Katrina Ray-Saulis (MSEA-SEIU 1989) Discusses How Growing Up in Poverty Inspired Her to Run for the Maine Legislature

Maine Service Employees Association (MSEA-SEIU 1989) member, author and union organizer Katrina Ray-Saulis is running for the Maine State House of Representatives in House District 59, which includes part of Augusta. Ray-Saulis, who will face a primary election, is running to succeed Rep. David Rollins (D-Augusta) who has chosen not to run again. Ray-Saulis, who works as an adjunct professor of English at Central Maine Community College, says she is running because she believes the Maine Legislature needs more working-class members who know what it’s like to struggle.

“I’m running for office because we need more working-class voices in the Maine House,” she said. “Only workers understand what other workers are going through. I feel strongly that the way to fix things like our health insurance crisis and high inflation is to get people into office with creative minds, who have experienced the struggle first hand.”

Ray-Saulis grew up very poor in Western Maine. Her father became disabled after losing his eyesight and suffering from other medical problems when she was four years old. While her mother worked as a special ed teacher, the family never had much money. Her parents would find creative ways to save money like turning off the electricity during the summer time so that they could afford to pay the bills in the winter. The family experienced homelessness multiple times throughout her childhood. Her high school guidance counselor talked her out of going to college due to her financial situation. But eventually, when she was 26, she started going to community college part-time. She excelled in school and dreamed of becoming an English professor.

Ray-Saulis went on to get her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Southern Maine. She also holds a BFA in creative writing from the New Hampshire Institute of Art, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Stonecoast at the University of Southern Maine. She is also a published playwright and author of both fiction and non-fiction Unfortunately, her prospects for a full-time position in the community college system were limited in Maine.

“People kept on telling me the only way you can teach full-time in the community college system is if you're willing to relocate to a school that will have you, rather than trying to wait for a position to open up at a school near you,” she said. “And I wasn't willing to do that. I didn’t want to leave Maine.”

Through hard work and persistence she and her spouse were able to buy a house in Augusta, which was a huge deal for them, having both experienced homelessness. Growing frustrated at the lack of full-time teaching positions at the community college, Ray-Saulis ran for and was elected chapter president of her union.  As a union leader, she has fought at the bargaining table for more job security, better pay and seniority rights over courses. She has also repeatedly testified at the State House in Augusta for better pay for community college adjuncts.

Ray-Saulis first began thinking about running for office after taking part in community forums where participants discussed the welfare cliff, which is when a low-income household loses all of their public benefits due to a small increase in earned income.

“I was in a room full of very compassionate, fantastic people who really wanted to be able to help people dealing with the welfare cliff,” Ray-Saulis recalled. “But they thought the single, solitary answer to the welfare cliff was more education. I raised my hand and said, ‘I have a bachelor's degree and I'm working on a master's and I'm still on food stamps.' There was like a kind of a hush over the room. They didn’t realize that there are a whole lot of college educated people who are still forced to rely on welfare. I decided that any time that there was a table I could pull a chair up to, I was going to do it.”

Ray-Saulis says her priorities in Augusta will be to make health care more affordable, strengthen workers’ rights and support more educational opportunities. She said it is critical to elect more union members to the Legislature because they are more focused on improving economic conditions for working class people.