Sen. Cameron Reny, D-Bristol, wants to continue the work she has started in her two terms representing Senate District 13.

Reny is up against Edwin W. Mitchell, I-Boothbay, to represent Senate District 13, which consists of all of Lincoln County excluding Dresden and including Washington and Windsor. Reny is the current holder of the seat and if reelected, she will enter her third term.

“Public service, it’s important to me,” Reny said. “My communities are important to me and I want our kids to stand a shot at a life here.”

Born and raised in Bristol, Reny continues to live in her hometown. She went to Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C., where she got a community and justice studies degree. She obtained her master’s degree in school counseling from the University of Southern Maine in Portland.

Most of Reny’s professional career before becoming a state senator was spent as a school counselor, a position she said she is “really passionate about.”

“I think when everyone pitches in, we are all better off and I am of a mindset that I want to leave the world better than I found it and school counseling was what I ended up gravitating towards because it’s helping kids and families,” Reny said.

Her career started out at Biddeford Middle School and when she decided she wanted to move closer to home, she worked at South Bristol School for a few years. She would go on to become the counselor at Woolwich Central School. The roles gave her experience dealing with people from different backgrounds and viewpoints, which she said has helped her with her problem solving skills and bringing together different stakeholders.

When she became a senator, Reny said she had a “hunch” that her school counselor skills would be useful in the new line of work.

“What matters when it comes to getting bills passed into law is your ability to relationship build, your ability to bring in all the appropriate stakeholders, your ability to work with people who don’t necessarily see eye to eye with you, which are all skills I’ve been using for years and years, and that have made me a very effective legislator and have made me very effective working across the aisle,” Reny said.

During her time in the school system, Reny said she has served on school-wide and district-wide committees, and served as the president of the Maine School Counseling Association for a few years.

If reelected, Reny said she wants to continue her public service. Her desire to run again also is fueled by her being raised in a “very strong community” that has a heart for helping each other out. This means to not just donate money, but to devote time and effort, she said.

“I feel like we’ve done a good job trying to insulate the state of Maine from sort of the federal uncertainty that has been prevalent over the last few years, and I want to see that work continue,” Reny said.

In this election, Reny said she believes her experience sets her apart. With this, she said she has been a capable legislator and has been effective in getting different policy “across the finish line.” This includes a bill that was passed last session that made it where medical debt will not affect someone’s credit score. Reny said a bill like this makes it where people are now able to access mortgages, business loans, and other financials that previously weren’t able to because they were sick or hurt.

Not only does Reny want to do better for the state now, she said she wants to set up a “bright future” where people can afford to live and raise their families.

“I want my kids and grandkids and everybody’s kids and grandkids to be able to live here and thrive here long after we’re gone,” she said.

Another achievement Reny is proud of from her time in office comes from her first term. She reflected on how when she was a school counselor, she faced the challenge of a student or their family having a mental health crisis and finding that when they needed to go to the emergency room, their insurance would not pay for the counseling they needed. Reny said this was usually because the referral came from an emergency room doctor instead of their primary care physician.

This encouraged her to push forward a bill that allowed emergency room referrals to be used to access counseling services.

“For people who are struggling with those sort of issues, and honestly, just getting an appointment, taking the time off work, getting yourself there, it’s something that’s seemingly simple that is a hurdle for a lot of people, understandably so,” Reny said.

Another effort Reny is proud of is her climate resiliency work. She said her district faces bigger and stronger storms and need to be ready for them.

“I know culverts aren’t sexy, but they’re very important,” she said.

Other work includes healthcare, where she pushed for a bill to strengthen the prescription drug affordability board which she said gave it direction and resources to use for policy. She said her “extremely bipartisan” Federally Qualified Health Center pharmacy bill presents grants to serve rural and underserved populations to expand pharmaceutical services and decrease the cost of prescriptions.

Reny currently serves on the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee and the Marine Resources Committee.

