Mahri Stáinnak at Fisherman’s Point in South Portland on Wednesday. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

Mahri Stáinnak fell in love with being a federal worker after more than a decade spent overseeing sewage systems and keeping public waterways clean with the Environmental Protection Agency.

Stáinnak, who lives in the Portland area, was honored in 2021 to join the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the federal workforce, and then was shocked earlier this year when they learned they were being placed on paid administrative leave following a pair of executive orders targeting programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Especially because Stáinnak’s current job had nothing to do with DEI.

“I just felt fear,” Stáinnak said in a phone interview Wednesday, recalling when they received the news in the middle of dinner. “My wife was there, my toddler was picking up on the stress and crying. I started panicking because I’m the sole breadwinner right now.”

Stáinnak, who uses they/them pronouns, had just taken the job in talent recruitment less than a month before and is now appealing their removal in a complaint filed Wednesday before the Merit Systems Protection Board.

Stáinnak argues that their firing was an attempt to unlawfully punish them for their perceived political affiliations and their previous work on DEI, “without regard to the worker’s skills or current job assignment.”

President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on Jan. 20: one for “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit Based Opportunities” and the other for “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferences.” Trump has accused these programs of being discriminatory against non-minority groups, such as white men, and unnecessary.

Stáinnak’s lawyers say this violates Stáinnak’s First Amendment rights, and that the firings had an impact on marginalized workers in particular.

“The First Amendment prohibits retaliating against people for their political beliefs or their perceived political beliefs,” said Scott Michelman from the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, D.C. “He went after folks like Mahri, not for what they were doing when they were put on leave and then fired, but for what they used to do.”

At least three other people plan to join Stáinnak’s appeal, including two fired employees from the Department of Labor and one from the Federal Aviation Administration. None of whom were working in DEI-related jobs when they were fired.

Their attorneys suspect the actual number of plaintiffs will be much higher if they are granted class-action status.

In addition to an appeal hearing, Stáinnak’s lawyers have also requested that the government turn over its lists of employees who were fired under Trump’s DEI orders, as well as “communications and guidance from OPM to agencies related to the identification of positions” that were targeted.

When asked about Stáinnak’s appeal, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice wrote in an email that they have “vigorously defended President Trump’s actions, including the order to end radical wasteful government DEI programs, and will continue to do so.”

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said that Trump has the authority to manage personnel across the executive branch.

It’s unclear how soon Stáinnak’s appeal will be considered. It will first be heard by the Merit Systems Protection Board, a quasi-judicial agency whose primary function is to protect federal workers “against partisan political and other prohibited personnel practices.”

“Unfortunately, the Merit Systems Protection Board is not the fastest moving agency, and they are likely to be flooded with claims, particularly right now, with all the disruptions to the federal work force brought about by Trump and Musk,” Michelman said.

If Stáinnak and the rest of the class are unsuccessful in their appeal, Michelman said they have a right to file their case in federal court.

In the meantime, Stáinnak said Wednesday was their last day of paid administrative leave. Over the last couple of months, they have worried about how they’ll afford their mortgage and support their family.

But Stáinnak also believes there’s a greater toll for thousands of nonpolitical career civil servants who have benefited from OPM’s work on expanding their health insurance benefits and working conditions.

“This is patently unfair, unjust,” Stáinnak said. “I want to get back to work on a job that I feel so passionate about, and excited for. I am a proud federal employee, and I know so many other proud federal employees. Let us get back to work.”

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Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows at the Maine State House in June 2024. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

AUGUSTA — Secretary of State Shenna Bellows announced Wednesday that she will seek the Democratic nomination to run for governor in 2026.

Bellows, who served two terms in the Maine Senate, is among the first to formally enter what is expected to become a crowded primary field for both parties.  Each party’s primary, scheduled for June 9, 2026, will likely be decided by ranked-choice voting.

Gov. Janet Mills is unable to run for reelection because of term limits.

