Bellows announces the "Walk with ME for Jobs and the Economy" at Lamey-Wellehan Shoes in Augusta, 6/6/14.
How does a grassroots Senate candidate challenging an incumbent with two decades in the Beltway reach out to voters to make the case for change? If you're Shenna Bellows, you do it on their
home turf.
Shenna Bellows is ready for some shoe leather politicking.
The Democrat who wants to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins is holding a news conference Friday to talk about her plans to walk across Maine. She plans to visit 63 locales as she walks 350 miles.
Bellows says she intends to be a voice for the working class and her trek is being dubbed "Walk with Maine for Jobs and the Economy.''
Maine is a big state, no matter how you measure it. The Bellows campaign has chosen a mostly interior route for most of the walk, taking her
from the northeastern border to the familiar southwestern entry point for visitors to Maine.
Shenna Bellows announced her "Walk With Maine for Jobs and the Economy" at a June 6 Augusta press conference, backed by supporters and local business leaders. On July 20, she'll start walking 350 miles -- from Houlton to Kittery -- to bring politics and campaigning back to the local level where it belongs.
This will be a challenging endeavor. Walking up to 20 miles a day, Bellows will start her journey traveling through the very rural areas of northern Maine. Houlton, ME is 100 miles from the nearest Starbucks. And it's 785 miles and a world away from K Street, where her opponent, Republican Susan Collins, has come to feel
quite at home.
If you're a Maine resident, a "Mainer in Exile", or just love grassroots politics done well, follow us below the fold for more pix and info on Shenna's walk!
Bellows addresses the Maine Democratic Convention, 5/31/14.
Early in the campaign, Bellows outlined a plan to visit every town in Maine. She reiterated that goal in her
speech at the Maine Democratic Convention last weekend, flanked by signs for hundreds of those towns:
Our campaign will reach all 504 Maine towns. Already, we are traveling all across the state – from Lubec to Eliot, from Dover-Foxcroft to Waldoboro. We are going to the towns that have been left out and left behind. In some ways, Maine is like one large, small town where grassroots organizing matters. We believe in the power of grassroots democracy. We believe that the system may be threatened – by dark money and corporate greed – but it is not broken. Because we believe that corporations are not people.
Supporters lined up for the floor show before Bellows' convention speech.
From the campaign's
press release about the walk:
Shenna's campaign is not only fueled by the power of grassroots democracy, but also motivated by idea that citizens should have an equal voice in their society. As Shenna travels across the state, she's heard that people are really struggling, and their voices are not being heard in Washington. Shenna is running for U.S. Senate to represent every Mainer, including those who have been left out and left behind by big-money politics. She agrees with them that Congress pays too much attention to a small group of wealthy, powerful people and leaves too many out. Shenna is walking across Maine to change that.
The walk will begin on July 20 up in "The County," and end in Kittery on August 12. If you'd like to join in,
sign up here to learn more.
And of course, even if you can't come hike across Maine this summer, you can follow the adventure on Facebook and Twitter, and donate to help this progressive candidate change the face of the US Senate.
Shenna Bellows