Hello, my name is Charles Ellis but most people call me Chuck. As I’m running for Maine State House of Representatives for District 128, Westbrook North of the River, I wanted to allow you to know a bit about my background and my values as well as why I’m running.
I grew up in a small rural town in Maine called Athens 15 minutes into the woods from Skowhegan, the big city as I knew it growing up. I graduated from Athens Elementary School in 1998 and Madison Area Memorial High School in 2002. I then proceeded to the University of Maine at Farmington where I started as a Business Economics Major before switching to a degree in straight Mathematics and graduating with a BA in Mathematics from UMF in 2007.
Upon graduation, I started working with an organization I’d been involved in for 4 years as a student at UMF called InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. InterVarsity is a Christian organization focused on mentoring & leadership development while creating a safe space for people to explore faith regardless of what their background is. InterVarsity is an organization where each employee must fundraise their salary. Coming from a small poor town in a part of the country that has a lower-than-average percentage of the population interested in Christian faith, let alone wanting to give money to this organization, it was challenging to raise funds. I only got up to about half-time and needed additional income to be able to do this work that I was passionate about.
In October 2009 I started working for KeyBank N.A. as I like to say to support my InterVarsity addiction. I had no desire to have a career in banking but was hoping while I gained support for InterVarsity to make enough money to get by. Instead, I ended up working for both InterVarsity and the bank for about 6 years before handing the baton for InterVarsity at UMF to one of my former students. Despite not having any desire to have a career in banking over time I found that I had a knack for it and that I enjoyed helping people navigate the difficult terrain of the financial world. Being one of those strange animals that loves Math I didn’t realize initially how challenging personal finance is for so many people.
There were challenges associated with my role in banking, namely that it was a sales role and I had initially come to the conclusion that sales were evil, that if someone wants something they’ll ask for it and then I’m happy to help them. As I came to realize that finances stress out many Mainers and as they’re ashamed of not being where they want to be or not knowing or understanding what they don’t know and understand most people need a nudge to make decisions that are in their own best interest. Once I realized this I ended up doing very well at the bank eventually becoming a branch manager and gaining my investment licenses with which I could more effectively aid my clients by helping them with their small business needs, debt management needs, asset management needs, and budgeting needs. I didn’t initially anticipate working in banking for more than 2-3 years but ended up working for KeyBank for 14 1/2 years at various locations and in several different roles from Western & Central Maine to Southern Maine.
Almost 6 years ago I moved to Westbrook Maine because I believe Westbrook has a great community, the best housing prices in the immediate Portland area, is business friendly, and is relatively close to everything I would want to do in the Portland area.
In high school, I had a great American History teacher named Mr Houle. One of the areas in which I think Mr Houle excelled was in recognizing the pivotal role WW2 played in both American History and World History. Learning about how Germany became a Nazi state and how after the war many people living in Germany claimed to have no idea about the concentration camps had a profound impact on me. I decided that I would work hard to know as much as possible about what was going on in my world so that I might be able to help resist evil and corrupt people doing evil things and that I wouldn’t ever be one of those people with my head in the sand.
I, however, had no interest in personally being involved in politics in any way. Part of the reason for this was my positions both with InterVarsity and with the bank. Though there are areas where Christianity has things to say about politics it is not a political movement. Jesus was not a revolutionary but a religious leader and though many have been blending Christianity and politics I have never felt that this was appropriate. When leading a Christian ministry the message of the gospel is what is paramount and that message has implications for sure but I don’t believe it’s appropriate to preach politics from the pulpit. In my career at the bank, I help people on all ends of the spectrum. I’m good at what I do and I wouldn’t want someone to not receive my help because I used my position at the bank as a platform to push a political agenda not to mention the bank would not allow this type of behavior. As a result, I never considered running for any political office, volunteering, or helping out in any way.
I had always paid attention primarily to national issues without giving much thought to city, county, & state politics but in the years leading up to the pandemic and during the pandemic I became much more engaged and informed in what was going on. As I talked with close friends with whom I largely agreed some would tell me that I should run for office and I would laugh at them and tell them they were crazy. I don’t want to live in a glass house with everyone overanalyzing my life, and my actions, and impacting the life of my family.
