Maine Democrats choose new party leaders
The party announced Monday that Charlie Dingman of Leeds was elected as chair and Imke Schlesser-Jandreau of Bangor was elected as vice chair. Both candidates hail from the more rural, conservative 2nd Congressional District, whose voters will be key to winning statewide offices in two years.
Dingman, a lawyer who has served on the board for Maine Equal Justice, which advocates for low income residents and families, and served on committees for the party and the Justice Action Group, which supports legal aid providers and social justice groups, is planning to focus on unifying the party and reaching voters across the state ahead of the 2026 cycle.
"This is a challenging moment for all of us in the party of Maine's working people, as our new national regime serves the interests of the very few who are wealthy enough not to do their own work, and pursues its agenda without a care for those most vulnerable to their cruelty," Dingman said in written statement.
"They want to confuse and distract working people by turning us against each other. I believe Maine Democrats spoke loudly and clearly today that we will counter that toxic agenda with all our strength, reaching out to those in our rural and urban communities alike to reconnect with the disillusioned and expand our mission of fairness and opportunity for everyone."
Schlesser-Jandreau is a communications professional, who said in a written statement that Democrats have "an incredible opportunity to rebrand the party, lean into our values, and bring people together."
Party officials did not immediately respond to questions about how many other candidates ran for party chair.
Maine Democrats cut against national trends last November, maintaining their majorities in both the state Senate and House of Representatives, albeit by smaller margins, for Democratic Gov. Janet Mills' final two years in office.
Democrats have held the governor's office and both chamber of the Legislature since 2019.
With Mills termed out of office, the 2026 gubernatorial race is expected to be a wide-open race.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins says she's planning on seeking reelection. No challengers have emerged, though Mills did not rule out running when asked by the Press Herald in December.
Dingman and Schlesser-Jandreau replace outgoing Chair Bev Uhlenhake and Vice Chair Julian Rogers, who did not seek another term.
Copy the Story Link
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
21 minutes ago
- The Hill
Trump rails against Democrats as Senate takes up his nominees
President Trump blasted Democrats again for delaying the process of getting his nominees confirmed by the upper chamber and praised Senate Republicans for staying in Washington and working on getting the president's picks approved. 'Very proud of our great Republican Senators for fighting, over the Weekend and far beyond, if necessary, in order to get my great Appointments approved, and on their way to helping us MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,' Trump wrote in a Saturday post on Truth Social. The president then hammered Senate Democrats, arguing they are doing 'everything possible to DELAY these wonderful and talented people from being' confirmed. 'If George Washington or Abraham Lincoln were up for approval, the Dems would delay, as long as possible, then vote them out. The Democrats want our Country to fail, because they have failed,' the president said, thanking Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and 'our Republican Warriors in the Senate. Fight and WIN. I am with you all the way!!!' Thune told reporters on Thursday that recess appointments, to help tackle the backlog of over 160 nominees, mostly for lower-level positions, are 'on the table.' 'I think everything is on the table,' Thune said, adding that changes to rules would 'make more sense.' 'Fixing the rules, not just for now, but for the long term, would be a better solution for it. But at this point right now, I wouldn't say we're taking any options off the table,' the South Dakota Republican said. GOP senators have expressed openness to forging an agreement with Democrats to help confirm a tranche of Trump's nominees, but they are open to pivoting to other options if the deal does not go through. 'If we can't then we will have to resort to other options and we've got a lot of support for doing that,' Thune said in a Saturday interview with Politico. Republicans would need virtually all of their conference to vote for changing the rules. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has backed the party's approach to the president's nominees, saying Saturday that 'historically bad nominees deserve historic levels of scrutiny.' 'We have never seen nominees as flawed, as compromised, as unqualified as Trump's,' Schumer said in a post on social media platform X. 'And they know that.' Thune and Schumer's offices have been in contact this week and the New York senator had sent a counterproposal on Friday, according to Politico.
