KRISTINA LIBBY
What you know. What you don't.
You might know me as an artist, a storyteller, the organizer behind the Floral Heart Project, the COVID memorial that turned public grief into public healing nationwide. Maybe you caught my one woman show. Maybe you knew me as the one who brought computers into ICUs so families could say goodbye to the people they loved.
What you might not know: twenty years at the cutting edge of cybersecurity, biotech, and technology. I’ve spoken at TED discussion about space and defense. I’ve written for national magazines and taught at New York Univeristy and the University of Florida. And I have a master's degree in international security, focused specifically on how communities heal after tragedy, discord, and violence.
Here's the part I'm proudest of. That same COVID memorial work, the grassroots art initiative built to help a nation grieve, helped introduce federal legislation for a National COVID Memorial Day. What that shows you is that an unpaid effort by one storyteller can actually get a law in front of Congress.
I am an Ampersand. Not one career or the other. Both, at once. Artist, storyteller, painter, and C-suite executive. And I think that it is my secret weapon, and it's exactly the skill set this moment is asking for.
I'm not running on a platform.
I know what you expect right now, a platform, a list of answers for everything we should do. I'm not giving you one, and here's why: I think running on a platform instead of running as a person is exactly what got this country into this mess.
A senator shouldn't arrive with all the answers. A senator should be the kind of person who can find the right ones, today, tomorrow, and years from now, and work with others to make them a reality.
We got here by choosing policy over person. Right now we need community healers, or soon all that will be left to choose from are generals. The House is the arena for fighting. The Senate was built for people who solve complex problems together, the way Snowe, Mitchell, and Muskie once did for this state: independent thinkers, strong judgment, who are all but allergic to easy division.
What I'd actually do
Term Limits
No one should hold office longer than it takes a baby to become an adult. Our government needs fresh, diverse voices to meet the moment and create change.
Community Healing
Not a feel good message, a security issue and an economic one. Turn down the heat, or this doesn't get safer, it gets more dangerous.
Affordability
Housing, healthcare, childcare, groceries; all of it costs too much in Maine right now. But if we try to fix it without the healing work first, and none of it holds.
Why now, why me
I'm doing this for my dad. A dairy farmer turned mason turned construction supervisor, whose own father worked at Bath Iron Works. He wants civility and collaboration back in politics. He's angry at what everything costs. He doesn't feel like this country reflects the will of the people who live in it anymore. I don't think he's alone. I think he speaks for most Mainers, at home and away.
I hadn't lived in Maine in twenty years. I left because the work I wanted wasn't here yet. It took years to afford to come home. I recently bought a house in Bristol, and I'm fixing it up with my family, my dad included. I'm coming home, and I'm bringing back everything I learned out there.
I haven't held office, so no opposition researcher has been through my life. I'm nothing if not transparent. Ask me anything, within reason, between now and July 25. I'll answer directly. You deserve a nominee you actually feel comfortable standing behind.
Why this convention matters
Whatever Maine decides at this convention won't just shape this state. It will set a precedent for the country, in a decade when rapid technological change and a shifting climate will demand leaders built for solutions, not division. We need imagination, hard work, and the will to deliver on what communities are actually asking for: housing they can afford, healthcare they can access, and the right to live life the way life should be.
The offer
I'll build relationships for Maine in Washington and beyond, with the companies and industries that can lower housing costs, create high paying jobs, protect the environment, and expand access to healthcare. I'll represent Maine on the national stage the way I've represented clients and causes for twenty years. I'll work hard, fight when it's needed, collaborate when it's needed, and imagine when it's needed, because the crisis we're in isn't a failure to engage. It's a failure of imagination.
Will you help?
I was raised in the greatest state on earth, and I'd like to say thank you by giving something back, if you'll have me. A signature isn't a vote for me. It's a first step in saying you think I deserve to be considered. I need 500 signatures by Monday, July 20th at 11:59pm for that chance.
Will you sign?
With love and appreciation,
Kristina