Senate - Maine - Sara Gideon

Democrat challenging Republican incumbent Susan Collins for Senate

video clip: Putting Maine First - Sara Gideon for US Senate

Sara Gideon is a Democrat serving her fourth term in the Maine House of Representatives and her second term as Speaker of the Maine House.

Sara said she decided to challenge Republican Senator Susan Collins because “at one point, maybe she [Collins] was different from some of the other folks in Washington, but she doesn’t seem that way anymore: voting for a 1.5 trillion dollar tax cut where almost all of the benefits went to corporations and the wealthy, taking over a million dollars from drug companies and the insurance industry, and Susan Collins’ vote to put Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court may be paying off for her, but it has put women’s control over their own health care decisions in extreme jeopardy.”

Many were outraged when Collins said of the sexual assault allegations brought against Kavanaugh by Professor Christine Blasey Ford: “Judge Kavanaugh came forward and said, ‘I’m 100 percent certain that this did not happen’….I do not believe that Brett Kavanaugh was her assailant. I do believe she was assaulted. I don’t know by whom.”

Out-of-state Republican and Super PAC money poured into Collins after her vote to confirm Kavanaugh – she had the best fundraising quarter of her career. “Senator Collins will be well funded, I can assure you,” Mitch McConnell said on Fox News after the Kavanaugh vote.

One of Sara’s top priorities is expanding access to affordable healthcare. She helped pass a law that ensures insurance companies will never be able to discriminate against Mainers with pre-existing conditions. She pushed pharmaceutical companies to increase drug pricing transparency and lower the cost of prescription drugs. Sara has played a leading role in addressing Maine’s opioid epidemic; when former Governor LePage vetoed Sara’s opioid legislation and mocked those suffering from the crisis, she brought Democrats and Republicans together to override that veto.

Sara is committed to fighting climate change and building a clean energy economy. Another of her priorities is providing high-quality education to all; her path to public service began as a volunteer in local schools.

Before being elected to the Maine House of Representatives, Sara served as Vice Chair of the Freeport Town Council. She earned a degree in International Affairs from George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, and served as an intern for U.S. Senator Claiborne Pell.

Sara was born to an immigrant father from India and an immigrant mother from Armenia. She lives in Freeport with her husband and three children.

It won’t be easy to defeat Collins, who has been in the Senate for over 20 years and easily won her last few elections – but Sara can win this race. Collins’ approval rating has dropped dramatically since her Kavanaugh vote, and Collins is one of only two Republican Senators up for re-election in states Hillary Clinton won. This will be an important, expensive and very close race – Sara needs donations now.