Sara Gideon (Democratic Party) served as a representative for Maine’s District 48 in the state legislature. On December 5th, 2012, she was sworn in as president. On the 2nd of December 2020, she stepped down from her position.
Gideon (Democratic Party) was a candidate for the office of United States Senator from the state of Maine in the United States. On the 3rd of November, 2020, she was defeated in the general election.
From 2016 until 2020, Gideon was the House speaker. Her name was put up by House Democrats as a candidate for speakership. In a three-way battle with Gideon, Rep. Gay Grant, and Rep. Craig Hickman, she received the most nomination votes.
From 2014 till 2016, she worked as the House’s assistant majority leader. Gideon was a member of the Freeport Town Council and served as its vice-chairman. Keep reading to learn all about Sara Gideon.
Early Years
Sara Gideon is a Rhode Island native. Her father is of Indian descent, while her mother is of Armenian descent. After attending East Greenwich High School in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, she went on to graduate from Rhode Island University in 1990. She graduated from the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., with a Bachelor of Arts in international affairs in 1994. She worked for Senator Claiborne Pell’s office as an intern.
Personal Details
Gideon took birth and was raised in Rhode Island as the third child in a family of four. The pair relocated to Maine after getting married and when Ben got a job as an attorney. They have three children: Julian, Alek, and Josie, and they reside in Freeport with their families.
Career
As of 2004, Gideon had relocated to Freeport, Maine, where he served as the town council’s Vice-Chairman. In 2003, she also worked at USA Today as an advertising account executive.
Maine’s Legislative Assembly
Following his 2012 election, Gideon was re-elected to the Maine House of Representatives in 2014 and appointed as the House’s Assistant Majority Leader. She was nominated as the Speaker of the House in 2016 and has held the position ever since. As a lawmaker, she pushed for legislation that would make abortion more accessible to low-income women and families. The anti-overdose medication naloxone (Narcan) should be accessible over-the-counter to avoid fatalities from the opioid crisis, and Gideon endorsed it as a speaker in favor of Medicaid expansion in Maine, as well as the 2017 vote on the subject.
Gideon fought to reduce energy prices and improve energy efficiency as a member of the Joint Standing Committee on Energy, Utilities, and Technology of the Pennsylvania Legislature. Throughout her career, she has pushed to advance the use of renewable and clean energy sources and to create a clean-energy economy.
Maine approved several important climate change measures during Gideon’s speakership after Democrat Governor Janet Mills was elected in 2018. These included a provision mandating Maine to attain 80 percent renewable power by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050. Gideon also sponsored bills to allow physician assistants and licensed practical registered nurses to perform abortions as well as legislation to prevent Quebec’s Hydro-Québec from spending cash to sway a referendum on a contentious power line project in Maine while serving as speaker in 2019 and 2020.
By receiving reimbursements from her own PAC for political contributions, Gideon had violated a political donation rule. She was accused of election ethics violations in 2019. According to a statement from a representative, “To be clear, all donations were in compliance with the law, and all contributors’ identities had been revealed in full. The dilemma was recognized and fixed very quickly.” Campaign officials claimed to have repaid the federal govt $3,250 for the PAC’s infractions and to have shut it down as a result.
2020 Senate Campaign In The United States
Gideon declared her campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2020 on June 24. She plans to take on Republican incumbent Susan Collins. She raised almost $1 million in the first week of her campaign. In the ranked-choice Democratic primary election, Gideon faced Betsy Sweet and Bre Kidman. Gideon lost to both of them, though. During the Democratic primary, Gideon had backing from the party’s establishment, while Sweet and Kidman had support from the party’s radical insurgency.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, labor unions, and women’s organizations all supported Gideon before the primary on July 14th. Gideon had a significant lead in the polls leading up to the primary election, and he went on to win with a solid 70 percent of the vote. When the primary election rolled around, she had raised $23 million dollars.
After her success in the Democratic primary in June, Gideon has earned support from NARAL, EMILY’s List, Progressive Democrats of America, Brand New Congress, Our Revolution, and the Bangor Daily News.
Positions In The United States Office
Healthcare
Gideon claims that her top campaign priorities are access to cheap medications and quality health care. She is a proponent of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”). According to her, Americans should have the choice of buying into Medicare while still being able to access the commercial health insurance market. Medicare should be allowed to negotiate lower costs for prescription medicines, and “pay to delay” deals between pharmaceutical companies should be prohibited, according to her.
Gideon authored legislation in the state legislature to make abortions more accessible to low-income women and their families. She promises to oppose any assault on or defunding of Planned Parenthood and to seek to bring back the Title X gag rule, which affects Maine Family Planning including Planned Parenthood facilities that offer comprehensive health services. Planned Parenthood Action Fund and NARAL have both supported Gideon.