Former Senate President Troy Jackson, a 56-year-old Allagash Democrat who worked as a professional logger and served 20 years in the Legislature, announced earlier this month that he is forming a committee to explore a possible run.

So far, only two candidates have filed paperwork with the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices: Democrat Kenneth Pinet of South Portland and Republican Robert Wessels of Norway.

Bellows made national news and became a foil for local Republicans last year when she ruled that Donald Trump’s name could not appear on the Maine’s presidential ballot because of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 riots at the U.S. Capitol Building. That decision, which drew a harsh response from Republicans, was later reversed, after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a similar case in Colorado.

Bellows, who has fought for same-sex marriage and same-day voter registration, ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 2014, losing the statewide race to incumbent Susan Collins, who earned 67% of the vote that year.

Bellows, 50, said her humble beginnings and professional career, including her prior leadership of the ACLU of Maine, service in the Maine Senate and her current role as secretary of state, position her to protect Maine families and push back against what she sees as the harmful policies coming out of Washington, D.C.

“We’re in this era of oligarchy, where the billionaires in Washington, D.C., are stripping the government for parts and people here in our state are truly struggling,” Bellows said in an interview Tuesday referring to Trump empowering billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Governmental Efficiency to slash federal funding, program and workers.

Bellows grew up in the small town of Hancock and now lives in Manchester, which are both in the more conservative 2nd District. She noted she lived in a tent at the age of 4, after her parents bought a plot of land in Hancock and her father, who was a carpenter, built a log cabin from trees they harvested onsite.

“Seniors, veterans, workers and our children are being targeted by Washington, D.C., and no one down there is going to save us – not Congress, not the courts, not Donald Trump or Elon Musk,” she said. “We the people here in Maine are going to have to step up, protect ourselves and take care of our own.

“To do that, we need a governor from Maine and for Maine, who truly understands what families are going through and has a it deep in their bones to protect people and make government work for them. And that’s who I am.”

Bellows, whose office oversees election in Maine, said she will continue to serve as secretary of state while campaigning.

The Maine Republican Party called on Bellows to step down as secretary of state while campaigning for governor, pointing to her efforts to exclude Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot in Maine, which the said “created a national debacle and violated the US Constitution.”

“The people of Maine, all candidates for office and anyone else concerned need to see an immediate plan to ensure the woman who blatantly attacked our ‘democracy’ in 2024 is not overseeing her own election in 2026,” Chairman Jim Deyerman said in a written statement.

It’s not unusual for a sitting secretary of state to run for office.

Most recently, Republican Charlie Summers maintained his post while running for the U.S. Senate in 2012, though he also faced calls to step down. And Democrat Bill Diamond ran for the 1st District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives while serving as secretary of state in 1994.

Candidates must collect between 5,000 and 6,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot. Nomination petitions will be available in January and are due March 16, 2026.

Other possible Democratic candidates include U.S. Rep. Jared Golden of Lewiston who was narrowly reelected to his District 2 seat last fall. Golden beat a challenger endorsed by House Speaker Michael Johnson and Donald Trump, who carried the district. But Golden has been raising money for a 2026 reelection campaign.

Hannah Pingree, the director the Governor’s office of Policy and Innovation under Mills, is also rumored to be mulling a run. Pingree is the daughter for U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree and previously served as the Speaker of the House.

Democrats may face electoral headwinds in the 2026 race.

Since the 1950s, Mainers have not elected a candidate from the same political party as a departing governor — a trend that began after Maine had five consecutive Republican governors from 1937 through 1955.

The decades of ping-ponging between parties in the Blaine House began when Democrat Ed Muskie was elected in 1954, ending Republicans’ nearly two-decade hold on the governorship.

Possible Republican candidates include former U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart, Rep. Laurel Libby and Jonathan Bush, a cousin of George W. Bush. State Sen. Rick Bennett and former Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason, now a lobbyist, have also been discussed.

One name being discussed as a possible independent candidate is Travis Mills, a retired U.S. Army staff sergeant, author and motivational speaker.

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