Meet Shenna

Shenna Bellows grew up in a cabin in Hancock Maine, the daughter of a carpenter and a greenhouse worker who knew what it was like to struggle to make ends meet. They didn’t have electricity or running water until she was in the fifth grade, but her parents never let their family feel poor.

Instead, they taught Shenna to value hard work and honesty, to do the right thing—even when it was hard—and to always look out for others.

The Maine way.

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Strong Leadership

We need leaders who will meet the moment, and Shenna has demonstrated leadership at every stage of her career:

As Executive Director of the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine, Shenna worked to preserve history and advance human rights through outreach and education.
As Executive Director of the ACLU of Maine from 2005 to 2013, Shenna led fights to protect reproductive rights and safeguard privacy.

Shenna was a key leader of the Maine Won’t Discriminate and Mainers United for Marriage campaigns, working tirelessly to pass anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ Mainers in 2005 and marriage equality in 2012.

In 2016, Shenna won a seat in the state senate, representing a district that also voted for Trump. As state senator, she won property tax relief for her constituents, kept seniors in their homes, and ensured safe drinking water for kids.

As Chair of the Labor and Housing committee in the Legislature, she passed equal pay for equal work, paid sick leave and fought for workers’ rights.

In 2021, Shenna was sworn in as Maine’s first female Secretary of State, where she implemented appointments at the BMV to better serve customers, as well as online voter registration to help people more easily make their voices heard. Under her leadership, Maine led the nation in voter participation in 2022.