points.[27]
September 21, 2020: Sabato's Crystal Ball changed its race rating from Toss-up to Leans Democratic.[28]
September 20, 2020: A Suffolk University/Boston Globepoll showed Gideon with 46% to Collins' 41%. This poll asked those who said they would vote for someone else who their second-choice candidate would be—48% said Gideon and 19% said Collins. The poll's margin of error was +/- 4.4 percentage points.[29]
Campaign advertisements
This section shows advertisements released in this race. Ads released by campaigns and, if applicable, satellite groups are embedded or linked below. If you are aware of advertisements that should be included, please email us.
Susan Collins
Supporting Collins
"You Know Her" – Collins campaign, accessed October 30, 2020
"David" – Collins campaign, accessed October 30, 2020
"Outdoors" – Collins campaign, accessed October 30, 2020
"Ethic" – Collins campaign, accessed October 29, 2020
"Bentley: 30" – Collins campaign, accessed October 26, 2020
"Offensive" – Collins campaign, accessed October 26, 2020
"Long Winter" – Collins campaign, accessed October 26, 2020
"Looking Out" – Collins campaign, accessed October 26, 2020
"Vanishing" – Collins campaign, accessed October 26, 2020
"Walking" – Collins campaign, accessed October 20, 2020
"Open" – Collins campaign, accessed October 17, 2020
"Bentley" – Collins campaign, accessed October 16, 2020
"The Harpers" – Collins campaign, accessed October 14, 2020
"One Promise: 30" – Collins campaign, accessed October 12, 2020
"County Girls: 60" – Collins campaign, accessed October 12, 2020
"Bill Green: 15" – Collins campaign, accessed October 6, 2020
"Prescriptions: 15" – Collins campaign, accessed October 5, 2020
"Veterans" – Collins campaign, accessed October 5, 2020
"Bill Green - Dogs" – Collins campaign, accessed October 5, 2020
"Moments" – Collins campaign, accessed September 30, 2020
"Transparency" – Collins campaign, accessed September 21, 2020
"Values (:15)" – Collins campaign, accessed September 19, 2020
"Count On It" – Collins campaign, accessed September 15, 2020
"Denger Family" – Collins campaign, accessed September 3, 2020
"Tim Tower" – Collins campaign, accessed July 30, 2020
"Character" – Collins campaign, accessed July 30, 2020
"Earned" – Collins campaign, accessed July 24, 2020
"Showing Up" – Collins campaign, accessed July 20, 2020
"Paula" – Collins campaign, accessed July 13, 2020
"No Time for Politics" – Collins campaign, accessed July 7, 2020
As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senator Collins holds a key position in Congress and has the important responsibility of overseeing and shaping national security issues of importance to both Maine and the United States. Senator Collins has fought for, and secured, provisions in annual defense authorization and funding bills that support work at Bath Iron Works, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, the University of Maine, Saco Defense, Pratt & Whitney, and other companies important to the Maine economy.
Veterans
Today, nearly 22 million Americans hold the distinguished title of Veteran, and more than 127,000 of those individuals live in our great State of Maine. As the daughter of a World War II Purple Heart recipient, Senator Collins learned first-hand of the sacrifice that these heroes and their families make to advance the cause of freedom. Fighting on behalf of our nation’s Veterans, Senator Collins has worked to support the needs of Veterans nationwide by protecting access to rural health care, holding the Department of Veterans Affairs accountable in the wake of scandal, and expediting the process for disabled veterans to get the services they need.
Education
Senator Collins has a strong record of supporting education at all levels, including promoting early childhood education; improving our public school system for kindergarten through 12th grade; and working to increase the affordability of higher education. As a member of the Senate Appropriations and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committees, Senator Collins will continue to work to ensure that Congress provides robust funding and targeted legislation for the most effective educational programs aimed at helping teachers and students.
Senator Collins has made engaging with Maine’s students and faculty a top priority, visiting nearly 200 schools during her time as a Senator.
Energy and Environment
From tourism and recreation, to working forests, and fishing and agricultural industries, there is no doubt that Maine’s economy is inextricably linked to the environment. Maine’s greatest treasure is its natural beauty, and Senator Collins remains committed to advancing reasonable and effective policies in the U.S. Senate to protect the environment.
Throughout her time in the U.S. Senate, Senator Collins has worked to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, spur the creation of green energy jobs, and reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign oil – while retaining important American manufacturing jobs. High costs of energy are burdensome to Maine families, truck drivers, farmers, fishermen, schools, small businesses, mills, and factories. Nearly 80 percent of the homes in our state rely on heating oil, leaving Maine families extremely vulnerable to high crude oil prices.
Health Care
There is no question that our nation’s health care system requires substantial reform. The status quo of soaring health care costs, struggling families, and health care provider shortages across Maine and the nation is unacceptable. Senator Collins frequently works with her colleagues on both sides of the aisle to address these and other important issues facing our nation such as improved mental health care, drug treatment programs, supporting America’s caregivers, and nutrition programs.
As a native to northern Maine, Senator Collins understands the specific challenges that rural communities face for medical care. Throughout her time in the Senate, Senator Collins has consistently supported programs to expand access to and improve the health care system, particularly for citizens living in rural areas.
As a freshman legislator, Senator Collins founded the Senate Diabetes Caucus and has since led the effort to more than triple federal funding for diabetes research.
Senior Issues
As the Chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, Senator Collins’ priorities include retirement security, highlighting the importance of biomedical research on diseases like Alzheimer’s and diabetes, and scams targeting seniors.
As the Senate Co-Chair of the Congressional Alzheimer’s Task Force, the Senator is particularly committed to putting an end to Alzheimer’s disease, which has had such a devastating effect on 5.2 million Americans and their families.
Homeland Security
As the former Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Senator Collins has championed efforts to enhance the ability and preparedness of first responders, worked to address the issue of homegrown terrorism, and sounded the alarm on the vital importance of enhancing our nation’s cybersecurity. Throughout her time in the Senate, Senator Collins has worked on legislation and conducted federal investigations to ensure accountability over that the bookkeeping and oversight that resulted in improper payments across the federal government.
Transportation
Senator Collins recognizes the importance of restoring and improving our nation’s crumbling roads, bridges, and other critical infrastructure. As the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, Senator Collins has the unique ability to help establish our nation’s transportation priorities, while working to help ensure that Maine’s needs are addressed. She has provided strong funding for transportation projects nationwide and represented a thoughtful approach to infrastructure investment. Senator Collins has also long been a leader in efforts to end runaway and youth homelessness.
