District 19, which covers part of Sanford and Springvale incumbent Representative Matt Harrington is facing challenger Jeremy Mele.

Who is Jeremy Mele?

While Mele is the Democrat candidate, he is in fact a Socialist and previously held the position of Vice Chair of the Southern Maine Democratic Socialists of America. Currently, he is the head of the York County Regional Democratic Socialists of America.
Mele was raised in Quincy, Massachusetts and obtained two Undergraduate Degrees from Salem State University. He studies philosophy at Brandeis University in Waltham Massachusetts, and with that education believes he can take his philosophy studies and use them to influence policy in local government. He unsuccessfully ran for Sanford City Council in 2016.

A notable piece of Mele’s work during his time at Salem State was his thesis, in the form of a dramatic play in which the main character “Geoffrey—in a Twilight Zone-esque twist—is granted the ability to kill the bigoted politicians that plague his well-being and his TV screen with his mind.”

Continuing in the abstract, Mele writes, “All I can say is this; right or wrong, writing the death of a Donald Trump analogue was a fairly cathartic experience.”

Mele lists a number of issues which are important to him, issues such as the opioid epidemic, healthcare, and workers rights, yet his career as a student, and his lack of first hand experience with healthcare, as he admits to being on his father’s plan, seems to leave him unprepared to tackle these complex issues facing real Maine communities.

Please help get the word out to your friends who Jeremy Mele really is. We need to ensure that Matt Harrington is re-elected this November.