Shenna Bellows

Shenna Lee Bellows (born March 23, 1975) is an American politician and civil rights advocate who has served as the 50th Secretary of State of Maine since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the first woman to hold this position. Before entering politics, Bellows served as executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Maine from 2005 to 2013, and later as executive director of the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine from 2018 to 2020. She was the Maine Democratic Party nominee in the 2014 United States Senate election in Maine, which Bellows lost to incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins by 36 percentage points. She served in the Maine Senate from 2016 to 2020, representing the 14th district. As Secretary of State, Bellows ruled that Donald Trump was ineligible for Maine's Republican primary ballot due to his role in the January 6 United States Capitol attack; her ruling was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in a unanimous decision. Bellows ran for Governor of Maine in the 2026 Maine gubernatorial election Democratic primary, but was defeated, coming in fourth. Following the withdrawal of Democratic nominee Graham Platner from the race for the 2026 United States Senate election in Maine, she entered the race on July 9, 2026, seeking to win the Democratic nomination and again face Susan Collins, but Bellows withdrew from the race on July 19 after Troy Jackson won nearly 300 delegates the prior day.