Jobs and the Economy
Mainers are resilient. Along with the rest of the country, however, too many Mainers continue to struggle in this tough economy. Senator Collins believes that putting people back to work is the key to improving our economic recovery and should remain our number one goal. With this goal in mind, Senator Collins has offered or supported legislation aimed at providing tax relief, cutting red tape, and investing in a 21st century workforce.[30]
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.
Health Care
Too many Mainers face impossible choices between affording a trip to the doctor and paying their bills. Sara believes that every single Mainer should have access to affordable and quality health care – it is a basic human right.
As Maine Speaker of the House, Sara passed bold prescription drug reforms to crack down on big drug companies and their skyrocketing prices and was relentless in her work to expand Medicaid coverage to an estimated 70,000 Mainers.
She also passed a bill to protect Mainers’ health care coverage so that no matter what happens in Washington, 225,000 Mainers with pre-existing conditions can’t be discriminated against, kids can remain on their parents’ insurance until they are 26, and seniors aren’t forced to pay more for coverage.
Health care reforms have helped increase access, but there is far more work to be done to lower costs and to make sure that every single American has access to care.
Sara believes we need to complete the work we started under the Affordable Care Act and in the Senate, she will fight to:
Expand access to quality and affordable health care to every person including those with pre-existing conditions;
Allow anyone to choose to buy into Medicare through a newly created public option, while preserving the choice for those who like their private insurance to keep it; and
Crack down on big drug companies to lower the cost of prescription drugs by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, capping out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for seniors, creating a federal drug importation program, and ending pay-for-delay schemes that help keep the cost of prescription drugs high.
Taxes
Big corporations and special interests have too much influence over our elected officials in Washington. Politicians are too often looking out for their donors instead of the people they were elected to represent, like when Congress passed a nearly $2 trillion tax break for big corporations and the wealthiest families in America in 2017 – and did little for families in Maine. Sara is not accepting any corporate PAC money in her campaign, because it will always be clear that she is fighting for Mainers, not special interests, in the Senate.
In the State Legislature, Sara brought Republicans and Democrats together to pass a package of meaningful property tax relief for Mainers. Because of that work, starting in January 2020, more than 300,000 Maine families will receive a check in the mail. She also closed a corporate tax loophole that prioritized out-of-state companies and used that money to give a tax break to hardworking Maine families.
That’s the kind of leadership that’s missing in Washington, and that’s exactly why Sara is running. No corporation should pay nothing in taxes while families are struggling to make ends meet. In the Senate, Sara will work to roll back the Trump tax cuts and make sure that tax breaks are going to hardworking families in Maine, not corporations and the wealthiest individuals.
Education
A child’s success should not be determined by their zip code, socioeconomic status or race. Sara believes that each child in this country deserves a high-quality education, including early childhood education. Sara has always been deeply committed to bettering our education system – she was initially inspired to run for the Maine State Legislature after volunteering in schools in her community.
She also understands the challenges many face in continuing their education beyond elementary and high school, whether it be at a four-year university, or in a technical or trade program. College, community college, trade and technical programs should be accessible for anyone who wants to pursue the next step in their education, but too often cost prevents today’s students from reaching their full potential and preparing for successful careers.
Sara recognizes that we must address the student debt crisis that forces young people to make impossible financial choices, often before they even complete high school, and leaves them starting their careers with decades worth of debt. Across Maine, countless adults remain saddled with student loan debt, even years or decades after leaving school, dictating the choices they make about their lives every day.
Throughout her time in the Maine House of Representatives, Sara has worked to expand access to quality education for all students. She passed the Maine Student Bill of Rights to protect students from predatory student loan lenders as Maine student debt reached $6 billion. She also voted to crack down on for-profit colleges and universities in Maine to ensure they meet educational standards and negotiated the 2017 budget that made the largest investment in K-12 education in recent state history, including driving more funds to low-income districts. She expanded access to early childhood education and understanding the vital role teachers play in our kids’ lives, passed legislation to raise teacher pay. Sara’s efforts expanded access to quality education for Mainers across the state and strengthened Maine’s public education systems for future generations.
Sara knows how important access is when it comes to education – as a senator, she will work to:
Ensure that every family has the opportunity to receive a high quality K-12 education no matter their neighborhood, family circumstances or race;
Expand early childhood education and quality childcare opportunities;
Value teachers and the job they do in the form of higher wages and better benefits;
Lower the cost of college and tackle the student loan debt crisis to make higher education affordable and accessible for everyone; and
Expand access to trade, technical and job training programs.
Climate & Environment
Climate change is one of the most urgent challenges we face — affecting everything from our public health to our economy. Our natural resources and environment have always been a core part of who we are and how we live in Maine. From our history and heritage to our economy today, stewardship of our woods and waters is deeply important to our livelihoods and our sense of place.
In Maine, Sara has been a champion for the environment and fighting against climate change. She passed the most aggressive goals the state has ever seen for reducing carbon emissions and increasing renewable energy production, making Maine an example for states across the nation, and jumpstarting our clean energy economy and the good-paying jobs it brings. She also passed landmark legislation improving water quality protections for Maine’s tribes.
Taking bold and immediate action on climate change at the federal level is one of Sara’s top priorities. Sara is committed to:
Rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement;
Investing in the clean energy economy;
Setting aggressive goals to move to a completely clean energy system powered by renewables;
Modernizing and upgrading our transportation and energy grid infrastructure;
Overhauling our transportation system;
Setting the carbon emissions reduction goals needed to slow climate change; and
Ensuring that nominees to fill key environmental positions in the administration are qualified individuals who will work to protect our environment and fight climate change, not put the interests of the fossil fuel industry first.
Sara is proud to be endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters and the National Resources Defense Council.
Jobs & Economy
Despite Maine’s hard-working people, innovative ideas and wealth of natural resources, household incomes fell more here than any other state last year. Even with full-time jobs, families are struggling to afford the rising costs of housing, education and health care, and Maine’s rural communities have been hit particularly hard.
