Meet The Candidates
Maine Democrats
Browse candidates for the 2026 General Election:
U.S. House
Chellie Pingree | CD1 Candidate
Chellie Pingree has spent her life doing what Mainers do: working hard, solving problems, and giving back to her community.
After moving to Maine as a teenager, Chellie built her life on the offshore island of North Haven, where she raised three children, worked as an organic farmer, and started successful small businesses. She knows firsthand the challenges of making payroll, creating jobs, and keeping a small business going in a rural community. In 1981, she started North Island Yarn, which grew to employ local workers on the island. Later, she helped launch Nebo Lodge and played a key role in bringing Turner Farm back into production, strengthening North Haven’s local food economy.
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Chellie never set out to be a politician. She started by serving her neighbors in the roles that needed filling, including as the town tax assessor and chair of the local school board. In 1992, she won an upset victory for a Maine State Senate seat in a predominantly Republican district and went on to serve four terms, eventually becoming Senate Majority Leader. There, she earned a reputation as a fearless advocate for working families, affordable health care, small businesses, education, and Maine’s environment.
In 2008, Chellie was elected to Congress to represent Maine’s First District. In Washington, she has built a record of delivering real results for Maine people. Serving on the Appropriations Committee, she has fought to strengthen local communities, support veterans, expand access to health care, and stand up for farmers, fishermen, and working families.
Through it all, Chellie has stayed grounded in the values she learned on North Haven: work hard, be accountable to your neighbors, and use common sense to get things done.
Matt Dunlap | CD2 Candidate
Matt Dunlap is running for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District because we deserve a representative who will stand up to Trump, take on the billionaire class, and fight for working families.
Matt was born and raised on a farm near Bar Harbor, and he’s never forgotten where he came from. As State Auditor, he works to improve the efficiency of state government, eliminate waste, and prevent fraud. Previously, Matt served as Maine’s Secretary of State. During Trump’s first term, he was appointed to what was supposed to be a bipartisan “election integrity” commission — but when it became clear the panel was just a front for a fraudulent power grab, Matt took Trump to court, won, and forced the commission to be dissolved.
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In Congress, Matt will fight to make billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share, strengthen Social Security, and Medicare For All. He’ll stand up to ICE raids tearing apart Maine communities and fight for universal childcare and affordable housing. Matt is running to take on the powerful interests that have rigged our economy against working class Mainers — because it’s time Washington worked for us, not Wall Street.
Matt is a founding board member of the Maine Youth Fish and Game Association, the former executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, and assistant to the treasurer of his local Episcopal Church. He and his wife, Michelle Dunphy, live in Old Town and have one daughter. He is a proud graduate of the University of Maine.
U.S. Senate
Graham Platner | Senate Candidate
Born in Blue Hill and raised in Ellsworth & Sullivan, Graham is a lifelong Mainer. He is a Marine, Army veteran, oyster farmer, and Chair of the Sullivan Planning Board.
Whether enlisting in the Marine Corps, working in his community, or running for Senate to get money out of politics, the core of every decision Graham made is: how can he best serve Maine?
After graduating high school during the height of the Iraq War, Graham snuck into his father’s office to retrieve his birth certificate, so he could enlist in the Marine Corps.
After completing training, Graham was assigned to Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines. He deployed to Al-Anbar Province, Iraq, where he served primarily in the area east of Fallujah. In 2006, he deployed to Ramadi as a machine gun section leader at the Government Center. He deployed again in 2007.
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After his third deployment, Graham enrolled at GW University using the GI Bill, but realized his time serving wasn’t over. In 2009, he joined the Maryland Army National Guard and later deployed to Afghanistan as a rifle team leader.
He returned from Afghanistan and went back to school in 2011. Like many veterans, Graham struggled with undiagnosed PTSD and physical challenges from combat. He withdrew and moved back home, where he used VA resources to get the help he needed.
After four tours overseas, Graham was disillusioned with America’s failed foreign policy and endless wars and focused on serving his community. He began working on a small oyster farm, eventually taking it over, and started a diving and mooring service, and serving Sullivan as Harbormaster and Planning Board Chair.
He met Amy Gertner in 2023 and got married soon after. They live three doors down from where Graham grew up with their two dogs, Gryffin and Zevon, and their cat, Neptune.
ME Governor
Hannah Pingree | Governor Candidate
Hannah Pingree is a lifelong Mainer, leader, and mom who knows how to get things done. Born in Belfast and raised on the island of North Haven, she has led at every level — serving as Maine’s Speaker of the House, running a small business, chairing her local school board, and directing the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future (GOPIF).
Hannah’s father was a boat builder who served on the school board and volunteered as an EMT. Her mother’s tenure in the state legislature and in Congress gave Hannah a front-row seat to what it means to serve. Elected to the Maine House at 26, she became the youngest woman in the nation — and only the second woman in Maine history — to serve as Speaker of the House. In the Legislature, she built a reputation for working across the aisle, expanding broadband in rural Maine, investing in clean energy, lowering health care costs, defending reproductive rights, passing marriage equality, improving housing access, and protecting Maine’s working waterfronts. She also championed the Kid Safe Products Act, taking on the chemical industry to protect children’s health.
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After the Legislature, Hannah ran a small business, led a local housing organization, and chaired her school board — all while raising her two kids. In 2019, Governor Mills asked her to lead GOPIF, where she tackled housing, workforce development, and economic recovery, led the Children’s Cabinet and Cabinet on Aging, and launched an Office of New Americans. Under her leadership, Maine became a national leader on climate action.
Hannah continues to live on North Haven with her husband Jason Mann, their two kids, and one lovable dog. Whether in her community, in the State House, or leading state government, she has always shown up, listened, and gotten things done — working across the state and across political lines to build a better Maine where everyone has a place to call home. At a time when the stakes have never been higher, Hannah brings the experience, integrity, and determination Mainers can trust to deliver results.
