Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (Panama 1999-2001) officially announces bid for governor
While many current and former officials are rumored to be considering entering the 2026 race, Bellows is the first to declare.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (Panama 1999-2001) officially announces bid for governor
By: Eesha Pendharkar, in the Maine Morning Star | March 26, 2025.
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows announced her run for governor in 2026, becoming the first major Democratic candidate to throw her hat in the ring.
Bellows has served as Maine’s first female secretary of state since 2021. She garnered national attention last year for initially disqualifying President Donald Trump from the 2024 Republican primary. She’s currently serving her third term as Secretary of State, during which she has focused on making voting more accessible.
“With so much at stake, we need a governor from Maine and for Maine — someone who understands what families here are going through, because they’ve lived it,” Bellow said in a statement. She officially launched her candidacy early Wednesday at an event at the Hancock Community Center.
Read more on Maine Morning Star
Related media:
'We need a new day': Secretary of State Shenna Bellows launches campaign for Maine governor, by Francis Flisiuk and Adam Bartow on WMTW.
About Shenna Bellows
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows is Maine’s 50th Secretary of State, sworn into her first two-year term in the position on Jan. 4, 2021. Secretary Bellows is Maine’s first female Secretary of State.
Secretary Bellows previously served two terms in the Maine Senate from 2016-2020, representing 11 towns in southern Kennebec County. In the Maine Senate, she served as Senate Chair of the Labor and Housing Committee and served on the Judiciary Committee. She was a 2020 presidential elector in the Electoral College.
Secretary Bellows most recently led the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine as executive director from 2018 to 2020. Previously, she owned Bellows & Company, a non-profit consulting business, where she worked with organizations such as the Sierra Club’s Maine Chapter, Consumers for Affordable Healthcare and the Maine Women’s Lobby. She also served as interim executive director of LearningWorks. In 2014, Secretary Bellows was the Democratic nominee for United States Senate in Maine.
From 2005 to 2013, Secretary Bellows was executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine. She was a member of the first Right to Know Advisory Committee and the Maine Freedom of Information Coalition. She served on the Executive Committee of the 2009 and 2012 ballot campaigns to pass marriage equality in Maine, and co-chaired a successful 2011 statewide ballot campaign to restore same-day voter registration. She was an original member of the Committee for Ranked Choice Voting.
Secretary Bellows grew up in Hancock and is a graduate of Ellsworth High School. She holds a B.A. in International Politics and Economics from Middlebury College. She volunteered with the Peace Corps in Panama and AmeriCorps VISTA in Nashville, Tennessee.
Secretary Bellows lives with her husband, Brandon, in Manchester, where she serves on the Manchester Conservation Commission.