Former Speaker of the House Ryan Fecteau at a 2022 bill signing at the Hodgkins School Apartments in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
BIDDEFORD — Former Speaker of the House Ryan Fecteau has decided to run once again to represent Biddeford in the Maine House of Representatives.
He announced the news on Jan. 25 on X, formerly Twitter. “When unexpected opportunities arise, you can jump in or run the other way. Rep. Erin Sheehan has served Biddeford well in the Legislature. She is choosing to not seek re-election in 2024. So, here’s an unexpected opportunity. And I’m jumping in. I’m running,” he wrote.
Democratic State House Representative Erin Sheehan currently represents District 132 in the Legislature. She was first elected to the Maine House of Representatives in 2020.
“I had to think about think about it,” he told the Biddeford Courier Jan. 28, “but it just seems like a really important time to get back to work on things that really matter to me — from housing, to access to childcare, to job training in career technical education.”
Fecteau, a Democrat, is currently running unopposed. He said he expects there will likely be a Republican challenger but thinks he’ll likely run unopposed in the primary.
Originally from Biddeford, Fecteau was first elected to the Maine House in 2014, going on to represent his home town for eight years. He became the youngest presiding officer in the United States and first openly gay speaker of the house when he assumed the position in 2020.
He departed the Legislature in 2022 after having maxed out his term limits. Members of the House are limited to four consecutive two-year terms.
While in the Legislature, he was a champion of access to affordable housing, LGBTQ+ rights and access to childcare. As speaker, he sponsored a landmark piece of housing legislation, LD 2003, that was passed in 2022 and mandated municipal zoning changes in order to clear the way for more housing in Maine.
Housing in particular is one of the priorities drawing him into the race.
“There’s been a great deal of focus and investment in housing. (But) from my experience in Augusta, the problem is the pendulum swings, and the focus will be on some other issue at some point. It’s important to keep the momentum going because there’s so much work to do. Despite the fact that we’ve made these really large investments, that doesn’t mean that it will (necessarily) continue,” he said.
After his speakership, he continued to work on housing issues. Since November 2023, he has been the senior officer of policy & planning for Avesta Housing, the largest nonprofit affordable housing provider in Maine. He said on Jan. 28 that he wasn’t ready to comment whether he would remain at Avesta if he were to win the seat for District 132.
Prior to that, he worked in the Governor’s Office for a year as the senior advisor on community development and strategic initiatives.
Fecteau will run a traditionally funded campaign through his pre-existing PAC and will not take advantage of Maine’s Clean Election system, he said.
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