Pamela Hart is running for Maine Senate District 90 (Auburn, Minot). A resident of Auburn, Pamela shares this information about herself to encourage you to cast your ballot for her.
Tell us a bit about your personal history – jobs held, accomplishments, or other information about you that you’d like voters to know:
I’ve been a Registered Respiratory Therapist for over 30 years, working in outpatient pulmonary and cardiac rehab and mostly at the bedside helping my patients at some of the hardest times in their lives, all while advocating for their needs. I proudly represented Ward 2 on the Auburn School Committee for six years, from 2019-2025.
What led you to run for this office?
Throughout my life, I have always felt a pull to help. I tell my children that each of us has a responsibility to look in the mirror and ask ourselves, “What can I do to make my community and the world better?”. This can be a small but consistent act such as holding the door for someone, volunteering, essentially being kind, etc. The consistency of kind acts causes ripples that someday become a tsunami of kindness and makes our world better. With my years in healthcare strongly advocating for my patients and my six years on the Auburn School Committee listening and advocating for students, staff, families and my community, I felt that running for State House could be my way of making the world better by advocating for good change for my neighbors.
What are the most important issues that residents of Androscoggin County face? What do you propose to address those issues?
Affordability is at the forefront of many Androscoggin County family’s lives. Affordable housing, affordable, high-quality child care, affordable and accessible healthcare, affordable education, reasonable taxes, etc. are concerns I also share as a working Mainer. In speaking to my neighbors in Auburn and Minot, I have also heard how many are tired of the political theater and crave kindness, empathy, and goodwill again. I plan to show up, listen and focus on practical solutions by introducing and supporting legislation that addresses solutions to these important issues.
What policies and legislation do you plan to advocate for?
I plan to advocate for the building of affordable housing, utilizing Union workers, and stopping equity firms from coming into Maine and competing with hard working Mainer’s dreams of home ownership. I plan to advocate for fixing the systems that were created to give people a hand up, but have morphed into systems that keep them down. I will advocate for proper funding of education, to ensure that our schools have what they need to provide high quality education for all Maine students. I plan to advocate for making life for working Mainers more affordable so that we can thrive, rather than merely survive.
What do you think the biggest challenges of this office will be? How do you plan to overcome them?
I plan to come to this office with an open mind and open ears. I believe that one must approach such an important role by showing up and listening in order to find what is broken and how to collaboratively fix it. I learned early on when on the Auburn School Committee to leave my ego at the door and represent all my constituents. I vowed to listen to everyone and that is what I did. I believe that everyone deserves a seat at the table and only then can we truly represent the needs of everyone. Everyone’s voice is important and as such should be elevated.
If elected, what elected official would you most like to emulate?
I look up to two strong political role models from history. First is Frances Perkins for her unflinching work with ensuring workplace safety and equitability for all workers. She served as the United States Secretary of Labor from 1933-1945 during Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidency. Her work with FDR helped shape the New Deal coalition, and she was instrumental in developing policy for social security and for ensuring representation for working Americans through labor unions. I also look up to fellow Mainer Margaret Chase Smith, for her courage to stand up to her colleagues in the US Senate against political repression during McCarthyism. She was a Senator who prioritized integrity over what she coined the Four Horsemen of Calumny: fear, ignorance, bigotry, and smear. Her speech, Declaration of Conscience, remains relative today with the state of politics as they are and the erosion of collaboration and bipartisanship for political theater.
What else should voters know about you before they cast their November 2026 ballots?
I believe that politics should help people. As an elected official, our duty is to show up, listen to all our neighbors and work to find practical solutions to the issues we are facing.