Shenna Lee Bellows (born March 23, 1975) is an American politician and a non-profit executive director. On December 2, 2020, the Maine Legislature elected her to serve as the 50th Maine secretary of state.[1] She was executive director of the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine between 2018 and 2020, and she served as the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Maine between 2005 and 2013.[2]
Shenna Bellows was born on March 23, 1975, in Greenfield, Massachusetts, the eldest daughter of Dexter Bellows, a carpenter, and Janice Colson, a nurse. She grew up in Hancock, Maine, where she attended Hancock Grammar School. Bellows grew up in a struggling family; she claims her family did not have running water or electricity, which the family could not afford, until she was in the fifth grade.[4][5]
When Bellows was 15, she was an AFS–USA foreign exchange student in Campos, Brazil. Bellows graduated from Ellsworth High School in 1993. During high school and college, Bellows worked as a research assistant at Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory.[6] During her junior year, she studied for a semester as an exchange student in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Early career
Bellows served as executive director of the ACLU of Maine for eight years. In that role, she built coalitions with both Republicans and Democrats to pass privacy and civil rights laws.[7] She was a leader of Mainers United for Marriage, working for seven years to pass same-sex marriage in Maine.[8] She was a leader on voting rights and co-chaired the 2011 Protect Maine Votes campaign to restore same day voter registration.[9][10] Most recently, she organized a successful privacy campaign to require warrants for access to private cell phone communications, and she led the opposition to warrantless drone surveillance.[11]
During her time at the ACLU, Bellows was a leader in the Maine Choice Coalition and the Coalition for Maine Women.[12] She was recognized for her work to advance women’s health and reproductive choice by awards from the University of Maine Women’s Studies Department,[13] Mabel Wadsworth Women’s Health Center,[14] the American Association of University Women,[15] the Frances Perkins Center[16] and the Maine Democratic Party.
Prior to her work at the ACLU of Maine, Bellows was the national field organizer at the ACLU in Washington, D.C., organizing nationwide civil liberties campaigns including opposition to the Patriot Act, where she built broad coalitions that included librarians and gun owners alike.[17]
Bellows was an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer in Nashville, Tennessee. There she assisted a start-up non-profit, Community IMPACT! in developing an asset building program to promote educational and economic empowerment for young people in Nashville’s largest public housing project.[18]
Bellows served as a small business development Peace Corps volunteer in La Arena de Chitré, Panama. In Panama, she launched a micro-lending program for artisans, started a Junior Achievement entrepreneurship program at a local high school, and was President of Women In Development/Gender and Development, dedicated to advancing economic and educational opportunity for women and girls.[19]
From 1997 to 1999 Bellows worked as a researcher and recruiter for Economists Incorporated, a privately held economic consulting firm specializing in microeconomic analysis in antitrust, regulatory and legal contexts in Washington, D.C.[20]
Bellows announced on March 4, 2016, that she would run for the Maine Senate in district 14, including her hometown of Manchester and ten other towns in the Augusta area. She ran as a publicly financed candidate.[23] Bellows won election to the Maine Senate on November 8, 2016, and took office on December 7, 2016. She won reelection to the Maine Senate in 2018, defeating Republican Matt Stone with 57.9% of the vote.[24] She was reelected again in 2020, winning 56% of the vote over Republican Mark Walker.[25] Bellows resigned from the Senate on December 2, 2020.[26] A special election was scheduled for March 2021.[26]
In December 2020, Bellows was elected Secretary of State of Maine. She is the first female to hold the position.[27] In Maine, the secretary of state is elected biannually in December by a joint session of the Maine Legislature for a term that begins in January.[28]
Disqualification of Donald Trump from Maine primary ballot
In December 2023, five Maine voters filed challenges to former president Donald Trump's petition to appear on the 2024 Republican presidential preference primary ballot in Maine.[29] On December 15, 2023, Bellows held a public evidentiary hearing to consider the validity of those challenges.[29][30] On December 28, 2023, she ruled that Trump would be barred from the Maine primary ballot due to his conduct during the January 6 United States Capitol attack, pending appeal.[31][32]
On January 2, 2024, Trump appealed Bellows' December 28 decision to the Maine Superior Court.[36] The Superior Court ordered Bellows to reconsider her disqualification decision pending a ruling from the United States Supreme Court on Trump's ballot access. Bellows unsuccessfully appealed the Superior Court ruling to the Maine Supreme Court, where her request was dismissed.[37]
Bellows' disqualification of Trump, along with those of two other states, was overturned by the United States Supreme Court in a unanimous ruling in Trump v. Anderson on March 4, 2024.[38] Bellows rescinded her disqualification of Trump from ballot access the same day.[37]
Political positions
Bellows supports abortion rights, describing herself as "a strong advocate for women's healthcare and reproductive freedom including access to abortion and contraception".[39] Bellows wants to greatly decrease subsidies for large agricultural corporations.[39] Bellows opposes the Citizens United v. FEC decision, and supports public financing of elections and strong disclosure requirements.[39] Bellows opposes the death penalty.[39] Bellows supports large cuts to the defense budget, and largely opposes military intervention by the U.S., saying "we cannot afford to be the world's military policeman".[39] Bellows supports federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change.[39] Bellows opposes efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and supports expanding coverage through the Medicaid and Medicare programs.[39] Bellows led the effort to enact marriage equality in Maine as the head of Mainers United for Marriage.[39][40] She supports federal anti-discrimination protections against LGBT people.[41] In 2014, Bellows supported increasing the federal minimum wage to $10.10, and indexing it to inflation.[41] In 2016, she supported a ballot initiative to gradually raise Maine’s minimum wage to $12 by 2020.[42] Bellows advocates for eliminating the cap on income taxable under the social security payroll tax in order to increase benefits.[39] Bellows supports decreasing the tax burden on lower- and middle-income families, as well as small businesses, but wants to "make sure the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share" and does not support lowering taxes for high-earners or corporations.[39] Bellows supports large increases in corporate and capital gains taxes, as well as the personal income tax rates for higher-earning brackets.[39]
Personal life
Bellows lives with her husband, Brandon Baldwin.[21]
Electoral history
Maine Senate district 14
Democratic primary for the 2016 Maine Senate election, district 14
1 ▌New Progressive (1 territory) Italics indicate no secretary of state in this state, closest equivalent listed An asterisk (*) indicates that the officeholder is serving in an acting capacity.