Climate Changes
Speaker Gideon is a staunch supporter of environmental preservation and the battle against global warming. She believes strongly in the need for clean water and clean air, and she recognizes the critical role that renewable energy sources play in achieving these objectives.
Past member of Joint Standing Committee on Energy, Utilities as well as Technology of the Maine Legislature, she has worked to reduce energy costs, inspire increased energy productivity and enhance clean and renewable energy to take advantage of Maine’s natural resources and to build a clean energy economy in the state of Maine.
Sara was the driving force for the restoration of $38 million in financing for energy efficiency. Understanding that the cheapest energy is the energy we never use, Sara is dedicated to ensuring that both individuals and companies of all sizes may benefit from these initiatives.
Sara was a driving force for modernizing Maine’s solar energy legislation in 2016. They gathered a wide range of stakeholders and came up with a cutting-edge solar strategy that would provide the people of Maine with the advantages of renewable, plentiful, clean fuel provided by the sun. Sara is committed to this policy’s long-term objective of expanding solar beyond the home sector to larger-scale and lower-cost alternatives. In light of the fact that we’re all using more and more energy, she believes that states that harness the plentiful, clean, and renewable energy in our environment will be the ones to benefit from energy independence.
Reduced pollution from carbon emissions, cheap energy, and a clean energy-based economy are the futures for which we must all strive.
Education and Training for the Workforce
According to Sara Gideon, our children’s future success and the long-term prosperity of our state depend on them receiving a high-quality education.
No matter where they reside in Maine, every kid in the state deserves the same chance to attend high-quality schools. As a former participant in the RSU 5 schools, where her three children are currently in grades 3, 7, and 8, she has a strong dedication to education.
When it comes to surviving and thriving in the twenty-first century, Sara understands that children need excellent prenatal care, a contemporary K-12 curriculum that is fully financed, and access to affordable post secondary choices that will educate them for the careers of the future.
Long-term benefits will come from this investment in education, but Sara is aware that we must do more now. Recruiting new companies begins with attracting an educated and well-trained labor force. In a world where the greatest job and business possibilities increasingly need education beyond high school graduation, Maine businesses need employees with the necessary skills to help them compete in new and growing industries, and Maine workers need to have the tools to thrive in this environment.
She thinks that providing access to quality training programs for both current employees and job seekers is critical to ensure that they have the skills and credentials needed in today’s high-demand professions in the future. Training providers must insist on accountability, openness, and outcomes while scaling up and responding to the requirements of the local workforce and businesses. This includes community institutions, which offer high-quality training.
The Connection To Judaism
Gideon is also well-liked among Maine’s 10,000-15,000-strong Jewish population, many of whom have a soft spot for her owing to her marriage to Jewish rights campaigner Benjamin Gideon. But there’s a chance it’s something deeper. According to experts, Gideon’s moderate stance on Israel’s foreign policy and geopolitics may make her a popular figure among Israeli Jews as a whole.
This may help numerous Jewish groups and political action committees that are more likely to support Democrats under Donald Trump’s polarized government by helping the Democrats get closer to taking back the Senate. Mitt Romney is the perfect candidate for the Jewish vote because of his liberal views on topics like abortion and immigration.
The Desi Factor
She is the second Indian-American woman in this election cycle to win a Senate primary contest after entrepreneur Rick Mehta. In their respective states, Ms. Gideon and Mr. Mehta are also the first Indian-Americans to win the presidential primary. She would be the second Indian-American person elected to the US Senate if she wins in November. As the first Indian-origin US Senator, Kamala Harris represents California.
Many Indian-Americans expressed their joy at Gideon’s chances on social media in the wake of the good news. Gideon begins her profile on Twitter by calling herself a ‘Mom,’ before going on to characterize herself as a politician. She is certified with a degree in international associations and now lives in the United States with her husband and two kids. Images of her boys – Julian and Alek – making phone calls to neighbors to ask for support for their mother are often shared on her social media pages. Women’s healthcare and reproductive choice are at the heart of Gideon’s campaign.
FAQs About Sara Gideon
Benjamin Rogoff Gideon, a lawyer, became her husband, and the two of them went to Maine to start a new life. They have three children: Julian, Alek, and Josie, and they reside in Freeport with their families.
Now, the youngest House speaker in recent history hails from the nation’s oldest state.
According to the Maine House Clerk as well as the National Conference of State Legislatures, Ryan Fecteau, who is 28 years old, is the first openly homosexual state legislator in Maine.
The lower chamber of the Maine Legislature is known as the Maine House of Representatives. There are 151 members of Congress who have the power to vote, and there are also three nonvoting members.
Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed this comprehensive bio on Sara Gideon and were inspired by her will to be a good politician and an even better mom to her children. To learn more about other notable personalities, keep reading Seema.
