Since our founding in 1978, the Maine Women’s Lobby has continued our steadfast commitment to building gender equity through nonpartisan public policy advocacy. However, our advocacy has not routinely included endorsement of candidates for office.
Recognizing that elections increasingly influence the scope and trajectory of gender-just public policy, our Board of Directors developed an organizational philosophy and endorsement process. Through this work, we aim to support candidates who align with our policy goals of building care infrastructure and economic equity; ensuring the right and access to reproductive and gendered health care; preventing and responding to gender-based and carceral violence; and building gender-just and accessible government systems to ensure our rights. You can learn more about where we stand on the issues here.
We are prioritizing endorsement and actions:
Where the position, or the candidates, have the opportunity to dramatically influence our priority policy goals.
In rural Maine, with a focus on central, northern, and Downeast Maine. We have focused on increasing our member base, staffing, and leadership from these regions for the last four years, and want our endorsement process to follow our organizational strength.
Where we can influence our long-term goal of passing an Inclusive Equal Rights Amendment for Maine.
When our engagement can make a tangible difference, and where we have the capacity to contribute meaningfully.
The Maine Women’s Lobby is Proud to Endorse:
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My plan for Maine's care infrastructure starts with the workforce that makes care possible. I'll sustain and grow the child care wage supplement program so early educators earn livable wages, and expand career and technical education, apprenticeships, and higher-ed pathways into the field, because we can't fix or expand child care without supporting the people who care for our kids. For elder and direct care workers who often don’t get paid enough to support their own families, I’ll work to support wage increases through medicaid and other rates that are targeted toward care workers salaries and benefits. I’ll support family caregivers directly through respite programs and other programs that help people stay in their homes and assist caregivers.
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The most urgent threats are coming from Washington and the courts, and Maine has to be ready to meet them. The Trump administration and a hostile Supreme Court have made clear they intend to keep chipping away at reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights — through funding cuts, legal attacks on providers, and efforts to reach across state lines to punish patients and doctors. Maine cannot wait for the federal government to protect these rights; we have to continue to build our own firewall.
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As governor, I would fully distribute available VOCA funding to the organizations doing this work on the ground, and I would fight federal cuts to these programs, including through court action if necessary, so that Maine's sexual assault and domestic violence service providers are not left scrambling when Washington pulls back. I would also support additional state funding for survivor services and legal representation, recognizing that access to a lawyer can be the difference between a survivor safely leaving a dangerous situation and staying trapped in one.
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Federal rollbacks on reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ protections, and civil rights more broadly make clear that Maine cannot rely on federal constitutional protections that no longer exist. That's why I strongly support passage of an Equal Rights Constitutional Amendment, and as governor I'd urge legislators to work across the aisle to reach the two-thirds majority this requires. I would also fight any effort to weaken protections related to sex, gender identity, or gender expression with legal action. Making government more representative starts with righting a long-unresolved wrong: restoring full Tribal sovereignty.
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Reproductive health care, from contraception and family planning to abortion and maternity care, is not a single issue. It is the full arc of a person's reproductive life, and Maine has an obligation to protect all of it.
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As a proud father and parent in a two-income household, I understand firsthand the challenges facing working families all across Maine. I will fight for Universal Childcare and Medicare-for-all.
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I will always stand up for a woman’s right to make her own health decisions, especially regarding reproductive health and safety. Any decision - including that to terminate a pregnancy - belongs to the woman faced with whatever circumstances that affect her, and no one should have the right to predetermine what health choices any woman makes.
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In Congress, I will work to ensure that survivors of gender-based, sexual, and domestic violence have access to resources and support systems they need.
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Americans of all sex, gender identity, and gender expression need the government protections necessary to live their life without fear of retribution and to know the value they hold in society. In Congress, I would be a strong advocate for the Equal Rights Amendment, especially as the grandson of a woman who was arrested for marching for suffrage.
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As with all of my policy goals, the public will be able to assess this work by reaching out to my office directly. I am committed to the same philosophy of transparency and accountability that has guided my work in Maine state government.
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Maine’s care infrastructure needs shoring up: child care costs are squeezing parents who stay in the workforce while everyday Mainers provide $5.5 billion per year in unpaid family care. Meanwhile, our system is threatened by a federal freeze on $12.3 billion in child care aid when the state’s current share is only about $34.4 million. That’s a gap we cannot bridge alone. In the Maine Legislature, I was proud to be a leader on this issue and secure historic funding for child care providers, educators and working-families.
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From day one, I’ll work with my colleagues and advocates to repeal the Big Bogus Bill’s devastating cuts to Medicaid. I’ll oppose any attempt to extend the deadly moratorium on federal payments to abortion providers and support the Expanding Access to Family Planning Act to provide robust Title X funding for the decade to come. I’ll support pending bills to ensure local care for rural Mainers experiencing obstetric emergencies, and fight alongside Rep. Pressley to make 12-month postpartum Medicaid coverage permanent and national.
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While the criminal legal system has vital tools to reduce intimate partner violence, help prevent intimate partner gun violence and protect survivors, its blunt instruments can also harm, isolate, stigmatize and ultimately re-victimize survivors. Criminal legal solutions need to be evidence-based and trauma informed. I’ll push for more holistic approaches: gender-based violence is a public health issue and should be funded that way.
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I support the passage of an inclusive Equal Rights Amendment and would oppose any effort to weaken laws against discrimination based upon sex, gender identity or gender expression. Not only that, but I have supported it at the state level over and over again. I would do the same in the U.S. Senate.
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Public trust in our representative democracy is at an all-time low thanks in part to partisan gerrymandering. Our winner-take-all electoral systems aren’t helping. Maine has successfully implemented ranked-choice voting and I would consider reforms such as proportional representation and multi-member districts that allow for representation that more clearly reflects its constituency. Accessible, representative and responsive representation is my top priority…. From the heart of my staff in DC to our field offices across Maine, service and access will be at the heart of what we do.
Candidates for the Maine Legislature
“I am committed to finding solutions to our healthcare problems. This means giving hospitals, birthing centers and healthcare facilities the economic support they need while creating solutions that are accessible and affordable to all Mainers.”
“We need to be supporting and growing rural healthcare, especially birthing units, not closing them. I would like to work on keeping open and reopening rural hospital maternity services, this feels like an emergent situation that needs urgent action.”
“The closure of birthing centers as well as underpaid and overworked healthcare workers are at the top of mind for me... I am running because I recognize the voices missing from the table, and I want to be one of those voices.”
While representing you last session, Senator Curry received a “100% Champion” rating on Maine Women’s Lobby Legislative Report Card!
“We need to help rural sexual assault and domestic violence victims access care touch points without fear of the abuser.”
“If we all have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, then we must also have a right to our bodily health and well-being. No illness should force a person into bankruptcy.”
Many excellent candidates did not recieve our endorsement, which is not a reflection on their qualifications, but a reflection of our focus (on rural Central Maine); our context (to focus on races which are close and our support is meaningful); and our capacity (to focus on races where we can contribute meaningful resources to the race).