Sara Gideon

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Sara Gideon (born December 4, 1971 in Rhode Island ) is an American Democratic Party politician . She has been a member of the Maine House of Representatives since 2012 and has been its speaker since 2016 . In the 2020 election to the United States Senate , she challenges Republican mandateer Susan Collins .

Family, education and work

Sara Gideon is the youngest of four children. Her father immigrated to the United States from India, her maternal grandmother was orphaned in the Armenian genocide at the age of four and immigrated to the United States in 1927, where her family lived as Armenian-Americans . Gideon moved to Washington, DC to study and received his bachelor's degree in international relations from George Washington University in 1994 . She studied temporarily at the American University in Paris and did an internship with Senator Claiborne Pell (Rhode Island). She then worked in USA Today's advertising division in New York City .

She moved to his home in Maine with her husband, lawyer Benjamin Gideon, in 2004. They live in Freeport with their three children .

Political career

Beginnings

Gideon says he first considered running for politics when her husband was asked to run for Freeport City Council in 2009. She was then elected to the city council and was its vice-chairman.

Maine House of Representatives

In the 2012 election, Gideon was elected to the Maine House of Representatives with 65.7 percent in constituency 48, which includes the towns of Freeport and Pownal in Cumberland County , and was re-elected every two years with over sixty percent of the vote in subsequent elections. From 2014 to 2016, she was deputy group leader of the Democrats who made up the majority (assistant majority leader), and since 2016 she has been speaker of this lower chamber of the state legislature .

Among other things, Gideon supported the expansion of Medicaid and the dispensing of naloxone preparations to contain the opioid crisis in the USA , whereby she repeatedly came into conflict with the Republican Governor Paul LePage , who was in office until 2019 . After the Democrat Janet T. Mills replaced LePage in the governorship in January 2019, Gideon worked more closely with the state government, including expanding the right to abortion. Gideon also introduced a bill that automates the registration of voters in Maine.

Candidate for the US Senate

In June 2019, Gideon announced that he would be running for the seat in the United States Senate in the June 2020 Democratic primary , previously held by Republican Susan Collins . The main election will take place in November 2020. Gideon had been playing with a candidacy since October 2018 when Collins drew heavy attention and criticism from the political left for her support for controversial Supreme Court candidate Brett Kavanaugh , and her generally high popularity ratings plummeted.

In the election campaign, Gideon was the champion of the interests of Maine's residents, while she portrayed Collins, who is considered independent and moderate, as a representative of particular interests, who personally thanked President Donald Trump for her support of the 2017 tax reform, which primarily relieved high earners. Gideon had statements of support from over sixty Maine politicians at the start of her election campaign. It is supported by the progressive organizations NARAL Pro-Choice America and EMILY's List as well as by the campaign arm of the Democrats in the US Senate, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee . Collins is one of two Republican Senators who have positioned themselves Pro-Choice and was supported by NARAL in 2002 . The Senate seat is considered one of the most important goals of the Democrats in their attempt to regain a majority in the US Senate from 2021. Within a week of the announcement, Gideon's election campaign grossed over $ 1 million, while Collins had $ 3.8 million in reserves.

Positions

Gideon generally represents left-wing liberal positions such as the right to abortion ( Pro-Choice ), the expansion of health care and the reduction in drug prices. She names the improvement of Maine's economic situation and the expansion of renewable energies as her priority.

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b Kate Prengel: Sara Gideon: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know. In: Heavy.com , October 6, 2018
  2. ^ A b c Armenian-American Sara Gideon Reelected to Maine House District 48. In: Horizon Weekly , November 7, 2018.
  3. ^ Sara Gideon's Biography. In: Vote Smart.
  4. ↑ a b Jane Carroll Andrade: The Final Word: Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon. In: National Conference of State Legislatures , June 7, 2018.
  5. ^ Sara Gideon. In: Maine House.
  6. ↑ a b Stephanie Saul: Sara Gideon to Challenge Susan Collins for Maine Senate Seat. In: The New York Times , June 24, 2019.
  7. ^ Scott Thistle, Gillian Graham: House Speaker Sara Gideon announces challenge to Sen. Collins. In: The Sun Journal , June 24, 2019.
  8. ↑ Gideon, Sara. In: Our Campaigns
  9. ^ Sara Gideon. In: Ballotpedia.
  10. ^ A b c d Sarah Jones: Susan Collins Has a New Democratic Challenger. In: The Cut , June 24, 2019.
  11. ↑ Ramsey Touchberry: Who Is Sara Gideon? Democrat Challenges Susan Collins, Cites Senator's Vote for Brett Kavanaugh. In: Newsweek , June 24, 2019.
  12. ↑ Hayley Miller: Democrat Sara Gideon Nabs 3 Key Endorsements In Maine's 2020 Senate Race. In: The Huffington Post , June 25, 2019.
  13. ↑ Sara Gideon touts early fundraising success in run for Senate seat. In: WABI.tv , July 3, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Gideon, Sara
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American Democratic Party politician
DATE OF BIRTH 4th December 1971
PLACE OF BIRTH Rhode Island