Chellie Pingree

Chellie Pingree's route to Congress included growing vegetables on an island farm and starting a yarn business with local knitters.¹ Born in Minneapolis, she moved to Maine as a teenager, graduated from College of the Atlantic and settled on North Haven to raise her family.¹ She is the mother of three grown children.¹

Her knitting business expanded into North Island Designs, selling kits and pattern books through stores and mail order before she sold it in 1993.¹ She later helped start Nebo Lodge, an inn and restaurant on North Haven, with partners in 2006.¹ The James Beard Foundation honored her food policy work with a 2017 Leadership Award.²

Pingree won election to the Maine Senate in 1992 and became its majority leader in 1996.¹ Before entering Congress in 2009, she led Common Cause, the national government accountability organization, from 2003 to 2007.¹ She now serves on Agriculture and Appropriations and is the senior Democrat on the appropriations panel overseeing Interior and environmental spending.³⁴

Her policy work emphasizes local food systems, organic farming and reducing food waste.¹ Her current priorities also include increased home heating assistance, ending the Iran war and asserting Congress's authority over military action.⁴ She faces Republican Ron Russell.⁴