{"id":4175,"date":"2026-07-16T19:01:43","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T19:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/?post_type=candidate&p=4175"},"modified":"2026-07-17T16:02:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T16:02:26","slug":"ashley-j-webb","status":"publish","type":"candidate","link":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/candidates\/ashley-j-webb\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashley J. Webb"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Personal\/biographical information pertinent to the role<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Two-time candidate for NH State Representative (2012, 2020). Now I am running for U.S. Senate in Maine, managing all campaign operations as both candidate and treasurer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Top three priorities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Healthcare reform holding hospitals financially accountable for injuries they cause, instead of dumping injured patients onto SSDI. Applying that same accountability standard to employers who injure workers. And infrastructure investment in Maine \u2014 building a real highway system connecting cities currently isolated on back roads, so people aren’t cut off from major hubs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Why are you running?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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I am tired of false promises from those who hold office, false claims of accountability that never have any follow through. I am tired of the political games that are played in Washington while real people are harmed. I’m running because Maine deserves better.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Our recent poll showed that more than half of Maine\u2019s likely voters want Democrats to control Congress, and electability has already been a major issue in this race. Why are you more electable in November than the other candidates?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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I am a real person, like every other citizen who is fed up with the gaslighting, the lies, the games, and the polished words \u2014 while those currently running the government continue to do bad things to other people just like me who are trying to make it. Making statements about what other candidates do or don’t have is something I won’t do \u2014 we need a unified front to win.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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What are the highlights of your plan to lower the cost of living for Mainers?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Shift the tax burden onto corporations, especially those being gluttonous and overcharging \u2014 the way we sin-tax tobacco and alcohol, corporations should pay a sin tax for their own excess. Cap energy delivery fees and stop shifting AI data center costs onto consumers. Corporate landlords either lower rents or pay a higher tax, refunded directly to tenants. Tax excessive healthcare premiums, with refunds to those hit hardest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Would you support term limits for members of Congress? Why or why not?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Yes. Those in office become complacent \u2014 they coast on name recognition while doing little to nothing for the people of the state. We need people with fresh ideas who are willing and able to make real change, not career politicians who’ve stopped being accountable to the voters who put them there.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Would you support Medicare for All \u2014 expanding the current social program to all Americans? Why or why not?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Yes. I’m on Medicare myself, and I intend to stay on it throughout my term \u2014 once my Trial Work Period ends, I can remain on Medicare. A lot of politicians say they support Medicare for All, but I’d bet it won’t apply to them the same way it applies to the rest of us.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Would you support eliminating the filibuster? Why or why not?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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No, I would not remove it at all. Without the filibuster, the SAVE Act would likely have already passed \u2014 a bill that disenfranchises voters and makes it harder for people to vote. A lot of people simply wouldn’t vote as a result. The filibuster protects us from bad laws like this becoming law on a bare majority. It’s not perfect, but I won’t support eliminating it while it’s one of the few tools standing between us and voter suppression legislation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Graham Platner ran on getting money out of politics. If you share this priority, what is your plan to do so?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Yes, I share that priority. I want to extend FOIA to Congress, so large donors can’t pull strings behind closed doors. If you hold government office, that transparency should cover all your communications \u2014 including with donors \u2014 unless you serve on a sensitive committee (intelligence, defense, etc.), where only that committee’s info stays protected. Everything else should be open. Sunlight is the real disinfectant here.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Do you support an end to U.S. military aid in Israel? Is Israel committing a genocide in Gaza? Why or why not?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Yes to both. What’s happening in Gaza is terrorism of the worst kind, and yes, it’s genocide too. You want to know what terror actually looks like? It’s your neighbor scattered across the street by a Tomahawk missile. I’d go further: the attacks on Iran and Lebanon need to stop as well. The U.S. is supposed to be a peacekeeper, not an enabler. I don’t believe our tax dollars should support any of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Should ICE exist in its current form? If so, explain your answer. If not, what should exist instead?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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No. There should be real accountability \u2014 no masks, no refusing to display badges, and any agent who violates a civilian’s civil rights should be terminated on the spot. There’s a real ICE memo authorizing agents to forcibly enter homes using only an administrative warrant, not one signed by a judge. That’s a direct threat to the Fourth Amendment, and it should make every American’s blood boil.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Give Susan Collins a performance grade. What, if anything, has she done well?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Performative theater while her party enables real harm here and abroad. She claims to protect girls, but said nothing when a U.S. Tomahawk killed over 150 people, mostly children, at a girls’ school in Iran. Instead, she repeated unverified claims about Iran’s nuclear program to justify the war \u2014 the New York Times found Trump’s central claims were false or unproven. We were told similar things before Iraq.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Collins is running on her seniority in the Senate, including her position as chair of the appropriations committee. How do you plan to refute her argument that Maine benefits from her experience?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Seniority means nothing if it’s not used. We knew ICE was dangerous back in January with Operation Catch of the Day \u2014 she let it roll on anyway, and now someone’s been killed in our state. Her response was a call asking to pause ‘non-urgent’ stops. Ask yourself what makes a stop ‘urgent’ if not a warrant or reasonable suspicion. That’s not experience working for Mainers \u2014 that’s a phone call after the damage was done.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":4176,"template":"","meta":{"voter_guide_candidate_first_name":"Ashley","voter_guide_candidate_middle_name":"","voter_guide_candidate_last_name":"Webb","voter_guide_candidate_suffix":"","voter_guide_candidate_race_id":2146,"voter_guide_candidate_age":0,"voter_guide_candidate_hometown":"","voter_guide_candidate_occupation":"","voter_guide_candidate_bio":"","voter_guide_candidate_education":"","voter_guide_candidate_years_in_state":0,"voter_guide_candidate_years_in_municipality":0,"voter_guide_candidate_time_in_area":"","voter_guide_candidate_website":"","voter_guide_candidate_headshot_url":"","voter_guide_candidate_date_filed":"","voter_guide_candidate_incumbent_years":"","voter_guide_candidate_is_clean_elections":false,"footnotes":""},"vg_party":[1073],"vg_residence_municipality":[],"class_list":["post-4175","candidate","type-candidate","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","vg_party-democratic"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates\/4175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/candidate"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates\/4175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4178,"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates\/4175\/revisions\/4178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"vg_party","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vg_party?post=4175"},{"taxonomy":"vg_residence_municipality","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vg_residence_municipality?post=4175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}