Across the state, Maine’s small businesses are the engines of our economy, but this year, business owners and workers are facing unprecedented challenges as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Politicians in Washington should champion hardworking Mainers, not corporate special interests. Sara believes we can do better for Maine families and small businesses and will fight for Maine’s jobs and economy in communities across the state by:
Prioritizing the needs of small businesses in our economic recovery and ensuring coronavirus relief for small businesses is distributed quickly and effectively to small businesses, not big corporations and special interests;
Creating and expanding job training programs to give workers the skills they need to attain good paying jobs and address shortages in our skilled workforce;
Investing in infrastructure development and technological advancements like rural broadband, which will help create the jobs of the future and revitalize rural communities in Maine;
Raising the federal minimum wage to make a difference for thousands of hardworking Mainers;
Incentivizing workers and young families to stay in Maine;
Ensuring that we have fair trade policies that help Maine’s traditional industries, like logging and lobstering, which are essential to tens of thousands of jobs and to coastal and rural communities across the state; and
Rolling back the Trump tax bill that was a massive giveaway to corporations and the wealthy, and making sure that tax breaks are going to the hardworking Mainers and small businesses that drive Maine’s economy.
In Maine, Sara expanded job training and education programs to help Mainers get good-paying jobs and address the skilled worker shortage in the state. Sara also passed a universal paid time off policy, worked to protect and help grow essential industries in the state, like lobstering, shipbuilding and logging, and fought for workers by defending and strengthening collective bargaining rights.
Reproductive Rights
In the face of partisan attacks on the right to choose and with states across the country passing restrictive abortion bans in an effort to undermine and ultimately overturn Roe v. Wade, it’s more important than ever to elect leaders who will always protect a person’s right to make their own health care decisions.
Sara is a strong and vocal advocate for protecting and expanding access to reproductive care. In Maine, Sara led the legislature to pass laws ensuring that every Mainer — no matter their income level or where they live in the state — has affordable access to reproductive care. Decisions about health care should always be made between a woman, her family, and her doctor, and Sara will always fight to protect that right.
In the Senate, Sara will fight back against any attempts to attack or defund Planned Parenthood, and will work to roll back the dangerous Title X gag rule, which has impacted Maine Family Planning and Planned Parenthood clinics that provide comprehensive health care to Mainers in rural communities and across the state. Sara will also work to put an end to the Senate confirming judicial nominees with dangerous anti-choice records to courts across the country — including to the Supreme Court.
Sara is proud to be endorsed by Planned Parenthood Action Fund and NARAL.
Opioid Crisis
Maine has been hit harder by the opioid crisis than most states around the country – it has devastated families and communities all over the state. More opioids were distributed per person in Penobscot County, Maine than in any other county in New England and four of the top five counties in New England for opioid distribution per person were Maine counties. Since the beginning of the crisis, overdoses have taken the lives of thousands of Mainers, and are having a multi-generational impact on our state. Sara knows that we have to tackle this crisis head on, and that big pharmaceutical companies must be held accountable for their role in this crisis.
Sara has been at the forefront of efforts to combat the opioid crisis in Maine. In the State House, she passed legislation to expand addiction treatment and prevention programs and to give law enforcement the tools they need to fight the epidemic. When former Governor Paul LePage vetoed bills to address the opioid epidemic, Sara brought Democrats and Republicans together to override his vetoes because it was the right thing to do for Mainers.
Sara knows that our leaders in Washington must act to tackle the opioid epidemic and save lives. Sara supports a comprehensive approach that includes:
Expanding access to affordable addiction treatment;
Creating bridge programs to ensure that people have access to treatment at the moment they’re ready;
Funding education and prevention efforts, as well as public health research; and
Holding big pharmaceutical companies accountable for their role in the crisis.
LGBTQ+ Rights
Sara believes that all Americans deserve equal rights, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. She knows that each person’s identity and lived experience is both valid and valuable, and everybody is deserving of a seat at the table in discussions about our future as a country. Standing with the LGBTQ+ community has always been at the core of Sara’s work in Maine, and she is dedicated to doing everything she can to reach full equality for all.
As Speaker, Sara led the passage of landmark legislation banning conversion therapy in the state, making Maine the 17th state in the country to prohibit this harmful and dangerous practice. Under Sara’s leadership, the State House also banned the so-called “gay and trans panic defense,” which has been used to excuse violent hate crimes against members of the LGBTQ+ community, and passed a law to explicitly define gender identity under the Maine Human Rights Act, which protects Mainers from discrimination. Last year, Sara wrote and passed landmark legislation putting health care protections for transgender individuals into Maine state law.
As a Senator, Sara will be a champion for all people, and fight for the LGBTQ+ community by:
Championing the Equality Act, because every person in this country deserves equal protection under the law;
Supporting the Safe Schools Improvement Act in the Senate to help ensure schools are safe spaces for all students to learn and banning bullying and harassment against students based on sexual orientation or gender identity;
Ensuring that all qualified and patriotic Americans, regardless of their gender identity, can sign up to serve in our armed forces;
Outlawing the dangerous practice of conversion therapy, which does untold damage to LGBTQ+ youth;
Supporting the Every Child Deserves a Family Act in the Senate to ban discrimination against potential foster or adoptive families and LGBTQ+ parents; and
Defending the right of every LGBTQ+ American to access healthcare, free from discrimination, by pushing for the removal of recent anti-LGBTQ+ regulations.
Seniors
The oldest state in the nation, Maine is home to seniors and retirees who count on the benefits they earned through a lifetime of hard work. Sara believes in keeping the promises we have made to them.
Maine seniors have paid into Social Security and Medicare, using these programs to plan their retirement and future. That’s why Sara will always fight to protect those benefits and fight against irresponsible giveaways to corporations that jeopardize them. In the legislature, she restored a low-cost drug program for nearly 2,000 Maine seniors and championed the release of $15 million in senior affordable housing bonds held up by Governor LePage. She also fought to increase reimbursements for the caregivers who take care of seniors.
Nearly a quarter of Mainers are on Medicare — significantly more than the national average. Sara will fight against any efforts to cut funding or benefits from Medicare, to change Medicare as we know it, or to turn it into a voucher system. She’ll also work to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices to lower costs for seniors and to cap out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for seniors on Medicare Part D.
Social Security is too often the only income standing between seniors and poverty. Sara understands how essential Social Security is to Maine’s seniors and their quality of life. She will always be a fierce advocate for protecting the benefits they worked hard to earn and depend on in retirement.
Veterans
More than 20 million veterans across our country have made sacrifices to keep us safe and have fought to protect our values. Sara believes that the best way to honor their service is to work together to preserve everything they risked their lives for, and to make sure that they and their families have access to quality health care and services they’ve earned.
Maine is home to 127,000 veterans. In the State House, Sara worked to identify gaps in services and benefits provided to our state’s veterans so that veterans can access the services they need. She increased homelessness prevention efforts for Maine veterans, passed a law improving mental health care for Maine’s veterans, and created systems in Maine’s universities and community colleges to help students who are veterans.
