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Five Questions with Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows

Joyce Vance

Aug 8

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Shenna Bellows is Maine’s 50^th Secretary of State and the first woman to serve in that role. She’s led implementation of reforms like automatic voter registration and online voter registration in her state and has taken strong stands against Donald Trump—she ruled that he wasn’t eligible to be on the 2024 ballot because of his incitement of the January 6. She’s steeped in the tradition of speaking truth to power; she was Executive Director of the ACLU of Maine before she entered elected office. Shenna also understands the dangers this moment poses to our democracy, having led Maine’s Holocaust and Human Rights Center for several years. Shenna was one of the leaders of Maine’s marriage equality campaign, and she and her husband waited to marry until their gay and lesbian friends and family could. She helped win that campaign by launching Republicans for the Freedom to Marry out of the ACLU even though she’s a Democrat. That kind of bipartisan coalition building helped her turn a red district blue when she was elected to the state senate—in a district that voted for her and for Donald Trump in 2016. Growing up in rural Maine without electricity or running water has made Shenna Maine tough. In her spare time, she runs half-marathons and goes bird-watching in the Maine woods with her husband Brandon.

One of the things I really admire about Shenna is the joy she brings to her work. She likes running elections. She thinks the nuts and bolts and doing it right are interesting and important. And she inspires the people around her. When I asked for a “fun” picture for Five Questions, she sent me this one, and wrote about her visits to polling places across the state on election days: “I deliver donuts in the mornings, cookies in the afternoon.”

I’m grateful Shenna has agreed to join us this week as we mark the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act and look to the future.

“Five Questions” is a periodic feature for paid subscribers, my way of thanking those who are able to support this work and make it possible for me to devote the necessary time and resources to it. Whether you’re a paid subscriber or not, I’m happy to have you here. I appreciate everyone who reads the newsletter and works to keep themselves and others informed in this pivotal moment. Free subscriptions are available too, with access to all of the other nightly posts.