Newly elected House Speaker Sara Gideon says replacing lost manufacturing jobs and reversing child poverty are her priorities for the new legislative session. Both issues follow an election in which Democrats again lost ground in rural areas of the state.
“We can’t let even one of those kids fall through the cracks. So we’re going to be absolutely on the attack about really making sure that we’re raising kids, and their families, out of poverty,” she says.
Gideon did not provide details about specific proposals, but says legislation would focus on making sure Maine workers had the necessary training to enter or remain in the workforce and that there were new industries to replace the jobs lost by closing paper mills.
“For so long we’ve been trying to hold on to what we had, or looking back and wondering how we bring those back. I think instead we need to be looking at, in a globalized world, in a technologically advancing world, where are our opportunities as Mainers to be ahead of the curve and to start welcoming those new opportunities instead,” she says.
Gideon’s focus follows an election in which of Republican President-elect Donald Trump split Maine’s electoral votes for the first time in modern history and won dozens of towns that President Barack Obama carried just four years ago. Trump’s populist rhetoric ripped trade deals and globalization while also promising to bring back manufacturing jobs. That message came at a time when Maine saw the closing of five paper mills in five years.
Meanwhile, the state is witnessing a spike in childhood poverty.
According to U.S. census data, 43,000 Maine children live in poverty, which is defined as a family earning roughly $20,000 a year. That includes 20,000 children living in deep poverty, defined as a family earning $10,000 a year or less.
The proportion of Maine children living in deep poverty has increased at a rate eight times greater than the rest of the country between 2011 and 2015, according to Maine Equal Justice Partners, an advocacy group for the poor.
