As noted yesterday, I will be at the American Legion Stewart P Morrill Post on Broadway on Monday the 18th. I’ll be heading there after work, and speaking and taking questions from 6-7:30 (see the flyer at the bottom for details, and reread my platform to prepare!).

Today was a day of very little progress. Partly this is because of other obligations, partly this is because the City of South Portland chose yesterday and today, specifically, to get up in arms about a non-campaign event that I have planned for this coming Sunday morning (some of you have heard about the time in 2024 when they made me remove a bunch of benches I’d left by bus stops…suffice it to say it’s related to that). I was also pondering our progress so far, and it’s time for a strategy update.

Starting as soon as I get back to Maine on Saturday I will be shifting my focus back towards getting out directly in our communities. Placing petition circulators in public areas and hoping people find their way to them is not working for us. We simply do not have the size of audience required. Further, while I have time and energy to be in all the towns on the Q&A tour on schedule, I do not have the time needed to hunt and book venues. I also don’t have money to pay for ones that aren’t low-cost or free. All the events for which I already have a venue booked (Hi Fidelity, South Portland American Legion, Brunswick Curtis Memorial Library, Panacea, Fernald’s) will remain on the calendar. The remaining session times and towns remain available, but only if someone else can find a venue and do some publicity; just let me know and I’ll be there.

Aside from that, the path to 2,000 signatures is now more complicated. I estimate it will take a group of 20 of us ten hours of canvassing apiece in order to get there; I myself will be one of them, and will be in all the towns on my schedule to knock on doors if I don’t have a venue to speak. I know one other person who will be doing this for me so that means we only need 18 more volunteers. Our final deadline is in 12 days. I can provide training, papers, pens, and generally everything except actual people. Unfortunately everyone I know is either already involved or too busy to be, if not both, so to the folks finding us for the first time: welcome. If this is your first blog post, then congratulations, you picked the perfect time to come aboard. The promise of our country is that you can always vote for what you believe in, and the caveat is that that’s only true if what you believe in is on the ballot. Email me at tristramforcongress@gmail.com to arrange if your Memorial Day weekend is otherwise looking boring.

The other thing anybody can do to directly help me is to share information on events and the campaign to their social media. My social media is limited in scope and every time I try to add a new platform I have to spend an entire day convincing it I’m not a robot, battling for storage space on my phone, and figuring out how it works, and I don’t have that in me anymore until June. You can find me here, on Facebook, and on Instagram, and that’s my whole bandwidth.

The volunteers already working for me: I know some of you get these emails and I am not asking more of you. I truly could not have gotten even this far without your support. It means the stars to me that you have seen my platform, thought to yourselves “actually I do want cheaper healthcare and the government to prepare my taxes for me,” and then gone and done everything you could to make it real. Thank you from my entire heart.

I went out and picked up some trash around the neighborhood earlier and I feel much better. It’s really wonderful to be able to make the world better just by stepping outside. It reminds me that pretty much every problem is very fixable, and that everyone who actually fixes them is just Some Guy (gender inclusive) who happens to be doing the work. It makes everything feel much more manageable to me, and that’s my speed of optimism: not a belief I can do everything alone, but a knowledge that there are things I can do, and that when we all do the little things we can, it all comes together to be enough.

That’s a good feeling to have, because there’s a lot of work being done in government right now that I think could be done better, and I’m very hopeful that I will be able to do it personally soon. It just seems to me that sometimes, when politicians squabble over our rights, they’re only fighting for half of us or less, but I know that when we fight for equality it’s important to make sure that we are not only arguing for the people who need those rights stereotypically, but for everyone. The best example I can think of at this moment is abortion rights. A lot of the conversation (rightly) focuses on whether or not women should have the right to get an abortion, but I believe that everyone should have the right to get an abortion whenever they need, for multiple reasons. First, because I don’t believe that which rights we give a person should be tied to our ability to identify them. And second, because we just know that if a law gets passed giving women specifically the right to an abortion, some butthead is going to sue over the first trans man who tries to get one because he’s not legally a woman, and it will have been entirely preventable by everyone who wrote those laws in a way that left people out.

