Cameron D. Reny (Molly Rains photo)
State Sen. Cameron Reny, D-Bristol, said she is running for another term in the Maine Senate to continue advocating for healthy communities, affordable housing, and accessible health care.
Reny, a former school counselor, is seeking reelection to represent Senate District 13, which includes all of Lincoln County except Dresden, as well as Washington and Windsor. She is challenged for the seat by Dale Harmon, R-Boothbay.
She was first elected to represent Senate District 13 in 2022, facing Abden Simmons for the seat. Simmons, R-Waldoboro, was later elected to represent House District 45 during a special election in June 2023.
Reny was raised in the Round Pond neighborhood of Bristol and described her family as working class. She graduated from Lincoln Academy in Newcastle.
Reny traveled to North Carolina to attend Gilford College, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in community and justice studies. A long-held desire for a career helping others led Reny to those disciplines, she said.
“I learned a lot about grassroots organization and how groups of people can work to get things done,” she said.
After college, Reny returned to Maine. Living in Portland, she earned a Master of Science degree in school counseling and a Master of Science degree in community and justice studies from the University of Southern Maine. During this time, Reny started working as a school counselor in Biddeford.
Reny returned to Round Pond about 10 years ago to start her family, as she said she wanted her children to grow up in the place she has loved since childhood.
“It’s a really great place to grow up, and honestly, community makes a big difference, especially when raising kids,” she said.
Reny continued her school counseling work at South Bristol School and then at Woolwich Central School, where she worked full time until her election to the Legislature. Reny left the position when she was elected in 2022.
Whether she is studying the behavior of successful lawmakers or facilitating communication between individuals with differing perspectives, Reny said skills from her time in public schools often come in handy in Augusta.
“You have to be able to communicate with everyone (in the Legislature), and you have to be able to find that common ground, so that’s something that translates,” Reny said. “I think my school counseling skills have proven to be very effective.”
Working in education also familiarized Reny with many common needs of families and the breadth of services that exist in the state to meet them, she said. Just as she worked to connect families with resources as a school counselor, she is now able to do the same for constituents.
“I find myself still learning new things about local organizations all the time and trying to make sure that information gets out to everyone,” she said.
Reny said she was proud of the progress she made in her first term, noting that five bills she sponsored were passed and signed into law. These bills run the gamut on topics from health care and housing to protections for elver fishermen.
As an educator and parent, Reny said she has a desire to support Maine families, whether by addressing the lack of child care in the state or continuing her support for the newly implemented, statewide paid family and medical leave program and universal free school meals.
Statewide paid family and medical leave, which will become available in 2026, creates a state program for 12 paid weeks of leave for both public and private-sector workers. Universal free school meals, which became mandatory under state law during the 2022-2023 school year, provide breakfast and lunch to all students at no cost through state funding.
One bill Reny sponsored broadened the scope of the local foods fund for public schools, allowing school districts to serve more locally produced foods. L.D. 921, “An Act to Allow the Local Foods Fund for Public Schools to be Used for Processed and Value-Added Maine Food Products,” passed through the Senate on May 4, 2023 and the House on May 9, 2023. It was signed by the governor on May 22, 2023.
Her school counseling experience informed some of the legislation Reny put forward, including L.D. 722, “An Act to Expedite the Health Insurance Referral Process for Specialists by Allowing Referrals During Urgent Care Visits,” which requires health insurance providers to cover counseling even when the referral is not made by a primary care provider. L.D. 722, which passed in the House and Senate in May 2023 and was signed by the governor on June 1, 2023, is important to ensure that people can follow through after urgent care or an emergency room doctor refers them to counseling, Reny said.
Previously, many providers required the referral to come from a primary care provider, creating “a consistent roadblock for many of my families while I was school counseling,” Reny said.
Fighting for affordable prescription drugs and improved climate resilience are other goals for her next term if reelected, Reny said. She also wants to bring her perspective to the Legislature as a mother of two young children, a public educator, and a Bristol native.
“I think it’s important to have people who really understand what’s like,” she said.
After her first term in Augusta, Reny said she was proud of her record and hoping to build on the progress she has made so far.