In the Senate, Sara will make sure that the high-quality services our veterans have earned are available to them. Whether it is G.I. Bill benefits, quality health care at the VA, including access to mental health and women’s health services, or job training and education, Sara believes that we have to fight for those who have risked their lives to protect us.[30]
Linn’s campaign website features the following video:
"Max Linn For U.S. Senate," released September 11, 2020
Lisa Savage
Savage’s campaign website stated the following:
“
Covid-19 Pandemic Response
Immediately enroll everyone in the U.S. without health insurance in Medicare, including immigrants. Provide widespread Covid-19 testing and treatment without cost. Coordinate the production of essential medical supplies and hospital capacity. For the duration of the crisis:
institute an emergency universal basic income;
suspend rent, mortgage payments, evictions, foreclosures, and utility shutoffs;
help small businesses by offering no-interest loans, covering payroll costs, and other measures as needed;
use the Federal Reserve to give state and local governments the financial ability to get through the crisis;
bring military forces home to serve as humanitarian forces to control the pandemic;
provide support to farmers and farm workers;
make essential workers eligible for free childcare;
lift restrictions on food stamps and expand benefits;
House people experiencing homelessness in hotels and begin construction of long-term supportive housing;
release from incarceration people awaiting trial, those convicted of drug-related, low-level or nonviolent offenses, and people whose age or health puts them at high risk.
Demilitarized Green New Deal
Global heating threatens the survival of human civilization and life on Earth. We need a Demilitarized Green New Deal now to tackle the existential threat of climate crisis and move our money from the war machine into creating millions of good, green, union jobs across the United States.
The Demilitarized Green New Deal will:
Make massive investments in green energy, transportation, industry, agriculture, and infrastructure
Set science-based targets for reducing the emissions that fuel global heating
Incentivize on- and offshore wind farming, localized solar farming, and other emerging green energy techniques such as tidal power; and investment in smart grid technology
Invest in public transportation, including light rail, high-speed interstate rail, ferry, and green buses to reduce car-based travel
Invest in public utilities, including purchasing controlling interest in currently private utilities to bring them under local democratic control
Ban the use of fracking and other destructive fossil fuel extraction techniques like tar sand mining, offshore drilling, mountaintop removal, and coal mining; end construction of new fossil fuel infrastructure like pipelines and storage facilities; and begin the immediate phase-out of fossil fuel extraction and use
Incentivize the use of efficient heating and cooling sources, such as heat pumps and geothermal technology
Expand local, state, and federal land preservation efforts, through parks, wildlife preserves, and other conservation efforts
Invest in battery research and other energy storage techniques
Invest in climate-focused educational resources that can be worked into k-12 curriculum
Invest in regenerative agriculture, to fix our poisonous agribusiness model and return sustainability to our food production
Invest in climate research at our state universities, look into methodologies like carbon mineralization, new fibers and materials that are not petroleum-based, and sustainable installation manufacture
Invest in public housing to make city living affordable, incentivize local commerce and reductions in travel for basic necessities like groceries and social services, and establish pedestrian-friendly and bike-friendly communities
The Demilitarized Green New Deal will create millions of good, green, sustainable union jobs that cannot be outsourced. We need a Demilitarized Green New Deal to prevent climate meltdown from destroying the ecosystem that all economic activity depends on, and we can fund these necessary investments through reduction of the military budget and increase in taxes on large corporations and extremely high earners. The Demilitarized Green New Deal will guarantee a just transition, converting military and fossil fuel-dependent jobs to secure, sustainable jobs that are good for workers, communities and the planet.
Jobs as a Right
Create living-wage jobs for everyone who needs work through the Demilitarized Green New Deal and other programs to revitalize our communities. Support workers' rights to form unions, achieve workplace democracy, and keep a fair share of the wealth they create.
Medicare for All - Health Care as a Right
Establish an improved "Medicare For All" single-payer public health insurance program to provide everyone with quality health care, at huge savings. Improved Medicare for All will cover all U.S. residents in every community for all needed care, eliminate out-of-pocket costs, fully fund public health programs, and allow for a unified response to national health crises.
Even before the pandemic, a study published in medical journal The Lancet found that a single-payer system would save over 68,000 lives per year. Medicare for All would not only cover far more people and produce better health outcomes; it would actually save money compared to current U.S. health care spending, with savings of 13% or more than $450 billion per year.
The giant pharmaceutical and health insurance lobbies spend over half a billion dollars every year to maintain the status quo. We need to put our health care spending into health care, not in the pockets of corporate lobbyists and CEOs.
Education as a Right
Guarantee tuition-free, world-class public education from pre-school through university. End high-stakes testing and public school privatization. Abolish student debt to free a generation of Americans from debt servitude.
A Just Economy
Set a $15/hour federal minimum wage. Support development of worker and community cooperatives and small businesses. Make Wall Street, big corporations, and the rich pay their fair share of taxes. Create democratically-run public banks and utilities. Replace corporate trade agreements with fair trade agreements.
Paid Family and Medical Leave
Guarantee workers 21 days minimum family and medical leave per year, plus a social insurance program to cover extended sick days, family leave, and disability should more than 21 days be necessary.
Free Child Care and Pre-K for All
Guarantee every child free high-quality child care from infancy through age three. Guarantee every child free access to a high quality pre-kindergarten education starting at age three.
Housing and Homelessness
Enact emergency legislation to relieve the obligation of rent and mortgage payments for all renters, homeowners, and owners of small multi-unit dwellings for the duration of the pandemic. Protect people experiencing homelessness from the pandemic by immediately housing them in hotels, and begin immediate construction of public housing and supportive long-term housing to end homelessness in the United States.
Protect Mother Earth
Turn the tide on climate crisis and ecological destruction with the Green New Deal. Lead on a global climate treaty. End destructive energy extraction: fracking, tar sands, offshore drilling, oil trains, mountaintop removal, and uranium mines. Protect our public lands, water supplies, biological diversity, agriculture, fisheries, parks and pollinators.
Racial Justice Now
End police brutality: Defund police and invest in our communities. Create accountability for police brutality by ending “qualified immunity” and changing the standard for police misconduct from willfulness to recklessness. Charge the Department of Justice with rooting out white supremacist elements from our police forces and prosecuting excessive uses of force. Enact national legislation against hiring police officers who have been fired for excessive force or discrimination. Ensure that communities control their police rather than police controlling our communities, by establishing elected police review boards and full time investigators to look into all cases of death in police custody. Demilitarize the police and end programs that funnel military equipment to the police. End the practice of having Israel train US police forces in military occupation-style tactics.