But anyhow, I picked up trash today, so despite whatever is happening in Congress the world is a better place than it was before. I also have to be honest though and say I am no longer confident that we will qualify for the ballot. Almost everything that this campaign has done has been done in addition to me working a full-time job, often to the severe detriment of my ability to get a full night’s sleep. If you have one hour to help find a place for me to speak at in the towns on the list for next week and a person to be there asking questions and listening, it would mean the world to me. If you have one more friend who lives in or near the same town as a petition, please send them to it. I’m still excited to see how far we get.

And finally, I’m overjoyed to announce that on Monday evening, May 18th from 6-7:30pm my campaign will be hosting a candidate event at American Legion Post 35 on Broadway! I grew up in South Portland and it will be great to get to see some people I know in what I hope will be a very informative event all around. I can’t wait to see you there! (I can tell you for sure the City staff remember me – they finally sent me an email about that bench painting party today :))

Today I finally prevailed over the Instagram Demons and now have an active account with posts there. Facebook seems on the fence now about whether or not I’m a real human, but now that it also exists on my phone it seems content to let me be. If I vanish mysteriously over there it’s because they’ve decided I’m a robot.

I’m often asked so will now address:

I have no qualms about running against a relatively popular incumbent for several reasons. First, it is always and has always been okay to look at a job being done and say “I am also willing to do that.” That’s how teamwork happens, that’s how work and responsibility gets shared, that’s how we figure out who’s actually willing to pull weight in our society and where they’re trying to lead us. I hope when my own children, should I be lucky enough to have any, are my age they also remember that sharing is for the work of our communities as well as for the rewards. Sometimes this question is asked very accusingly, so I will state very plainly: you do not have to be bothered by anybody in order to like me, support me, and vote for me. I do not and will not require this of you. Liking any part of what I say enough to work together for it is as much as I will ever need.

Second, between the lot of us candidates running I am the one in this district who will have to do the most living with the consequences of whatever decisions happen in the next few years. I’m young enough that the costs of raising a family is imminently relevant, if I can afford to at all, hardworking enough that when the government says we need to build more houses it will be me out there doing the building (literally I am a carpenter), and neighborly enough that when folks of any party say nobody stops on the side of the road to help people anymore I get offended because I literally do those things. I can’t even walk through the front door of my own home without emptying my pockets of the trash I pick up off the street.

Third, this is how we tell our government we want things to be different. Every other year we spend millions of dollars deciding who will be our member of Congress. That money would be better spent paying for the things Congress is supposed to be paying for, and if we want better we have to lead by example and be better. We have to do better than the system that’s already running, which is why my campaign spends fully half its budget on the nonprofits in our communities that keep us running.

It also just seems like an absolute waste of an opportunity to be in one of the very few states with ranked choice voting and not have any choices to rank. This is a valuable chance both for us in Maine and the country as a whole to find out which of the things in political parties’ platforms actually get them votes and which is just nonsense. It’s a chance for us to say that not only do we need affordable healthcare, we want the person arguing for it to have their back against the same wall as us. And besides, in this age of magnificent scandal if some news suddenly breaks we all need a third option to go to that isn’t The Opposition ™ as sanctioned by your Party of Choice, if you’ve got one of those.

Anyhow I’m absolutely thrilled to announce that on Saturday May 23rd I will be at Curtis Memorial Library in the Morrell Meeting Room from 2:15-3:45 for a candidate Q&A. The rest of the week is still settling out but you can see the preliminary schedule at the top of the email. The Library would like you to know that they do not sponsor or endorse this event in any way, but they are renting me the space and there will be up to 140 chairs available. As the plan always is: bring your friends, questions, and food donations for the nearest pantry, and I cannot wait to see you there. This event is absolutely kid friendly and there will be art supplies and possibly squishy balls to play with.

And as you can see looking at the schedule, there is a lot we still don’t know about. Leads on venues and help organizing would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for reading and have a marvelous day!

Good evening again Maine!

Today I battled the Instagram Demons and possibly prevailed. Look forward to lots of things there as I learn how the heck to use it now that they’re pretty sure at least one of my email addresses isn’t owned by a robot (in fact, none of my emails is operated by a robot, nor currently even by a different person: if you’ve every received an email or read a post from me, rest assured I wrote and sent it personally). My hope is that by going where all the cool people are these days we will be able to more effectively reach the whole of Southern Maine with how awesome this election platform is. For those of you who weren’t subscribed yet, we added to it a little bit just a few days ago.

