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.
Early life and education Shenna Bellows was born on March 23, 1975, in Greenfield, Massachusetts, to Dexter Bellows, a carpenter, and Janice Colson, who became a nurse after going to college at 49 years of age. She was raised in a log cabin in the small, rural town of Hancock, Maine. She graduated from Hancock Grammar School in 1989."MAINE STREAM: Democratic candidate for Senate a grassroots phenomenon ," Central Maine, January 15, 2014."Bellows-Baldwin wed," The Ellsworth American, October 11, 2013."Your Private Data Is Building Trump’s Voter Purge Machine," Mother Jones, December 5, 2025. Her family experienced economic hardship during her childhood, living without running water or electricity until she was in fifth grade."National Security Drives Maine Race Against Collins," U.S. News & World Report, February 27, 2014.
At age 15, Bellows won a scholarship that allowed her to spend six months studying international politics in an AFS–USA foreign exchange program in Campos, Brazil. She graduated from Ellsworth High School in 1993, and was later inducted into the Ellsworth High School Hall of Fame."Ellsworth High School Hall of Fame inductees," WDEA, October 7, 2016.
Bellows earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Politics and Economics magna cum laude from Middlebury College in 1997, receiving highest honors for her thesis on economic and environmental sustainability."Shenna Bellows," Iowa State University."Current BOV Membership," UMA."Bellows-Baldwin wed," The Ellsworth American, October 11, 2013. During high school and college, she worked as a research assistant at the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory located in Salisbury Cove, Maine, on Mount Desert Island, contributing to published research on marine fish physiology.
Early career Economic consulting firm (1997–1999) 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.
Peace Corps and AmeriCorps VISTA (1999–2002) 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.
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.
ACLU (2003–13) 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.
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. She was a leader of the political coalition Mainers United for Marriage, working for seven years to pass same-sex marriage in Maine. She was a leader on voting rights, and co-chaired the 2011 Protect Maine Votes campaign to restore same-day voter registration in Maine. 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.
During those years, Bellows was also a leader in the Maine Choice Coalition and the Coalition for Maine Women. 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, the Mabel Wadsworth Women’s Health Center, the American Association of University Women, the Frances Perkins Center, and the Maine Democratic Party.
Consulting (2015–17) From 2015 to 2017, Bellows founded and owned Bellows & Company, a private consulting firm that specialized in assisting non-profit organizations."Shenna Bellows," ADS. 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.
Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine (2018–20) 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. She focused on community outreach and education aimed at preserving historical memory and advancing contemporary civil rights. 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. 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.
Political career 2014 U.S. Senate campaign Bellows launched her candidacy for the United States Senate in 2014 on October 23, 2013. 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."Who will replace Graham Platner on the ballot? 7 Democrats to watch," PBS, July 0, 2026.
Maine Senate (2016–20) 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. She was elected on November 8, 2016, with 44% of the vote in a three-way race, 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. She was reelected again in 2020, winning 56% of the vote over Republican Mark Walker. Bellows resigned from the Senate on December 2, 2020.
Secretary of State of Maine (2021–present) 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. Bellows was appointed in this manner, by the Democratic-controlled state legislature She is the first woman to hold the position.
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."Maine's highest court affirms decision to keep trans athlete referendum off the ballot," WMTW, July 10, 2026. Across the United States, 27 states had passed laws adopting parallel restrictions."Attorney for Maine transgender ballot initiative asks court to keep Secretary of State Shenna Bellows ‘within her lane’," Spectrum Local News, July 1, 2026. She said that the petition organizers had failed to gather the legally required number of valid voter signatures to qualify for the ballot. A total of 67,682 signatures was required to put the question on the ballot. 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.STATE OF MAINE SECRETARY OF STATE. "In re: Remand of Gilbert v. Bellows, No. PORSC-AP-2026-10 (Cumb. Cty. Super. Ct.); RECOMMENDED DECISION", May 23, 2026."Lawyers lay out challenges to transgender sports referendum during public hearing, " Yahoo, May 12, 2026."Maine’s highest court hears arguments to determine future of anti-transgender ballot initiative," Maine Morning Star, July 1, 2026 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."Federal lawsuit adds new front in fight over Maine transgender sports referendum ," Bangor Daily News, July 2, 2026. On July 10, 2026, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court unanimously affirmed her decision.
Disqualification of Donald Trump from Maine primary ballot
In December 2023, three Maine voters filed challenges to former president Donald Trump's petition to appear on the 2024 Republican presidential primary ballot in Maine. On December 15, Bellows held a public evidentiary hearing to consider the validity of those challenges. On December 28, she ruled that Trump was barred from the ballot due to his conduct during the January 6 United States Capitol attack, pending appeal.
The day after she ruled Trump ineligible, Bellows was doxxed, with her home address published online, and was swatted on December 29, 2023. The incident was one of a number in late 2023 in which a politician was targeted by a person reporting a fake crime to the police.
On January 2, 2024, Trump appealed Bellows' December 28 decision to the Maine Superior Court. The court ordered Bellows to reconsider her disqualification decision pending a ruling from the United States Supreme Court on Trump's ballot access. Bellows unsuccessfully appealed the Superior Court ruling to the Maine Supreme Court, which unanimously dismissed her request."Maine’s top court maintains decision to await U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Trump’s eligibility," Maine Morning Star, January 25, 2024.
Bellows' disqualification of Trump, along with the disqualification of Trump by two other states, was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in a unanimous ruling in Trump v. Anderson on March 4, 2024. Bellows rescinded her disqualification of Trump from ballot access later that day.
2026 gubernatorial campaign