End mass incarceration: Fund and convene a commission designed to radically reduce the number of people incarcerated in the United States, which leads the world in mass incarceration. Release everyone serving time for drug-related, low-level or nonviolent offenses and expunge their criminal records. Release from incarceration people awaiting trial and those whose age or health puts them at risk.
Reparations: Open a national discussion on reparations with a Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations Commission to understand and eliminate the legacy of slavery, xenophobia and Indigenous genocide that lives on as systemic racism.
Freedom and Equality
Expand women's rights, Protect LGBTQIA+ people from discrimination. Defend indigenous rights and lands. Create a welcoming path to citizenship for immigrants. Protect the free Internet. Legalize marijuana/hemp and treat substance abuse as a public health problem, not a criminal problem.
Reproductive Rights
Create full access to contraceptive and reproductive care as part of a universal healthcare system. Expand women's access to "morning after" contraception. Oppose attacks on family planning, contraception, and abortion services.
Common Sense Gun Control
Enact strong gun control measures that respect the Second Amendment protection for arms for state-level militias - not individual ownership of assault weapons. Implement background checks for all gun sales. Reduce weapons in circulation with a buyback program similar to Australia's response to the tragedy of a mass shooting. Renew and strengthen the assault weapons ban. Treat gun violence as a public health emergency and end prohibitions on using federal funding for science-based solutions to gun violence. Follow the lead of countries such as Australia, the United Kingdom and Finland that strengthened gun control laws after mass killings and succeeded in dramatically reducing the rate of gun violence.
Justice for All
Restore our Constitutional rights, terminate unconstitutional surveillance and unwarranted spying, end persecution of whistleblowers and repeal indefinite detention without charge or trial. Abolish the death penalty.
Peace and Human Rights
Establish a foreign policy based on diplomacy, international law, and human rights. End the wars and drone attacks that are killing countless civilians and making the world less safe. Cut military spending by at least 50% and close the 700+ foreign military bases that are turning our republic into a bankrupt empire. Stop U.S. support and arms sales to human rights abusers. Lead on global nuclear disarmament.
Lift economic sanctions to ensure the free flow of humanitarian aid and supplies around the globe. In particular, sanctions against Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Syria must be lifted. Using sanctions to destroy entire countries’ economies and medical systems during a pandemic is biological warfare, a crime against humanity.
Empower the People - Real Democracy
-Overturn Citizens United and abolish corporate personhood, because money is not free speech, and corporations are not people. Tightly regulate corporate spending to influence our elections, as well as spending by campaigns, parties, and other interest groups, including for online ads.
-Enact tougher ethics laws for Congress: prohibit elected officials and their staffs from accepting any gift from lobbyists. Require independent investigation of ethics complaints against members of Congress. Bar members of Congress and their top staffers from working as lobbyists for five years after they leave office.
-Enact ranked-choice voting for all elections, to empower voters, ensure winners have majority support, prevent “vote-splitting” among candidates with similar positions, and encourage more civil and issue-focused elections with more voices and more choices.
-Support the Fair Representation Act to make Congress more representative and responsive. Enact proportional representation for all legislative bodies, via ranked-choice voting and multi-member districts. Proportional representation is used successfully around the world to ensure that all voters get the representation they want.
-Mitigate gerrymandering with independent non-partisan redistricting, and eliminate it fully with proportional representation.
-Protect voters’ rights through federal legislation to fight voter suppression and a Constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to vote.
-Enact public campaign financing for all elections, similar to Maine’s successful Clean Elections law.
-Provide free public airtime and open debates for all ballot-qualified candidates on television and radio.
-Enact universal automatic voter registration, make early voting universally accessible, and make Election Day a holiday.
-Mandate elections use publicly-owned, open-source voting equipment with voter-verifiable hand-marked paper ballots, as well as accommodations for voters who aren’t able to use hand-marked paper ballots. Require risk-limiting audits to ensure election integrity.
-With the understanding that term limits are of limited use without deeper changes to the root causes of political dysfunction, support term limits for all elected offices, as well as rule changes so that seniority and length of time in office have no effect on committee appointments or other advantages.
-Replace the toothless, dysfunctional Federal Election Commission with a vigorous independent watchdog empowered to enforce federal campaign finance laws.
No CMP Corridor/NECEC
Stand with Mainers against the CMP Corridor. NECEC is a bad deal for Maine. We can’t let corporate profits override Mainers’ deep connection with our land. Cutting through 53 miles of Maine woods for corporate profits is no way to address the climate crisis or protect the resources our economy depends on, especially tourism. Keep corporate hands off our Maine woods!
Protect the US Postal Service
Protect the U.S. Postal Service as an essential lifeline for millions of people around the nation with legislation to provide more flexibility for retirement funding for postal workers, and create a contingency fund that would allow the otherwise self-sufficient USPS to have rainy day funds for emergencies such as the Covid-19 pandemic.
Privacy
Regulate the collection and use of personal data tightly. In the Digital Age, participating in society inevitably means using devices and visiting websites that can create huge volumes of personal data without our knowledge. The U.S. government should extend its own rules for use and collection of personal data, the Privacy Act of 1974, to the private sector. We should always be informed when our data is collected alongside the justifications for that collection, we should always have the ability to see what data an organization has collected about us, and we should always have the right to request that data be deleted. Facial recognition technology should not be deployed in public, whether by the government or by private organizations. In private settings, such as social media sites and in private establishments, everyone should always have the right to object to the use of facial recognition technology, and no person’s face should be stored in a facial recognition database without their express consent.
Protect and Expand Social Security
Protect Social Security from any attempts to cut benefits. Lift the ceiling on Social Security taxes for high-income earners. End the Windfall Elimination Provision. Finance increased Social Security benefits through progressive income and wealth taxes on the highest earners, instead of regressive payroll taxes on low-income workers.
Disability Rights
Protect and expand the Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income programs. Ensure the rights of people with disabilities to get community-based mental health services. Provide robust federal funding to schools for the additional costs of serving students with disabilities. End subminimum wage for workers with disabilities. Advance the full inclusion of people with disabilities, and ensure every aspect of our public resources is ADA compliant and that the civil rights of people with disabilities are protected and expanded.