I’ve been pondering some other cool things that Maine has that other states don’t while I’m out of town (visiting family for the first time in forever; the trip was on my calendar way before this campaign was), and some of them are already on my platform, like free school lunches. Others, like community college scholarships and apprenticeship programs I just haven’t found the time to write about yet. And there are of course other things that all states have but do differently to the great confusion and frustration of everyone, like accessible parking rules (this is not to say that Maine necessarily has the best of those, but we do have them). One of the most awesome things about campaigning and canvassing is getting to hear which of the things each person most personally has to deal with, and how it affects our lives, and how it’s done differently where they or their family or their friends are from. Understanding these things about the people around us makes us better neighbors. The other thing that makes us better neighbors is connecting the people around us in ways that their skills and challenges and experiences compliment and build on each other in order to make the whole neighborhood, and the friendships it’s build of, stronger.

Speaking of connections, so far almost everyone who has found this campaign has found us through word of mouth. That’s really awesome. Thank you so much to everyone who has shared emails, handed out flyers, collected signatures, and above all else told all your friends and acquaintances about me: the friendly local fellow running for US Congress. Everything you have done has gotten us to the point where I can say this:

Next week from May 17th through 25th, we will be going on tour throughout as much of District 1 as I can get to without losing my job. At the moment the schedule looks a little like this: it will likely also change a little throughout the week as things settle out. Absolutely send this schedule to everyone you know who lives near these towns, though, because I would really appreciate help finding places to be and people keep the events running smoothly. Folks who want to organize little after-gatherings for any of these events at local parks and whatnot are also more than welcome to do so and if I have any time at all I’ll be happy to stop in at them.

May 17: Portland 4-6pm Hi Fidelity Brewing (I will be in South Portland and Brunswick for non-campaign events earlier in the day)

May 18: South Portland 6-7:30pm

May 19: Sanford 6-7:30pm

May 20: Biddeford 6-7:30pm

May 21: Rockland 6:30-8pm

May 22: Winslow 6:30-8pm

May 23: Wiscasset 11am-1pm at Panacea Chowder House, Brunswick 2:15-3:45pm at Curtis Memorial Library, Damariscotta 4:45-6pm at S Fernald’s Country Store

May 24: Cumberland 10am-12pm, Gray 1-3pm, Naples 5:30-7pm

May 25: Kittery 10-11:30am, Buxton 1:30-3pm, Yarmouth 4-6pm

This tour will do four things: first, you will get a chance to bring your friends and family and ask us about the issues that are important to you and them. Second, you will get a chance to donate food items to the nearest food bank (we will have a collection box at each event and are looking for volunteers to deliver it afterwards). Third, we can all get one last chance to sign our names on a petition to see this platform on the ballot in November. We have not yet made it to 2,000 signatures, and we need to get them if we want to be able to vote for me this fall. The last thing it will do is totally demolish what remains of my sleep schedule, but that’s what the weekend after is for.

Thank you all again and have a wonderful night! I’ll look forward to seeing many of you next week.

I am often asked about healthcare costs, so I am writing now to address that question.

I live and work here in Maine: I want to pay for myself going to the doctor and I want to pay for my friends and neighbors going to the doctor, because healthcare is cheaper when we all chip in to help pay for it, and because Mainers take care of each other. It’s what we do. What I don’t want to do is pay for a private insurance company to stand between us and gatekeep what doctors and what care they think we do and don’t need. Insurance is not care. Insurance companies do not cure anybody of anything (except curing people of their prospects of having a healthy bank account). Insurance companies do not deserve to be paid for our healthcare.

The broadest way to help and be helped by the most people is to have every single medical practice in the country bill into a pool where every person in the country chips in to help cover it. That’s the central premise behind insurance, only we can cut out the waste by just having one pool for the whole country and not paying the corporate wigs their wasted billions to run it. No insurance company’s negative attitude, no insurance executive’s private jets, no insurance company’s unfathomably high premiums.

And there’s a place that’s involved already involved the running of every single medical practice: it’s the US Department of Health and Human Services. And it’s got a bill that every American pays a share of every year, which is the federal budget. My goal is to fully develop this connection and turn it into a road where every American can really and truly help each other, and all for less money than we’re paying now.

My question to you is: how much tax would you willingly pay in order to never pay an insurance premium ever again? Because that’s the efficient way to do it. That’s the cheap way to do it. That’s the way to do it that leaves everybody else out of the room where you and your doctor are making the decisions about your life.

