Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows at the Maine State House in June 2024. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

AUGUSTA — Secretary of State Shenna Bellows announced Wednesday that she will seek the Democratic nomination to run for governor in 2026.

Bellows, who served two terms in the Maine Senate, is among the first candidates to formally enter what is expected to become a crowded primary field for both parties. Each party’s primary, scheduled for June 9, 2026, will likely be decided by ranked-choice voting.

Gov. Janet Mills is unable to run for reelection because of term limits.

Former Senate President Troy Jackson, a 56-year-old Allagash Democrat who worked as a professional logger and served 20 years in the Legislature, announced this month that he is forming a committee to explore a possible run.

So far, only two candidates have filed paperwork with the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices: Democrat Kenneth Pinet, of South Portland, and Republican Robert Wessels, of Norway.

Bellows made national news and became a foil for local Republicans last year when she ruled that Donald Trump’s name could not appear on the Maine’s presidential ballot because of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol. That decision, which drew a harsh response from Republicans, was later reversed, after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a similar case in Colorado.

Bellows, who has fought for same-sex marriage and same-day voter registration, ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2014, losing the statewide race to incumbent Susan Collins, who earned 67% of the vote that year.

Bellows, 50, said her humble beginnings and professional career, including her prior leadership of the ACLU of Maine, service in the Maine Senate and her current role as secretary of state, position her to protect Maine families and push back against what she sees as the harmful policies coming out of Washington, D.C.

“We’re in this era of oligarchy, where the billionaires in Washington, D.C., are stripping the government for parts, and people here in our state are truly struggling,” Bellows said in an interview Tuesday referring to Trump empowering billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Governmental Efficiency to slash federal funding, program and workers.

Bellows grew up in the small town of Hancock and now lives in Manchester, which are both in the more conservative 2nd District. She noted she lived in a tent at the age of 4, after her parents bought a plot of land in Hancock and her father, who was a carpenter, built a log cabin from trees they harvested onsite.

“Seniors, veterans, workers and our children are being targeted by Washington, D.C., and no one down there is going to save us — not Congress, not the courts, not Donald Trump or Elon Musk,” she said. “We the people here in Maine are going to have to step up, protect ourselves and take care of our own.

“To do that, we need a governor from Maine and for Maine, who truly understands what families are going through and has it deep in their bones to protect people and make government work for them. And that’s who I am.”

Bellows, whose office oversees elections in Maine, said she will continue to serve as secretary of state while campaigning.

The Maine Republican Party called on Bellows to step down as secretary of state while campaigning for governor, pointing to her efforts to exclude Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot in Maine, which they said “created a national debacle and violated the US Constitution.”

“The people of Maine, all candidates for office and anyone else concerned need to see an immediate plan to ensure the woman who blatantly attacked our ‘democracy’ in 2024 is not overseeing her own election in 2026,” Chairman Jim Deyerman said in a written statement.

It’s not unusual for a sitting secretary of state to run for office.

Most recently, Republican Charlie Summers maintained his post while running for the U.S. Senate in 2012, though he also faced calls to step down. And Democrat Bill Diamond ran for the 1st District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives while serving as secretary of state in 1994.

Candidates must collect between 5,000 and 6,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot. Nomination petitions will be available in January and are due March 16, 2026.

OTHER POTENTIAL CANDIDATES

Other possible Democratic candidates include U.S. Rep. Jared Golden of Lewiston, who was narrowly reelected to his District 2 seat last fall. Golden beat a challenger endorsed by House Speaker Michael Johnson and Trump, who carried the district. But Golden has been raising money for a 2026 reelection campaign.

Hannah Pingree, the director the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future under Mills, is also rumored to be mulling a run. Pingree is the daughter of U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree and previously served as the speaker of the House.

Democrats may face electoral headwinds in the 2026 race.

Since the 1950s, Mainers have not elected a candidate from the same political party as a departing governor — a trend that began after Maine had five consecutive Republican governors from 1937 through 1955.

The decades of ping-ponging between parties in the Blaine House began when Democrat Ed Muskie was elected in 1954, ending Republicans’ nearly two-decade hold on the governorship.

Possible Republican candidates include former U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart, Rep. Laurel Libby and Jonathan Bush, a cousin of George W. Bush. State Sen. Rick Bennett and former Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason, now a lobbyist, have also been discussed.

One name being discussed as a possible independent candidate is Travis Mills, a retired U.S. Army staff sergeant, author and motivational speaker.