End the Drug War and Opioid Epidemic
Treat drug and substance abuse as a public health problem, not a criminal matter. Stop incarcerating people for possession and personal use of drugs. Provide health counseling and treatment on demand to any drug user who needs help. Enact harm reduction measures such as expanded access to overdose reversal medications, needle exchanges, and supervised consumption sites. Stop big pharmaceutical companies from overcharging for prescription drugs and pushing drug use beyond what is medically necessary, and hold CEOs accountable for illegal advertising, marketing, or distribution of opioids.
Revitalize Rural Maine
Invest in our infrastructure - bring broadband to rural communities and rebuild our roads and our bridges. Massively expand rail transport for moving goods and for public transportation to give Mainers good alternatives to driving and provide transportation to employment. Enact policies that invest in local, independent farms rather than large agribusiness corporations. Empower rural communities to address climate change by making investments in clean, renewable energy.[30]
Democrat or Republican – what are you? I’m neither.
What the heck does that mean? I used to be a Republican. I changed, the party changed. I haven’t flipped over to the Democratic side either. Both parties have good ideas and bad ideas. Lately, it seems like instead of using clashing ideas to flush out our own and make a better idea, politics is just about squabbling. It doesn’t have to be. We can do better. Republicans, I like being financially responsible, smaller government, lower level control…but that means government stays out of my personal business, medical decisions, and freedoms of expression. Democrats, I love my first amendment rights, privacy, protecting the vulnerable, access to healthcare…but on a budget, and balancing rights. We aren’t going to agree on everything. That’s ok. I’m not asking you to. I’m a moderate, reasonable voice that will vote on good law that protects and balances. Everyone else? My views are the political party that is missing.
Climate change?
Climate change is real, and the greatest threat to our society of any issues. It is a national defense issue, an economic issue, and a humanitarian issue. Whether or not you believe climate change is man-made (and I do believe it is), we have a responsibility to jump to the front lines with mitigation and adaptation immediately. Punting this ball further will only make it more expensive, in fiscal costs and lives lost. This is not a partisan issue, and should be uniting us all.
Healthcare? It’s a mess – make it better, not worse
I have a passionate dislike for the ACA. It is deeply flawed legislation. I find it reprehensible to be mandated to purchase for-profit, horrific coverage that covers not much of anything at all and that many, including me, cannot afford to use. However, it should *only* be replaced or modified with improvements. Leaving millions to flounder, decimating people with pre-existing conditions, and limiting options for those with addiction and mental health issues are not acceptable outcomes. There must be a better solution, but it will require collaboration, out of the box thinking, and hard work to get there. The process will likely have a series of incremental steps and thousands of language fixes. There is no quick fix here. Any politician who tells you there is, well they are telling you want you want to hear, not what actually exists. I’m often asked about Medicare for All, and the issue with that model is it still fundamentally functions like insurance. Insurance might not be the best model for us, so let’s explore possibilities to get our system built right. Let’s update and improve the ACA while we thoughtfully consider and CBO score a few models – there may be elements of single-payer, universal, market features, and/or things we haven’t come up with yet.
Taxes? I’m for fiscally efficient spending.
Once upon a time I was a fiscal conservative. Cutting budgets doesn’t always make for good long term solutions. Sometimes you have to spend more to get a great result. Sometimes a budget program shouldn’t be run at all. Everything should have a good return on investment, remembering that not all returns are exclusively financial – it might be the health of our children, a reduction in crime, or other factors that do have value other than a specific dollar amount.
Guns? I support the 2nd amendment, but if you abuse people you shouldn’t have guns.
There are people who should not have access to weapons, and weapons people should not have access to. I value our right to defend ourselves and our families, as well as our many hunters in Maine. However, domestic violence is not ok. There is a firm link between abusers and murder. No one should ever have to fear being a specific target from a family member that have already learned is dangerous. We all know people who are fine, responsible gun owners…we also know the ones that aren’t. Sensible regulation should help keep guns in the hands of those who are responsible.
Marijuana Legalization? This is a state issue and there should not be a federal prohibition.
Maine has voted to have communities decide how we handle marijuana. The federal government should not interfere in our state sovereignty on this issue.
Pro-choice/Pro-life? I’m pro-privacy.
It is incredibly difficult to make complex medical decisions, from cancer care to abortion coverage. The government doesn’t belong in this space, it’s an overreach of authority. These are private decisions to made by a patient with the guidance of qualified medical professionals.
Student Loans.
There is a lot of debate right now about how to handle ballooning student loan debt. The solution is likely going to be multi-faceted and not immediate. Let’s immediately take student loan interest to zero so any payments made by borrowers would then be progress and there is a hope of getting out from under the burden of the debt while Congress figures out a long-term package.
What are you actually going to get done?
In a first year? Not much. Anyone who tells you otherwise probably does not understand how DC functions. However, I do think there is great room for progress in rural broadband, net neutrality, and descheduling cannabis for medical research, tourism and fiber production. I also believe there is immediate and incremental progress that can be made on climate change action, healthcare, and bringing federal and state laws into alignment to work on curbing violence in our country. I do not plan to campaign in a traditional method. I do plan to continue #MaineRaising to help us all, and focus on the business of making our laws, not acting as a lobbyist for my own campaign.[30]
Fogg’s campaign Facebook page stated the following:
“
Borders & Immigration
We have the right to secure our borders as necessary, however, if we have an issue with illegal immigration, we should be working to determine why. As the richest country in the world, it is natural that many people in the world would want to immigrate. Therefore, we should make sure that our immigration laws and our practices toward other countries in the Americas are fair.
I support immigration reform that would include a path to citizenship, with fines imposed, for illegal immigrants without criminal records currently living and working in the United States.
Healthcare
Our healthcare system is expensive and inefficient, and currently controlled by insurance and pharmaceutical companies more than by the hospitals themselves. If it can be proven that a national healthcare system could be devised that would be more efficient, cheaper, and accessible to all, I would support it.
It seems that with the high cost of insurance, care, and medicines currently, we could do better for everybody. Individual choice of doctors, competitive pricing, and complete transparency are absolutely essential.
Gun Control
While many of the reasons for the 2nd Amendment are no longer applicable, I see no reason to amend it. Gun ownership has been a right from the beginning of our country and responsible people should be able to hunt and keep guns for their own and their family’s protection. We should be enforcing and in some cases stiffening background check laws, as well as closing loopholes. I support laws that would hold parents responsible for minors using guns inappropriately.
Racism/Reparations/Defund the Police
Systemic racism does exist in this country. If you haven’t seen it or been aware of it, this does not mean in is not there. It means you haven’t personally experienced it or have chosen to ignore it. It’s easy to do in Maine where we are still 96% White.