That’s what we deserve. What you call that system is up to you.

I have just walked past a public telephone. It reminded me of how rare those have become, and have been for basically my entire life. It’s something I have thought of before, but didn’t make it into the 1am need-to-get-the-platform-written session, and it’s also an area where Maine has recently stepped up a little bit: the Public Utilities Commission operates a network of public telephones across the state (34 at the moment, with a 35th about to be installed in Augusta according to their website), and I think this is something that would benefit every town in the country. No matter what town you are in, if you’re lost or your cellphone is broken, stolen, or out of juice, or if you don’t have one to begin with because you’re young or old or poor or can’t be bothered to buy one, you should be able to find a free telephone and get in touch with people who you care about and who can help you.

Having phone booths in public would also be a great opportunity for placing other public services: public internet connections for people who forgot to download their Important Document, public outlets for people who need to charge something, or even public bathrooms as those become increasingly difficult to find, because when you have to go you have to go.

As far as my schedule going forward, my goal is to be appearing in person in public across the district every day next week from May 17th-25th. On Sunday the 17th I will be at Mill Creek Park in South Portland painting benches from 9-noon, at Vessel and Vine in Brunswick for the birthday party of a local zine I edit for (also not a campaign event), and at Hi Fidelity Brewing Company in Portland for a candidate Q&A from 4-6pm. Bring your friends and bring your questions and bring your love for your communities with you; the Q&A at Hi Fi will also be accepting food donations for local food pantries.

Lastly, petitioning at Panacea in Wiscasset begins on Monday! If you live in Wiscasset or any town adjacent to there, go to Panacea if you want to be represented by a fellow who has a degree in engineering and works alongside you as a carpenter and mariner in Maine’s economy. Monday is also the last day Panacea is accepting donations for the Lincoln and Knox County Baby Shower, so bring your lightly used baby and toddler clothes, toys (NOT stuffed animals), maternity clothes, baby gear, and unused wipes and diapers to pass them along to folks who need them!

As hinted at previously, if you live in or near South Portland and want to see some art around town that also gives you a place to be seated, come on by a corner of Mill Creek Park and bring whatever bits of paint and paint brushes you have! I will be there on Sunday May 17th from 9am to noon painting some exceedingly bench-shaped signs. Kids absolutely welcome; wear clothes you don’t mind getting paint on.

I got a little pile of lumber for free a while ago the perfect size to continue/revive this project, and will be looking for help painting them and dispersing them around South Portland. Anyone from the Parks department reading this, don’t worry I will spread a tarp to keep from getting paint and whatnot on the ground! Look for a collection of benches with extremely paintable backs like the ones pictured above, which Dora Small Elementary students assembled and painted from pieces I gave them, only these ones won’t be painted yet and will have adult-height seats.

I don’t know that I have enough paint for all the benches I have wood for, but I will certainly bring what I can. I’ll also be looking for volunteers to maintain them as well, with the only necessary qualification being living close by and being enthusiastic about painting (enthusiasm is much more important than skill to be honest). These volunteers would be crucial, if no one signs up I will have to put them all back in the back of my car (they absolutely won’t all fit once assembled) so if you have a friend with a pickup or RAV4 or something with a utility trailer available that day that would be amazing!! Email tristramforcongress@gmail.com to volunteer for this. These materials I got for free a while ago and are not for or from the campaign, I’ve just been meaning to pass them along and am using this platform to help get the event rolling!

I’ll also be at Hi Fidelity Brewing Company in Portland that evening (May 17th) for a candidate Q&A and discussion from 4-6pm! Bring yourself, bring your friends, bring your questions, and I will do my best to answer them. You’ll also be able to sign nomination petitions while you’re there!

Speaking of nomination petitions, we’re moving towards a hub model for circulating papers, where stations in towns have petitions on hand for their residents and neighboring communities to come and sign. If you are or are connected to a business owner or someone who doesn’t mind spending regular hours in a public place, let us know and we’ll hook you up with everything you need to be a petition hub and meet all sorts of really cool people in your community! As described on our petition hubs page, we now have hubs in Damariscotta, Wiscasset, Portland, and South Portland, covering 22 towns and cities. Help us get to 2,000 signatures by May 26th to get Tristram Howard on the ballot for US Congress this November!

