Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows declared on Thursday that she will seek the vacant Democratic nomination to face Sen. Susan Collins in November.
“I’m in,” Bellows said on social media, using the phrase favored by other contenders in the race that opened up after Graham Platner suspended his campaign on Wednesday night amid blowback from a rape allegation that he has denied.
“The people of Maine have been building something real — a movement that deserves to go all the way to November,” Bellows said. “I’ve spent my entire career taking on tough fights for working people, and I’m not stopping now. I’m running for United States Senate, and together we are going to defeat Susan Collins.”
Bellows previously faced off against Collins in 2014 and lost. This year she competed for the Democratic nomination in Maine’s gubernatorial race but came up short in the June 9 primary, finishing fourth in a field of five candidates after a ranked-choice tally.
In that race, Bellows was part of a coordinated effort with Platner and fellow gubernatorial candidates Troy Jackson and Hannah Pingree to consolidate votes against Nirav Shah at a time when he led in the polls.
The effort appeared to work and Pingree ultimately clinched the gubernatorial nomination.
Bellows, Shah and Jackson are now part of the growing field of candidates seeking the nod to face Collins in November. Other declared contenders include former political operative Jordan Wood who ran unsuccessfully for the nomination in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, social worker Paige Loud who also ran in the 2nd District race, Maine Rep. Valli Geiger of Rockland, Maine Beer Co. co-founder Dan Kleban, and David Costello, a former government official who ran against Platner in the U.S. Senate primary.
The Maine Democratic Party’s state committee voted Wednesday to hold a nominating convention to select a replacement for Platner. The convention would include 500 delegates elected proportionally by county committees, along with the entire state committee, according to an account of the meeting from an attendee.