Axios
21 minutes ago
- Axios
Senate GOP eyes recess appointments as stalemate drags on
Fed-up Senate Republicans are starting to whisper about recess appointments again as Democrats stonewall them on nominees, cutting into the start of August recess. Why it matters: Senate leaders and the White House are still negotiating on a deal to end the standoff. But skipping town and letting President Trump speed-run his nomination list is an increasingly attractive option, some GOP senators told Axios. "The Senate should immediately adjourn and let President Trump use recess appointments to enact the agenda 77M Americans voted for," Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) posted on Saturday. Recess appointments, as well as using the nuclear option to change chamber rules with a simple majority to expedite the confirmation process, are becoming real possibilities as talks drag into the evening. The Senate is in session on an August weekend voting on nominations, as Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and the White House struggle to find a compromise. How it works: Recess appointments would give Trump leeway to jam through numerous nominees without having to go through the usual Senate confirmation process. The Senate would have to agree to adjourn with a majority vote, and the House also would have to come back into town and agree to adjourn and cancel scheduled pro-forma days. Those nominees would only be able to serve through the end of 2026 — and without payment. Zoom in: Schumer wants the White House to release withheld federal funding in exchange for passing a small batch of uncontroversial nominees, per a source familiar. Democrats are also willing to commit to another batch later in the year — but only if it is formally written into an agreement that the deal is off if the White House so much as sends over another rescissions package. Republicans continue to point out that Democratic stonewalling is unprecedented. Typically, even the minority party ultimately allows some level of deference to the party in power and allows lower-level nominations to move more quickly.
NBC News
22 minutes ago
- NBC News
Delta Air Lines assures U.S. lawmakers it will not personalize fares using AI
WASHINGTON - Delta Air Lines said on Friday it will not use artificial intelligence to set personalized ticket prices for passengers after facing sharp criticism from U.S. lawmakers and broad public concern. Last week, Democratic Senators Ruben Gallego, Mark Warner and Richard Blumenthal said they believed the Atlanta-based airline would use AI to set individual prices, which would 'likely mean fare price increases up to each individual consumer's personal 'pain point.'' Delta said it has not used AI to set personalized prices but previously said it plans to deploy AI-based revenue management technology across 20% of its domestic network by the end of 2025 in partnership with Fetcherr, an AI pricing company. 'There is no fare product Delta has ever used, is testing or plans to use that targets customers with individualized prices based on personal data,' Delta told the senators in a letter on Friday, seen by Reuters. 'Our ticket pricing never takes into account personal data.' Senators praised Delta's commitment not to use AI for personal pricing but expressed many questions and want more details about what data Delta is collecting to set prices. 'Delta is telling their investors one thing, and then turning around and telling the public another,' Gallego said. 'If Delta is in fact using aggregated instead of individualized data, that is welcome news.' Delta declined comment on Gallego's statement. The senators cited a comment in December by Delta President Glen Hauenstein that the carrier's AI price-setting technology is capable of setting fares based on a prediction of 'the amount people are willing to pay for the premium products related to the base fares.' Last week, American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said using AI to set ticket prices could hurt consumer trust. 'This is not about bait and switch. This is not about tricking,' Isom said on an earnings call, adding 'talk about using AI in that way, I don't think it's appropriate. And certainly from American, it's not something we will do.' Democratic lawmakers Greg Casar and Rashida Tlaib last week introduced legislation to bar companies from using AI to set prices or wages based on Americans' personal data and would specifically ban airlines raising individual prices after seeing a search for a family obituary. They cited a Federal Trade Commission staff report in January that found 'retailers frequently use people's personal information to set targeted, tailored prices for goods and services -- from a person's location and demographics, down to their mouse movements on a webpage.' The FTC cited a hypothetical example of a consumer profiled as a new parent who could intentionally be shown higher-priced baby thermometers and collect behavioral details to forecast a customer's state of mind. Delta said airlines have used dynamic pricing for more than three decades, in which pricing fluctuates based on a variety of factors like overall customer demand, fuel prices and competition, but not a specific consumer's personal information. 'Given the tens of millions of fares and hundreds of thousands of routes for sale at any given time, the use of new technology like AI promises to streamline the process by which we analyze existing data and the speed and scale at which we can respond to changing market dynamics,' Delta's letter said.
