• Lowering & capping property taxes for Mainers
• Protecting your hard-earned benefits
• Working to repair our broken healthcare systems
• Increasing workforce training and trades opportunities
• Increasing childcare access for working families.

When I first set out knocking on doors as I ran for the Buckfield Select Board, I can’t lie- I was incredibly nervous. Any anxieties that could come into my head, did. Would anyone like me? Would anyone share my vision? Why does my voice have to shake so much?

For those who don’t know, the select board is a non-partisan office.

This brought another question - how would I know who is on my “team”? How would they know if I’m on theirs?

This question was answered easily with each door I knocked on, and continues to be the case as I’ve traveled across our 4 towns. What I found as I drove down bumpy roads talking to those on the left, right, and somewhere in between, was endless amounts of curiosity and support. Some knew me growing up, and shared familiar smiles and stories of days gone by. Many had no idea who I was, and paid me the kindness of listening to me stumble through explaining why I wanted to serve them.

It didn’t matter which administrations had come, or gone, or who currently served. We were all struggling together. To afford a place to live. For our cars and their upkeep. For the ever-increasing costs on our grocery receipts and electric bills. For our medical bills that pile up with too much ease, or for the care of teeth we prefer stay in our mouths. For our children’s passions, or their education; funded through a formula married to our homes that are already so expensive to keep.

The answer I found was that there are no teams. Not how we’re often told there are, between left and right. Beyond the sensationalism and “culture war,” whatever label one neighbor gave themselves or another, we all shared in these same struggles and values. And we all hate to watch each other go through them.

• Cutting taxes & red tape holding small businesses back.
• Affordable housing that trains our workforce & fits the character of its locality.
• Restricting home purchasing by private equity firms.
• School funding solutions that don’t position property owners against the education of our next generation.
• Property maintenance assistance & access, so we can stop losing our already short housing supply to neglect.
• Putting Mainers over our designation as “Vacationland.”

I can tell when I speak to my neighbors that I carry something many no longer do. Some would call it hope, others may call it naiveté.

I have memories of our vibrant towns before the recession of 2008. In Buckfield, of the many corner stores, restaurants, the Buckfield Inn, the Oddfellow Theatre. When I came home after studying Tourism and Hospitality Management in a program focused on an anthropological approach, I looked upon my hometown through that lens. Maine has been known as “Vacationland” for years, and increasingly people are venturing inland, away from our stunning and favored coast. I truly do believe our community would have so much to offer to those who come, but I’ve come to discover that I can’t even think that far ahead.

How can we invite people into our home when we don’t have enough resources to even provide for ourselves?

I recognize what a boon tourism has provided to some of our Maine communities, but I also am clear eyed on what this title of “Vacationland” has done to us as well. Our beautiful state has become a playground for the wealthy, while my neighbors, who stayed the course of getting an education, a job, a house, raising a family, cannot keep up with the cost of living here.

Serving on the town level, I recognize now one thing is for sure - the path we are on is untenable. Our infrastructure is deteriorating faster than our communities can afford to fix it. This is compounded by the recent events of inclement weather, costing our small towns additional and unbudgeted expenses. Our needs have far outgrown the depths of our pockets. Hospitals across the state are closing, and many are left scared that ours could be next. Our small businesses, like the ones I work for, struggle to pay their employees a fair wage as the economy relies so heavily on wavering, often tourist driven dollars. Providing healthcare for us is a wish they cannot afford.

We deserve better, and you deserve a representative who lives alongside you in this everyday struggle. I, like you, struggle to find a balance with this all. I believe we can build a system that truly serves us.

Growing up, I was blessed with the gift of a small school. That’s not to say it didn’t have its imperfections, or even failures.  But not everyone has the chance to attend a school with its own food-producing garden, gaggle of pigs and rabbits, and working sugar shack. Attending Buckfield High School gave me those opportunities which I have carried with me, and for that I am continually grateful.

Our schools now face enormous struggles.

• Aging facilities which are increasingly expensive to heat in the winter, and as time goes on, now require more cooling capabilities near the summers.

• Teachers who are underpaid and overworked. The fulfillment that historically feeds their care and passion, derived from the curiosity sparked in their students when beginning to understand or engage with a subject, fades more as we struggle to keep our children’s attention or emotions in check. This directly conflicting with expectations from administrators and Federal standards which blanket all students, no matter their abilities or the nuances we see in our children.

• A student body facing many struggles- a lack of funding, and therefore resources, to set them up for their best chance at success. What they lack at home shows up throughout the school day, causing disruption and unease for other children.

• A lack of accountability or access to independent avenues of reporting & assistance.

• Maintenance costs climbing steadily as a result of inflation, or even corporate greed.

• School Consolidation struggles nearly two decades after a state mandate that no longer exists, but has left communities to struggle with the effects of.

And yet at the Municipal level, we see much of our property taxes needing to be committed to schools, often leaving important infrastructure projects and capital improvement investments for another cycle.

I believe my community wants their neighbors to be educated. I understand why it cannot come at the cost of their home security.

