Maine State Governor Janet Mills

(Special Guest Reader, May 24, 6-9 PM at Pemaquid Hall at Spruce Point Inn ) 

Governor Janet Mills is a trailblazer, winning election as the first woman District Attorney in Maine, the first woman Attorney General in Maine, and, now, Maine’s first woman Governor. Janet Mills also writes poetry. 

Born and raised in rural Maine, Janet is the granddaughter of potato farmers from Aroostook County and the daughter of a World War II veteran and public school teacher. She learned the value of hard work early in life, delivering newspapers early in the morning and serving meals at the local diner in the evening while growing up. She graduated from Mt. Blue High School in Farmington, the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and the University of Maine School of Law. 

In 1985, she met and married the love of her life, her husband, Stan Kuklinski, a widower with five young daughters ages four to sixteen. Janet and Stan moved back to Farmington, and she became a full-time mom to five daughters who she helped raise while working full-time herself.

As a District Attorney, she prosecuted major crimes, like homicide and domestic abuse, and co-founded the Maine Women’s Lobby to advocate for battered and abused women. As Attorney General, she fought anyone who tried to hurt Maine people, including dishonest mortgage companies trying to kick Maine people out of their homes, big Pharma who contributed to the opioid crisis, and politicians who tried to restrict young people’s access to health care.

Governor Mills has kept up the fight, working to tackle the biggest challenges facing Maine, and she has delivered historic, unprecedented progress. She expanded health care, fully funded Maine’s public schools for the first time in state history, preserved cherished lands and waters through the Land for Maine’s Future Program, and is fighting climate change to protect Maine for generations to come.  Find out more at https://janetmills.com/about/