Happy rainy day to my district of Southern Maine! More petition hubs are sprouting along the coast, and folks are already getting connected by the link I released yesterday to active ballot access petitions. Thank you to everyone who has filled out the survey to help get me onto the ballot! Every time someone does, we get one step closer to having term limits for members of Congress, among many other things. You can help keep the momentum going by sending the link to a friend who you think wants this!

I am now working to start putting events on the calendar where you all can meet (or reconnect!) with me and hear what I’m about from my own mouth instead of having to just read words on a screen. Look forward to these starting next weekend, and expect there to be fun things like chalk, playing balls, and other fun things for folks who want or need to bring kids (or who have stayed in good touch with their own inner child). At the moment this would include events in Portland, South Portland, Wiscasset, and Damariscotta. Also be ready to bring an item to be donated to the nearest food pantry at each of these events, if you are able, because when I said this campaign would do good the whole time we are running I absolutely meant it. Don’t see your town on this list? email me a lead on a venue in your town (indoors or outdoors, rain won’t stop me but it does make signing papers hard) at tristramforcongress.@gmail.com.

Speaking of, as of Friday, registered voters in Damariscotta, Newcastle, Nobleboro, Bremen, Bristol, Whitefield, Alna, and Jefferson will be able to visit S. Fernald’s Country Store on Main Street in Damariscotta to sign ballot access petitions.

Registered voters in Wiscasset, Westport, Edgecomb, Woolwich, Boothbay, Bath, and Alna again will be able to visit Panacea chowder house in Wiscasset starting on Monday.

Registered voters in Portland can visit Hi Fidelity Brewing Company on Anderson Street in Portland any day but Tuesday.

Registered voters in South Portland, Westbrook, Pownal, Saco, Brunswick, Dresden, and elsewhere please click here (link) to get in touch with the petitioners in your town (they are just normal people who will be very happy to meet you!).

Thank you all for all the support you have given me as we roll out this fascinating campaign for US Congress. I’m looking forward to seeing you all in public someday soon!

PS: I know at least one of my subscribers has friends who go swimming in the winter, so I’m passing along here that Spark Cycling in Brunswick is hosting a cold plunge to help fund ALS research this Saturday from 7am to noon at 29 Burbank Avenue. Someone I met canvassing told me about this event but I will be out of town!

Good evening Maine!

For folks who want to see me on the ballot but don’t know where to go, we now have this handy survey (link) so you can find a person with a petition to sign! Also fill out the survey if you have 6-8 hours of availability to circulate a petition; no experience necessary, we will walk you through all the steps. For folks in South Portland, petitions will be available to sign starting on Thursday evening (May 7th!). Saco should be available soon as well. By signing up to volunteer or be found, you make our job not just easier but actually doable, and that warms our hearts very much. We now have petitions out or organizing in 10 cities and towns ranging along the coast from Saco to Edgecomb and inland as far as Dresden. Not bad for 4 days; I’m proud of us.

Getting back to our roots a little, one of the projects I’m probably best known for was putting benches at bus stops in South Portland (and then getting told to remove them by the City). Recently I was asked to donate a couple of special elementary school sized benches to Small School (where I went when I was a kid), and that got the ol’ gearbox turning. I think I’ve found a way to get that project rolling again in a way the City can’t complain about, so if you’re willing to lend a hand and like painting (no experience or skill necessary for this either, just enthusiasm!) stay tuned because it’ll take at least 6 people to pull off.

Have a good night, Maine, and I’ll see you tomorrow!

It is way past my bedtime so this will be brief: I spent this evening at the Portland Pub Sing, which is much busier than I remember! There almost wasn’t room to get in, but I managed and had a great time singing with old friends and strangers, and collected a few more signatures along the way.

Portlanders can now sign nomination petitions for me at Hi Fidelity Brewing Company on Anderson Street (behind the shipping containers) any day but Tuesdays by walking in and talking to Dante the bartender. Folks from Falmouth, South Portland, and Windham have all asked to sign petitions; however, I do not currently have anyone circulating in those towns. Any leads on people with a little free time to gather or seek out friends and neighbors in want of a more interesting general election ballot this November would be greatly appreciated! Filling up one whole petition is just two signatures every day from now until the deadline, which when we get down to it is not so much of a challenge; it’s only a challenge for me because I have 70 of them! But we will persevere, and so far every day volunteers have shown up to take enough off my hands that we should still make it by the end of the month if we all work together.

Good night, Maine, I will see you in the morning!