My time teaching in an inner-city public school in Raleigh, North Carolina opened my eyes to situations that I had never seen in Maine, and the issues are similar in many other areas of the country. Black neighborhoods have been overpoliced, and the supports for youth present in our affluent suburbs have not been present in high-poverty areas. BIPOC citizens have not always had the same access to jobs, business loans, home mortgages, and other opportunities that have been afforded to white citizens. Black people have been pulled over, questioned, and arrested for little or no reason. Police brutality statistics show a higher percentage of incidents with Black people than with White. Conviction rates and sentencing have been harsher. This has to change.
There seems to be an inherent fear, for whatever reason, in the white community that Black people are somehow a threat. While the idea of reparations seems rather late and pointless to me, I think, because of the systemic racism that has continued, there should be programs specifically to give greater access to BIPOC citizens who seek college scholarships, home mortgage loans, and small business loans. Police officers need greater training in anti-racism and de-escalation methods.
Accountability of acts of police brutality and targeted racism in pull-overs and arrests needs to be held to the highest standard. Fairness in sentencing needs to be addressed and judges held accountable, as well.
As for protests, rioting, and looting, our right to peacefully protest should never be questioned. Everyone has the right to fight for what they believe in a peaceful way. If we don’t allow people to protest peacefully, they will protest non-peacefully. While we are on this subject, while I will always stand for our national anthem, I take no issue with those who have chosen to kneel during the anthem to protest racism. Kneeling, as if, and often In prayer, is not inherently disrespectful. Those who have chosen to do so have even stated that they MEAN no disrespect. If we take offense at the actions of others that are not meant to offend, perhaps we need to look at our own biases.
Law & Order
When laws are just, it is far easier to maintain order. Recent unrest has occurred because laws and their enforcement have been unjust. Laws are the business of the federal and state legislative and executive branches. Order is the business of the local governments and police forces.
Our President and Congress should be working to make sure our federal laws are fair and unbiased. State governors and legislatures should do the same. This will make it a lot easier for our local governments and police forces to maintain order.
Religion
I believe firmly in the separation of Church and State that is inherent in the 1st Amendment. I believe that both clause, both that government shall not interfere with one’s religious practices, nor will it support one religious tradition over another.
I am a devout Christian and have been all my life. For various reasons, I am currently a member of two churches, the East Orrington Congregational church in Orrington and St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Parish in Bangor. We are active in and attend both churches regularly. I consider myself Catholic. Though I currently teach in a Catholic School, I have spent most of my career in public schools in both Maine and North Carolina. I have never been prohibited from praying in school. My students have never been prohibited from praying in school. There are places where this has been questioned, but for the most part, it is a non-issue.
I have to think carefully about my religious beliefs and how they impact my political thoughts. For instance, I believe the government really should have nothing to do with marriage. Marriage, to my way of thinking, is a religious act before God, between a man and a woman. Other people have different beliefs, and as long as those beliefs involve decisions between consenting adults without harm to anyone else, it is not my place to interfere.
Because of the 1st Amendment, the government has no business interfering with gay marriage. In fact, I think the government should get out of the marriage business altogether. Church, aside from praying for our leaders, should get out of the government business altogether.
Sanctity of Life
Our first founding document, the Declaration of Independence, cites our most basic rights to be “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” yet we live in a culture that can be rather cavalier toward life. Abortion, euthanasia, and capital punishment are all wrong, and I don’t support any of them. Life is a sacred right, from the moment of conception until death. Maine’s recent adoption of doctor-assisted suicide and taxpayer-funded abortion are steps in the wrong direction.
Should abortion be illegal? I’m not sure that I would go that far. No one wants to see a return of illegal abortions done in a back alleyway to desperate women. There are still situations where abortions must be performed to save the mother’s life. There is no question in this case that the burden is also on a woman, who should have control over her own body.
I’m not against contraception that prevents conception, but once conception occurs, there is another life that must be considered. It also goes against a doctor’s Hippocratic Oath, to first, do no harm. I would like to see late-term abortions outlawed. I would like to see practitioners have to sign a form before they can perform an abortion that says that the woman has been appropriately counseled in alternatives. Whether legal or not, an abortion should be a last choice option, done only in extreme circumstances. Even if abortion was made illegal, it is the practitioner that should be held accountable, not the woman who is in desperate circumstances and may be making a decision under duress.
I do not hold these beliefs lightly. I have a daughter whose birth mother was 14 when she was born, and in foster care herself. The pregnancy was a result of statutory rape, if not outright rape. Few would have faulted her, in her case, for having an abortion. Thank God she did not. The world would be deprived of a beautiful young lady who has brought so much to our family. I am so grateful that we had the opportunity to foster, and eventually adopt this wonderful girl.
Education
Our education system was designed in the 1890s to educate factory workers. Our school calendar was designed even earlier than that to accommodate farm work in the summer. How about our modern age? Technology? The fact that our world is changing faster than we can keep educate? The fact that we keep adding to the curriculum without ever taking anything away, yet never expanding the school year or number of years? We’re telling children that they should all prepare for college yet a college degree costs tens of thousands of dollars (hundreds of thousands in some cases) and many of our college graduates struggle to find a job in their field?
It’s time we have an educational summit, bringing together educators, administrators, parents, professionals, and politicians to redesign our educational system so that it meets the needs of our students and the requirement that they will have to be life-long learners in order to survive.
If there is anything this pandemic has shown us is that education can look very different and still be effective. We owe it to our kids to educate them efficiently and effectively for the 21st century and beyond.
Taxes/Government Spending
Our government spending is out of control. Though it can and probably should be argued that the stimulus packages during the current pandemic were necessary, our government spending was way out of control before that.
We spend more on our military than the next 10 countries COMBINED! We spend almost 4 times as much as China, the next closest competitor. Corporate welfare, industrial and farm subsidies, and pork-barrel projects are running a debt so high that our descendants will be paying for generations, and that is if we get rid of the deficit.
If we don’t get rid of the deficit, the problem is just going to get worse and worse. We owe it to our children to balance the budget NOW, and start paying down the debt. Our elected officials could set the example by cutting their own over-inflated salaries and benefit packages. I believe that if a balance budget isn’t passed, or if there is a government shut down, our representatives should not be paid until the problem is fixed.
I support a balanced budget amendment and term limits.
