Shenna Bellows

From 1997 to 1999 Bellows worked as a researcher and recruiter for Economists Incorporated, an economic consulting firm in Washington, D.C., specializing in antitrust, regulatory and legal matters.^[14]

Bellows served for the Peace Corps from 1999 to 2001as a small-business-development 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.^[15]

From 2001 to 2002, 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 designed to promote educational and economic empowerment for young people in Nashville’s largest public housing project.^[16]

From 2003 to 2005, Bellows was the national field organizer of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Washington, D.C., organizing nationwide civil liberties campaigns including opposition to the Patriot Act, where she built coalitions that included librarians and gun owners alike.^[17]

Bellows served as executive director of the ACLU of Maine for eight years, from 2005 to 2013. In that role, she built coalitions with both Republicans and Democrats to pass state privacy laws and civil rights laws.^[18] She was a leader of the political coalition Mainers United for Marriage, working for seven years to pass same-sex marriage in Maine.^{[19] [20]} She was a leader on voting rights, and co-chaired the 2011 Protect Maine Votes campaign to restore same-day voter registration in Maine.^{[21] [22] [23]} She also organized a successful privacy campaign to require warrants for access to private cell phone communications, and she led the opposition to warrantless drone surveillance.^[24]

During those years, Bellows was also a leader in the Maine Choice Coalition and the Coalition for Maine Women.^[25] 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,^[26] the Mabel Wadsworth Women’s Health Center,^[27] the American Association of University Women,^[28] the Frances Perkins Center,^[29] and the Maine Democratic Party.

From 2015 to 2017, Bellows founded and owned Bellows & Company, a private consulting firm that specialized in assisting non-profit organizations.^{[30] [31]} Through her firm, she provided strategic and advocacy consulting to regional entities, including the Sierra Club's Maine Chapter, Consumers for Affordable Healthcare, and the Maine Women's Lobby.^{[31] [30]}

Bellows served as executive director of the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine, located on the campus of the University of Maine at Augusta, from 2018 to 2020.^{[32] [33] [31] [32]} She focused on community outreach and education aimed at preserving historical memory and advancing contemporary civil rights.^[34] Her responsibilities included facilitating educational programs that detailed the histories of Holocaust survivors and global genocides, which she utilized to emphasize public unity and standing up against bigotry.^[35] She later reflected that her work alongside Holocaust survivors deeply informed her governance philosophy regarding the fragility of democratic institutions, the critical importance of recording public history, and the need for administrative transparency.^{[36] [37]}

Bellows launched her candidacy for the United States Senate in 2014 on October 23, 2013.^{[38] [39]} She was not opposed in the Democratic primary. In November, she was defeated by incumbent Republican Susan Collins in the general election in a landslide, 67% to 31%, losing in every county and in both congressional districts.^{[40] [41]}

In 2016 Bellows ran for the Maine Senate in district 14, including her hometown of Manchester and ten other towns in the Augusta area, as a publicly financed candidate.^[42] She was elected on November 8, 2016, with 44% of the vote in a three-way race,^[43] and took office on December 7, 2016.

She won reelection to the Maine Senate in 2018, defeating Republican Matt Stone with 58% of the vote.^[44] She was reelected again in 2020, winning 56% of the vote over Republican Mark Walker.^[45] Bellows resigned from the Senate on December 2, 2020.^[46]

In December 2020, Bellows was appointed Secretary of State of Maine by the Maine Legislature. Unlike the vast majority of U.S. states which choose the office by popular vote, Maine's Secretary of State is appointed under a unique system instead by the Maine Legislature.^[47] Bellows was appointed in this manner, by the Democratic-controlled state legislature ^[48] She is the first woman to hold the position.^{[1] [49]}

In July 2026, Bellows invalidated a citizen-initiated proposed Maine ballot question supported by the "Protect Girls' Sports in Maine" campaign, which sought to restrict transgender athletes from playing on public school sports teams and accessing public school locker rooms and bathrooms that did not align with their biological sex.^[50] Across the United States, 27 states had passed laws adopting parallel restrictions.^[51] She said that the petition organizers had failed to gather the legally required number of valid voter signatures to qualify for the ballot.^[52] A total of 67,682 signatures was required to put the question on the ballot.^[52] Bellows rejected 1,520 of the signatures that had been collected, because the submitters of the signatures had not checked a box on an affidavit agreeing to submit to Maine's jurisdiction; 1,472 of the signatures that she rejected had been collected by a submitter who did check the box, but did so on May 6, three months after submitting the petition for validation.^{[53] [54] [52] [55]} Bellows then held that the remaining number of signatures, which she deemed to be 66,162, was 532 signatures short of the required number of signatures.^[52] On July 10, 2026, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court unanimously affirmed her decision.^[56]

In March 2025, Bellows announced her candidacy in the 2026 Maine gubernatorial election.^[67] Bellows ultimately finished fourth in the primary among voters' first preferences, behind Hannah Pingree, Nirav Shah, and Troy Jackson, and was the second candidate eliminated in ranked-choice voting tabulation, with 22% of the vote as of that round. The primary was won by Hannah Pingree, whom she had cross-endorsed along with Troy Jackson.^[68]

Following the withdrawal of Democratic nominee Graham Platner from the 2026 United States Senate election in Maine, Bellows entered the race on July 9, 2026.^[3] She promised to work towards unifying Maine's Democratic Party, and pledged to challenge corporate influence and to advocate for working-class families.^[69] The Democratic nominee will face incumbent Maine Senator Susan Collins, who defeated Bellows for the same seat in 2014.^[70] Ten days later, on July 19, Bellows withdrew from the race, saying she wanted to focus on her job as Secretary of State.^[71]

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