Brooks — Speaker of the Maine House Sara Gideon, D-Freeport, made a campaign stop at the Varney Community Building Sunday and emphasized health care in remarks before a crowd of about 50 Waldo County Democrats.

State Sen. Erin Herbig, D-Waldo, of Belfast, introduced her with stories about their work in Augusta and Gideon’s thick skin. She is one of six candidates vying for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in the Maine primary on Super Tuesday, March 3, 2020.

Gideon, a resident of Freeport, hopes to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins in the election next fall and to be part of a Democratic movement to retake the Senate.

“For the past 14 weeks now, I have woken up every day, also saying to myself that my new role is to be the person who replaces Susan Collins in the United States Senate,” Gideon said.

Later she added, “If we want to think about how we can change what the United States Senate looks like, it starts with me. There actually is not a path to taking back control of the U.S. Senate without taking this seat back from Susan Collins.”

Belfast City Councilor Neal Harkness was in the audience listening as Gideon highlighted the laws she has helped pass in the Maine House to provide protection for people with regard to a number of nationally controversial health issues.

She talked about her part in folding core provisions of the Affordable Care Act into Maine state law so people wouldn’t lose their health care if the act is repealed at the federal level.

She also spoke briefly about her stances on other current political issues, including income inequality and the national political tension between Democratic politicians and President Donald Trump.

Having spent most of her career in an era of stark political polarization during Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s administration taught her to work across party lines, Gideon said.

“What I learned from the very beginning was, you just sit down around the table and you know what the challenges are in front of you,” she said. “And you figure out how to get through them. And you’re open to ideas and you're open to incremental change.”

Part of her job as House speaker is to recruit candidates and help them win elections, Gideon said. She has purposely set out to recruit female candidates to help better represent women in the government.

“My belief is that we need to have … [diverse] representation around the table,” she said.

Gideon personally greeted everyone with a handshake before leaving the meeting.