The State of Maine must take sweeping action to address this issue, and what I currently see moving through the legislature is not enough to keep our fixed-income or lower-class neighbors in their homes. The restructuring of the school funding formula passed by this previous legislature (LD 2226 - An Act to Amend the Essential Programs and Services School Funding Formula, of which you will see many testimonies from neighbors in Buckfield, Hartford, and Sumner encouraged and assisted by myself) was a step in the right direction, but further action is required to consider the outsized transportation costs for our rural communities, as well as the broken withdrawal system that I am currently watching my community navigate.

Also passed in this previous legislature was LD 1089 - An Act to Permanently Fund 55% of the State's Share of Education by Establishing a Tax on Incomes of More than $1,000,000. By implementing a 2¢ tax on income dollars only above $1,000,000 (the dollars $1,000,001 and up, which only 2,600 tax filers were affected by out of the ~1,414,800 people in Maine), we were able to fully fund the 55% of the education costs that the State of Maine is bound by law to cover. Those numbers speak volumes, and it’s clear to me that we can make further moves toward divorcing school funding from property taxes. Every single person benefits from an educated population - parents, students, employers, service recipients - and it disadvantages our land rich, income poor communities that our students’ opportunities should be based primarily off of what their community can afford. It’s far past time to bring these funding formulas into the modern era, so we can build a more fair and unbiased school funding methodology that no longer has our struggling and senior communities left holding the bill.

Our children deserve the best education possible, and that cannot depend solely on the income of Maine’s aging communities. These are things I would push for should I be elected, and I would use my position to this office hand-in-hand with other representatives in other struggling communities to encourage federal investment as well.

• Protecting & maintaining our hunting + fishing pastimes.

• Preserving heritage farmland and forests for both their beauty and the livelihood they bring our inland economies.

• Enabling the preservation of our woods & waters for the generations to come.

While I haven’t been hunting myself much since the days of getting my license at age 13, I have many family members and friends who enjoy the recreation. I greatly respect what it brings to its enthusiasts, and for many, the food it brings to the dinner table, especially during these tough times. You can expect to see me vote to protect these rights as someone who was born and raised here.

Growing up, I spent most of my time as a child working on and exploring my grandparents farmland; running my hands over horses, goats, and Highland Cattle. Tripping on the rocky soil, splashing in the Darnit Brook, and staring up at vibrant, starry night skies.

In my adult life, there are few things that have brought me peace the way that driving through our lakes region, or recreating in its woods & bodies of water have. I want to protect these spaces for generations to come, while responsibly managing the industries that keep food on our tables and money in our communities.

Today you can often find me taking advantage of the Western Foothills Land Trust’s steadfast work in protecting our local environment, thanks to their conservation and stewardship of natural spaces in our communities.

I think it’s safe to day our justice system in Maine is broken.

Eliot Cutler is finally returning to jail for only 73 more days after violating the terms of his probation 6 times since September of ‘25. This after serving only ~6 months (getting out early for good behavior) after investigators had found tens of thousands of images and videos of child sexual abuse material on Cutler's electronic devices.

This in itself is reprehensible, and only a small look into the current state of our justice system. I’ve seen no shortage of domestic abusers and belligerent locals released from custody after meeting insignificant bail postings. While I think some crime is perpetuated by a lack of resources for some, what I see in my community cannot be excused.

Maine is not the small state that many in places of power still see it as - while rates of crime remain low, criminal activity has been pervasive, and we have failed to catch up.

To the same end, it is not prepared for the action that needs to be taken. Maine remains the only state in the nation without a fully functional, statewide public defender system, is the only New England state without a parole system, and lacks independent prison oversight.

I believe similarly, our schools are in need of an independent oversight apparatus. Growing up I watched multiple students become victims of teachers, parents, and students. There was no avenue for student reporting that didn’t go through the administrative office, which was staffed by those teachers longtime peers, or even family members. No student should have to wonder if there is any recourse for comments or actions made by the adults or peers that share a school with them.

Students should feel at ease in school, and pretending these problems don’t exist because we aren’t prepared to address them is an injustice felt deepest by those without a voice when it comes to policy. Our state should develop strong standards of respect by drawing from resident’s past harmful experiences, and create an oversight apparatus independent of the individual schools or unions as a resource to respond, record, track, and take action when students report harassment.

As someone who is not hands on with these systems, I would seek guidance from citizens, relevant organizations, and those with law enforcement experience to develop solutions to these issues.

Looking for more specific policy? I don’t mean to be vague in a way that leaves you feeling my positions are obscured from you - anything not specifically outlined are points that I have more abstract feelings on than hands-on experience. I would love to hear from you as I build out a community rolodex. I am not looking to make decisions singlehandedly based on my own ideas, but rather will rely on those with experience and knowledge to add to my understanding of these values as it relates to lawmaking.

Do not hesitate to reach out via my contact page to lend me your perspective and help me with the nitty gritty. I personally am of the belief that conversation and the sharing of perspectives is what good representation relies on.