“I made connections and I was able to work effectively across the aisle. I showed up, I put in a lot of effort, and I’ve learned,” she said.
Reny identified her work as chair of the Marine Resources Committee as one example of her experience working successfully with a bipartisan group containing legislators from both parties in the House and Senate.
“We found that common ground, and we did good things for our communities and our fisheries,” she said.
Addressing the housing shortage in Maine would be one priority for Reny, she said, who said housing was among her constituents’ major concerns.
“The housing crunch is really hurting our communities, our economy, and our neighbors,” she said.
One step Reny said she was proud of taking to address housing in rural Maine was her sponsorship of L.D. 724, “An Act to Increase Opportunities for the Development or Preservation of Low-Income Housing,” which was signed by the governor on June 16, 2023. The bill expanded the amount of Maine State Housing Authority loans available for housing development in rural Maine and gave local housing authorities first right of refusal for the purchase of affordable rental housing units put up for sale.
Reny said L.D. 2003, which was intended to increase housing stock and passed in April 2022, has been difficult for some rural communities to implement. The answer, she said, must be multifaceted.
“Overall, for the housing crisis, there’s no silver bullet,” Reny said. “It’s something that we need to keep working on… I want the kids who grew up here, all of them, to be able to continue living here, happily, for generations, should they choose.”
While tackling things like health care and housing has been gratifying, Reny said, she is also proud of her work on less-publicized issues.
She pointed to her work with Rep. Edward “Ed” Polewarczyk and Rep. Allison Hepler, D-Woolwich, on “An Act to Clarify the Property Tax Exemption for Air Pollution Control Facilities,” which was signed into law on April 2. Inspired by litigation over property taxes between the town of Wiscasset and Maine Yankee Atomic Power Co., the act prohibits nuclear waste facilities from being classified as air pollution control facilities, which are tax exempt.
“Sometimes it’s the little things that aren’t real flashy,” she said.
Reny said that ensuring that Maine’s infrastructure is ready for weather conditions that will continue to change was one necessary step to preventing more damage from increasingly extreme storms, including the back-to-back storms in January that caused severe damage on coastal Maine towns like Reny’s hometown of Bristol.
“The way the weather works is changing. The amount of rain we get at one time is changing … We need to make sure we have resilient, adaptable infrastructure and communities, and that we’re doing what we can to mitigate climate change,” she said.
Reny identified community resilience grants for climate mitigation measures as one step towards helping more towns prepare for extreme weather.
“An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure,” she said.
As a senator representing a coastal district, Reny was also involved in discussions about the sustainability and futures of local fisheries, such as ongoing discussions in the Midcoast over the growing prevalence of oyster farming.
“We can preserve our natural beauty and also allow a growing industry that is bringing jobs and keeping young people in the area to flourish,” Reny said.
She said she is interested in increasing public input around aquaculture and hearing multiple points of view on the topic. The Marine Resources Committee requested a literature review from the Department of Marine Resources regarding oysters existing with other species in Maine bays and rivers to further inform the conversation, according to Reny.
She also participated on the Maine Climate Council on the coastal marine fisheries working group and said that was another highlight of her term.
No matter the topic, Reny said she is a firm believer in the power of advocacy.
She expressed her hope that advocacy from elected officials and local firefighters would at least pause the implementation of a proposed Occupational Safety and Health Administration rule that would create stricter regulations for emergency personnel nationwide, with many of the required changes carrying a prohibitively high price tag.
“It’s one more reason why we need to be very careful and think and include stakeholders, always, with the purpose of avoiding unintended consequences,” she said.
Reny is endorsed by AFL-CIO, Planned Parenthood Maine Action Fund PAC, the Sierra Club, Equality Maine, MSEA-SEIU, Maine Credit Union League, MCV Action, Committee to Protect Health Care, NASW Maine PACE, Defend Our Health Action, the Wabanaki Alliance, and Professional Fire Fighters of Maine.
Reny enjoys reading, cooking, gardening, and getting outside with her husband, two young sons, and 11-year-old dog when she isn’t in Augusta.
The general election is Tuesday, Nov. 5.
