Building care infrastructure and economic equity
What do you see as the biggest barriers and challenges facing the care work industry (child care, elder care and health care) and systemically undervalued and underpaid care workers, 80% of whom are women?
“I don't have an answer for that other than the government trying its best to set an example for the public and encouraging people to get into that field and paying them at least what they deserve and are entitled to.”
Highlights from our conversation on March 23, 2026
“Encouraging people to get into that field and paying them at least what they deserve and are entitled to.”
Ensuring reproductive and gender-specific healthcare
What do you see as the biggest barriers and challenges facing access to consistent, high-quality perinatal care given the rapid closure of birthing units, especially in rural areas?
“I'm a huge supporter of universal healthcare. The main reservation I have about that is at this point in time I do not believe our state government is capable of properly running the universal health care system in the state… And one of the things that I intend to do as governor is work to make our state more efficient and more effective and find this waste and address it and run a government the way it should be run.”
“I'm a huge supporter of of universal healthcare.”
Ending gender-based and carceral violence
What do you see as the key policy interventions to support sexual assault and domestic violence survivors and protect access to services given recent federal VOCA funding cuts?
“I will also say that to my knowledge none of the other candidates are talking about reforming the system and the reason for that is in my opinion is that they benefit from the system as it is. The last thing they want is reform… we need to put the people first. And that's a very very general… generalization of who I am and why I'm running and what I intend to do. But anything and everything that you folks are talking about is going to be part of that is going to be part of that work.”
“We need to put the people first.”
Developing equitable & accessible government systems
With ongoing rollbacks and attempts to rollback human rights for Mainers, there are efforts to pass an “Inclusive Equal Rights Amendment” to embed all the Maine Human Rights Act protections into our Maine constitution, including sex and gender. How would you anticipate interacting with these efforts?
The system is rigged, period. And we need to go back to square one and we need to look at our constitution, all of our laws, all of our rules, all of our programs. We need to look at every word, every “T” that's crossed, and every “I” that's dotted. Go back to the beginning. Much of the document is 200 years old, and it needs to be updated to reflect today's society.”
If elected, how would you stay connected and accessible to the people you represent?
“I worked in the executive branch for just under 30 years. I have not been in the legislative branch. Folks who have been part of the system, by part of the system, I mean part of the legislature and that part of the system. They say if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Those folks have had an opportunity to be part of the solution for years. And frankly, they solved nothing. If anything, they've made the problem worse… I am going to have weekly town meetings all around the state where we're going to sit down with folks and folks will be able to talk directly to the governor, and if they want to yell and scream, yell and scream to a point.”
“Much of the document is 200 years old, and it needs to be updated to reflect today's society.”
“I am going to have weekly town meetings all around the state where we're going to sit down with folks and folks will be able to talk directly to the governor.”
Each profile features direct quotes pulled from candidate’s answers to our questions. Full transcripts of each conversation can be found by clicking here.