The Opioid Epidemic
The Opioid Epidemic has been nasty. I have met a local couple, their boys both graduates of the Catholic school where I teach, lost both of them to opioid overdoses. I have heard from people who were prescribed opioids for pain management after surgery, got addicted, and eventually turned to heroin, completely ruining their lives. Pharmaceutical companies developed some of these drugs, knowing full well that how addictive they were. Some of those same companies have then developed drugs to counteract the addiction, so they make money on the addiction, and then on the cure, which is entirely immoral. We must heavily restrict the prescribing of opioids, using other medicines whenever possible. To a large extent, this has been done. I know my wife, an oncology nurse practitioner, has to document every step of her prescribing opioids, research to make sure her patient has not been prescribed opioids by other doctors, document any other medicines she might have used and they are not appropriate in this case, etc.
We must also hold the pharmaceutical companies accountable, and when they have had a hand in causing addiction, they should be providing the cure free of charge, not making money off problems they caused.
Lastly, we have to have programs available to help those who have become addicted to break that addiction, and encourage these people to talk about their issues so that we remove the stigma from getting help. Too many lives have been ruined.
COVID-19
I am hoping our government has reached a greater understanding of this disease, now that the President has been diagnosed. While I wouldn't wish this virus on anyone, I'm hoping that now that it has hit the White House and Capitol, their will be greater understanding and empathy and the virus and how we deal with it will be less politicized. Mask wearing is a must right now to stop the spread. Social distancing, absolutely necessary. One thing President Trump has done well is to remove a lot of red tape for the pharmaceutical companies who are working to develop a vaccine. This will make it available that much sooner; probably not as soon as President Trump or anyone else would like, but certainly at some point next year.
As far as the financial impact COVID has had, Congress is going to have to come together to put together another stimulus package. I tend to be pretty conservative when it comes to government spending, but in this case, if the government doesn't do more to protect small business and households, COVID could cause a Depression of tremendous magnitude. We can't allow this to happen, not just because of the pain it would cause for the people in this country, but it could easily cause significant national security issues, as well.
Lastly here, we are going to have to put together a comprehensive plan on how to deal with these situation should they occur in the future. It is entirely possible, given the increase of world population and more extensive world travel of more people, that these pandemics should become more likely, and we will have to deal with them more effectively than we did this time.
Energy Policies
While I support President Trump’s efforts to make the United States energy self-sufficient for the most part, we have to do that without ruining the environment or depending on a limited supply of fossil fuels. We need to look toward the future and provide for our country’s energy needs with sustainable, nonpolluting alternatives.
Voting
Voting, in our Republic, is a valued right and responsibility for all citizens. It is not one we should ever take for granted or take lightly. In all cases, people fought hard for us to have this right. If we value it for ourselves, we should also be protecting that right for others. Our political parties should be and elected officials should be doing everything they can to make sure that all citizens are registered and can exercise their vote as conveniently as possible.
It would make a great deal of sense if Election Day was made a holiday. Polling places should be located conveniently for those who would have the most difficulty getting there. Absentee ballots should be relatively easy to acquire.
I do believe that a state ID or passport should be required for voting. No one has the right to vote for me, and even if there is little voter fraud, and ID being required for this valued and valuable right makes sense. Yes, it can be somewhat limiting, but we could find ways that would make these IDs easier to obtain, but still make sure they are legitimate. Mail-in voting has been done successfully in a few states. Again, in some way, these should be checked to make sure they are valid and legitimate. I consider voter fraud close to treason.
Political Parties
Our major political parties, both of them, have failed us.
I considered myself a Republican from the age of 8 when I campaigned hard in my family and in my neighborhood for William Cohen, in his first bid for Congress. I supported Ronald Reagan and his policies when I first came of age to vote. Yet, as the years went on and I saw that the promises the Republicans made about smaller, more efficient government and lower taxes were empty. Our national debt kept going higher and higher. The scandals of the Clinton administration appalled me, despite his progress on the national debt. I couldn’t even show the front page of the newspaper to my middle school students during those years!
In the last several administrations, we have had constant fighting between the political parties to the point where they are no longer working for the good of our country, but the good of the parties. Our trusted representatives have actually been instructed to vote against any legislation proposed by the other party or its president, even if it is worthwhile!
About 10 years ago I realized I could no longer support the Republican Party and left the party that had been my home for most of my life. I voted for the Libertarian candidate in the last two presidential elections. The power of the Republicans and the Democrats and their hold on our democratic processes needs to be broken and their corruption called out and addressed.
Elected Officials As Role Models
I have always believed that our elected officials should do their best to act as role models in our society. Much like church clergy, I believe we have the right to hold them to a somewhat higher standard. If we are electing them to represent us in the decision-making process of our government, they have the responsibility to behave in a manner that reflects the best of our values.
Do I expect perfection? Of course not, but I do believe that our elected officials should be doing their best to be on their best behavior and serve as examples of what our country should be. As a teacher in a Catholic school, I have a contract with a morals clause. Not only am I supposed to behave myself while at school, but even in public, I know that I am representing my school and my faith.
As an elected official, I will be representing my community, my state, and my country, as well as my faith. I would owe it to my constituents to be on my best behavior at all times. We have had many of our elected officials in the past few decades who must not believe the same way I do in this regard. Scandals abound, when they should be few and far between. Campaign advertising should also follow this same standard.
If elected, I promise that you can expect honesty, integrity, and decency from me, and if you ever see me fail in that, I fully expect that you will hold me accountable and you have every right to do so.[30]
The table below details filing requirements for U.S. Senate candidates in Maine in the 2020 election cycle. For additional information on candidate ballot access requirements in Maine, click here.
Filing requirements for U.S. Senate candidates, 2020
↑Candidate Connection surveys completed before September 26, 2019, were not used to generate candidate profiles. In battleground primaries, Ballotpedia based its selection of noteworthy candidates on polling, fundraising, and noteworthy endorsements. In battleground general elections, all major party candidates and any other candidates with the potential to impact the outcome of the race were included.
↑This poll used a credibility interval instead of a margin of error.
↑When respondents who said Linn was their first choice were asked who their second choice would be, 62% said Savage, 21% said Collins, 7% said Gideon, and 10% didn't know. When respondents who said Savage was their first choice were asked who their second choice would be, 39% said Linn, 32% said Gideon, 13% said Collins, and 17% didn't know.
↑This poll asked those who said they would vote for Linn, Savage, or someone else who they would rank as their second-choice candidate—48% said Gideon and 19% said Collins.
↑Fundraising by primary candidates can be found on the race's respective primary election page. Fundraising by general election candidates can be found on the race's general election page.
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For more information about the Republican primary, click here.
For more information about the Democratic primary, click here.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
Linn
Sara Gideon
Max Linn
Susan Collins Incumbent