She said her time as a senator has allowed her to learn a lot about a wide range of topics. She used the example of how when she first started, she was placed on the Marine Resources Committee and Health Coverage Insurance and Financial Committee. The experience allowed her to fully understand different aspects of government and the people it serves, she said.

“Standing up for, you know, our farmers, our fisherman, our loggers, and really trying to insulate the state once again,” Reny said. “I hate to come back to it, but it’s sort of the weird world we’re in right now. It feels like there’s a lot of chaos coming from the federal level and trying to not let that chaos steer us off course, or harm our friends and neighbors.”

While on the campaign trail, Reny said the biggest concerns she has heard from people in the district is the cost of living.

Affordability issues are directly tied into cost increases controlled at the federal level, such as fuel, energy, and inflation, she said. At the state level, Reny said the legislature can tackle this issue in different ways.

Reny used the example of high energy costs and said she would like to see the state diversify its energy creation production, making sure it finds anything available to it. She said she would like to see more hydropower and the exploration of any alternative energy source.

She said she also wants public advocates to be able to “check” Central Maine Power when necessary by also having ways to pivot.

Affordability makes the economy do better and small businesses do better when people have buying power, Reny said. By creating more accessible and affordable necessities such as energy, childcare, prescription drug costs, and more, Reny said people can not only afford the bare minimum, but also extra to improve their lives.

“I can’t personally control inflation on my own,” Reny said. “You can do things to make life more affordable where you can.”

Affordable housing fits into this through Reny’s efforts to incentive the creation of new housing, as well as protects more affordable options such as mobile home parks. She mentioned previous bills she has worked on to protect mobile home parks from private equity investors that would buy them and raise the rents.

“When you can make other places in people’s lives more affordable, they can at least take a breath,” she said.

Reny has also been thinking of the impending closure of the labor and delivery unit at MaineHealth Lincoln Hospital in Damariscotta. She said the closure of the addiction resource center in Damariscotta is also unacceptable.

To address these closures and prevent more from happening, Reny said she has a few ideas for the legislature. She wants more transparency in the decision making and financials, especially because of the healthcare system’s “virtual monopoly” in the state.

Reny said because of the district’s high need for substance use resources, it is irresponsible to take them away.

“We’re going to have to look into creative solutions and probably some alternative community service possibilities, but we can’t go without,” Reny said. “I don’t accept us going without.”

When it comes to the state’s working waterfront, Reny said there are ways to find balance between those making a living on the water and making sure others also have access for recreation. While she said she does not know a legislative fix for the balance, she said she is willing to listen and learn to see what people need.

Local infrastructure fits into two separate areas for Reny. She said the first is the community resiliency partnership, which is a state level program that provides grants to municipalities to upgrade infrastructure and prepare for weather events.

The other area is the potential for community and economic development partnerships throughout the state. Reny said there are possibilities that can grow out of it, especially since the state has an entire department for it.

In the past year, the state legislature has evaluated ways to change the funding formula for how education subsidy is sent out to different towns. Reny said a part of the reason people are frustrated with rising education costs is not only within the school system, but because of how everything else has raised in cost.

“Everything is so much more expensive that it was before and just the additional burden feels more daunting that I think it would otherwise,” Reny said.

To solve some of these increasing costs, Reny said she would like to see a higher tax rate on non-resident homes and see the homestead exemption raised. She would also like to see the federal government pay 40% of special education costs, but that is out of her control, she said.

Within the cost for education, Reny said if the state can get a handle on health insurance prices, it might ease the burden on residents. She said that if health insurance can be more “reasonable,” less money is needed for every school employee, town administrator, and staff of businesses across the district.

Reny has endorsements from Maine American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, the Sierra Club, Maine Service Employees Associations, SEIU Local 1989; Planned Parenthood Maine Action Fund PAC, Maine Conservation Voters Action Fund, Committee to Protect Health Care, EqualityMaine PAC, and the Wabanaki Alliance.

The election is on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

 This article appears through a content-sharing agreement with the Lincoln County News.