Les Fossel served in the Maine House of Representatives from 2008 to 2012. He lives in Alna. 

I’ve been a moderate my entire life. You might say it’s in my blood. My brother’s godparents were Dorothy and Prescott Bush (parents of President George H.W. Bush and grandparents of President George W. Bush). My father ran Prescott’s U.S. Senate campaigns in the 1950s. 

I had the honor of serving as a delegate to the Maine Republican State Conventions for more than 40 years and representing my hometown of Alna in the Maine House of Representatives from 2008 to 2012. During my time in the Legislature, I also served as the co-chair of the Moderate Caucus.

That’s when I first met Shenna Bellows. 

You might not think a moderate Republican from rural Lincoln County and an unabashed progressive serving as the executive director of the Maine ACLU would find much common ground or be able to build a successful working relationship, but we did. 

When I served on the Health and Human Services Committee, Bellows brought individual privacy concerns and patient protections to the debates about electronic medical records. There were strong opinions on all sides, but she was willing and unafraid to engage in hard conversations and work for a solution everyone could support. 

I firmly believe Maine’s landmark implementation of electronic medical records has saved many lives. And that’s just one example of Bellows’ work ethic, her sense of duty to Maine people and her civic responsibility. 

After her time at the ACLU, she was elected to the State Senate, and reelected twice, by a district that voted for Donald Trump. As a state senator, she worked to pass equal pay for equal work, paid sick leave and funding for Meals on Wheels to feed our seniors. 

As secretary of state, she’s faced threats and harassment, but still done her job. She cut red tape and modernized the department, bringing voter registration and online appointment scheduling to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. 

She’s not afraid of hard work and she understands the importance of building bipartisan coalitions. Maybe that’s her Downeast roots showing. A carpenter’s daughter, she grew up without electricity or running water until the fifth grade. Her parents taught her that if you want something, you need to work for it. No shortcuts and no excuses. 

So when she called and asked me to support her campaign for governor, I said yes. 

We don’t agree on everything, and that’s OK, but I know at the end of the day Mainers can trust Shenna to stand up for us, to work hard and to work together to make Maine better for all of us.