Newly sworn-in Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau addresses representatives in the House chamber in Augusta on Dec. 4, 2024. (Photo by Jim Neuger/Maine Morning Star)
If the average customer of Mattie Daughtry’s Brunswick brewery can’t feel the impact of the work done in Augusta, then the Maine Legislature has failed, the newly elected Senate president said Wednesday after being selected as the youngest woman to lead the upper chamber.
The 132nd Maine Legislature was sworn into office on Wednesday and officially elected its leaders, Daughtry and Speaker of the Maine House Ryan Fecteau of Biddeford, who returns to the rostrum after first serving as the youngest speaker in 2020.
“Let us use this session to prove what Maine has already known: that we are stronger when we work together; that solutions are found not in digging trenches, but in building bridges,” Fecteau said.
Both Democratic leaders vowed in addresses to their colleagues to work across the aisle to find solutions this session, reiterating earlier ambitions shared with Maine Morning Star to bridge partisan divides through streamlined procedure, efficiency and trust at the State House.
This intended bipartisan path forward was underscored by speeches from fellow lawmakers commending the leaders for their track records of bipartisan work.
In the upper chamber, nominations for Daughtry came not only from within her party but from two Republicans, including Minority Leader Trey Stewart (R-Aroostook), whose caucus reelected him to the post.
Stewart shared his support for the president as a fellow young person who has served alongside Daughtry since they were both first elected in their 20s.
“It is incumbent upon us to continue to ascribe to that collaboration,” Stewart said. “There are a lot of things I think that resonate with many people that are important for us to not forget as we embark on this two year journey together.”
Highlighting energy costs, taxes, and the budget deficit, Stewart pledged to be at the table with Daughtry at each step of the lawmaking process.
While Fecteau was elected to lead the House, some Republican lawmakers nominated a member of their own party for speaker, Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor), offering contrast to the Senate’s bipartisan alignment behind Daughtry.
Where Democratic leaders draw the line on compromise
Representatives should embrace moments of compromise, Fecteau said, however he clarified that civil rights, fundamental freedoms and basic dignity are not matters for partisan debate.
“Families struggling to make ends meet, seniors trying to age with dignity, kids striving for a better, more secure future — we owe it to all of them to lead with courage, compassion and integrity,” Fecteau said.
The 32-year-old described his grandparents’ experience moving from Quebec to Biddeford in search of a better life. When he was growing up, Fecteau knew what it was like when food wasn’t plentiful and the family car wasn’t reliable. Fecteau said he will fight for policies to support working families and provide them with financial security and opportunities.
Incoming legislative leaders hope to bridge partisan divide with focus on transparency, process
When Fecteau was selected as speaker in 2020, he became the first out gay person in the role. On Wednesday, as he took the oath of office again with his husband, parents and grandmother there to cheer him on, he remains the only out gay person to ascend to that leadership position.
Daughtry also made history as the youngest woman to lead the Senate. When Sen. Peggy Rotundo (D-Androscoggin) made the first motion to nominate Daughtry, she said she’d also had the honor of nominating Maine’s first female Senate president Beverly Daggett in 2002.
“It’s very exciting for me to have the pleasure of nominating yet another enormously talented woman who will join this parade of strong, effective female leaders,” Rotundo said.
Daughtry said she and her fellow lawmakers have much to learn from those who came before but, she added, “the past also shows what’s been missing,” noting the few women, people of color and Wabanaki portraits in the State House.
Maine has a citizen’s legislature, which means many legislators also work other jobs. When Daughtry was first elected to the House at 25 years old, she was working three jobs and still couldn’t afford healthcare, she said.
“I came to this building with strong desires to pursue the sense that if we as a body were more representative of the diverse experiences of Mainers we could better serve them,” Daughtry said.
On Wednesday, she said that desire remains and urged her fellow lawmakers to represent every corner of the state in their work over the next two years, and to speak to their constituents rather than at them.
“Often we hear about two Maines, which I feel couldn’t be farther from the truth,” Daughtry said, referring to the idea that the northern and southern parts of the state are so divided by politics that they seem like two different states. “I challenge us all gathered here today to think beyond those myths.”
Editor’s Note: AnnMarie Hilton contributed to this story.
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