Then came Timothy. Timothy is originally from Rwanda but had come to the United States by way of Kenya and was essentially homeless living off Portland Public assistance in a Motel 6. I met him through a church event and as we got to talking I realized he was an incredible man, very wise and thoughtful and we talked about everything. Being that he was new to the United States and knowing the significant cultural differences I aimed to help him understand the current mood in America as I knew he would need to navigate it. Eventually, I felt led to offer to have him come in and stay in my apartment since I had a spare room just lying empty and felt as a fellow believer that the church should do more to take care of their own rather than relying on the government. He agreed but before he came he was given the opportunity to go to Idaho where he would have a job working for the Anglican church as he was an ordained Anglican minister. However, given our quick friendship, he wanted to come and spend a couple of weeks with me before going. It was during this time as we talked about everything under the sun including politics that he like some of my other friends suggested I needed to get involved in politics which I again shrugged off. While he stayed with me he said this time and time again until the last time he said it he changed his verbiage. Instead of saying “You should go into politics” he said, “You are going into politics.” This struck me in part because I believe in God and felt strongly that God had brought Timothy into my life for a reason it seemed that I should at least explore if this was from God.
Once I started down the potential path towards the political realm everything seemed to suggest that this is what I needed to do. I was amazed as I got together with close friends to tell them my crazy news and almost all of them were very supportive many saying things like “Well obviously…” or “That makes perfect sense, I think you’d be great.” Even people with whom I’d discussed politics but who were not on the same page or part of the same party surprised me by being very supportive. I had another friend with whom I have had many disagreements but was beyond excited to volunteer to help with my campaign. As I thought about running for office I realized I believe we need more people who are problem solvers not focused on pleasing people but finding solutions that in reality help and this is what I’d been doing in my career at the bank. I’d become one of the go-to people if you were struggling with a problem in assisting their clients but I could help them find the right solution to meet the client’s needs. I realized that if people like me didn’t make the sacrifice then things would continue to progress in what I believe to be the wrong direction.
In December of 2021, I decided to run for office and though for most of my adult life I’ve been registered unenrolled with a strong Libertarian/Republican leaning I needed the support of a party since I had no idea what I was getting into with running a political campaign. I registered and ran as a Republican. I wouldn’t say I agree with everything the Republican Party claims to stand for but when it comes to family values, the economy, protecting personal freedoms, and limiting the power and control of the government we’re largely in agreement. What I found interesting is while considering a run and what to run for I spoke with several people within the party and shared how I’m not a typical Republican and am far from a party-line candidate who’s just going to march to the beat of the party. They had no problem with that but welcomed me to run and helped guide me to run for Maine House District 128.
Here we are two years later and I’m yet again running for political office. For my campaign, I aim to focus on Education, Homelessness & Addiction, and Affordable Housing. Education not only because children are our future but also because we’ve gone from being one of the top 5 states in the US in the early 90s and even top 20 before the pandemic to being ranked between 34th & 38th depending on which study you’re looking at. Homelessness & Addiction because the governments (city & state) are spending so much money to “address” this problem and yet as they seek to help the number of people struggling with these issues has continued to increase. Affordable housing because Home Ownership is the most significant factor in Mainers finding financial stability and growing wealth and it’s becoming increasingly more expensive to the point where the average family needs to earn an average salary of at least $110k to afford a starter home in America according to a recent CNBC article. Maine is no exception, if anything housing prices have accelerated here more than in most states For more on this see my first post on Substack to learn more and in time I’ll be posting my other main issues in addition to other complex issues facing our state.
I believe my background working with future educators during my time as a student and while working with InterVarsity at UMF combined with my time working with small business owners and individuals work through their finances and seeing the impact of government policies on their bank accounts on top of the fact that I am a problem solver specializing in find solutions that work in reality rather than those that sound good on paper but upon implementation cause more problems than they solve. I will work hard for the people of Maine to roll back laws that are harmful to both the people and the economy. When crafting legislation I will seek to ensure that we’re considering the “unintended consequences” and long-term big-picture impact of those policies. If you live in Westbrook north of the river I am asking for your vote on November, 5th 2024, it would be my honor to represent you in Augusta!