Isa Cruz

From the highly anticipated Senate race between Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Troy Jackson to Brunswick local elections, there are many candidates to choose from in this year’s election cycle. As Election Day approaches on Nov. 3, the Bowdoin community is working hard to prepare.

Bowdoin Votes Program Co-Coordinator Amelia Kane ’27 has been involved with the organization since her first year at Bowdoin. Given that midterm elections typically produce lower turnout, Kane explained that Bowdoin Votes has pursued a variety of initiatives to increase turnout, including bolstering early registration and voting efforts.

“We have obviously done a lot of voter registration, which I think we’ve kind of become known for,” Kane said. “Then [we do] our typical stroll to the polls where we encourage students to vote early by accompanying them, often joined by professors or their dogs or other special guests to the Brunswick Town Hall before election day,” Kane said.

The organization has also revived a 2024 initiative called “Bears at the Ballot,” encouraging historically lower-turnout student-athletes to vote by having teams compete to have the most voters. In addition, they added a STEMocracy day, tabling outside Searles Hall and Druckenmiller Hall to encourage historically lower-turnout STEM major students to vote. Bowdoin Votes also offers transportation to the polls on Election Day, emphasizing that Maine offers same-day voter registration.

Abigail Hebert

For those voting outside Maine, Kane is particularly proud of the organization’s expanded absentee voter support, providing information on absentee voting and even how to get reimbursed for stamps.

“We’ve had really great turnout and success. I think that one thing we try to do is purposely make ourselves very visible and be at places where students already go,” Kane said.

Co-President of the Bowdoin Democrats Brittany Yue ’27 has also been involved with her organization all four years. Noting the energy surrounding this election with many engaged volunteers and participants, Yue explained that the Bowdoin Democrats focused on hosting town hall-style events and getting out the vote for Democratic candidates. Last semester, the organization hosted Democratic candidates for governor and U.S. Senate for town halls on campus. This semester, they even hosted Hannah Pingree and Senator Angus King for an endorsement event.

For Yue, getting involved in Maine politics has underscored the importance of civic engagement.

“I come from New Jersey, which isn’t a super competitive state, but seeing the way that the stakes are just so different in a more swing-like state like Maine has definitely increased the importance of the election to me,” Yue said.

When asked about tension within the Democratic Party between moderate and progressive wings in Maine, Yue noted a progressive shift.

“Being here for four years, it’s definitely interesting to see the way that the politics have changed,” Yue said. “People used to be huge Janet Mills supporters, but seeing the way that people were showing out for Graham Platner and now Troy Jackson in different ways, especially younger populations of college populations, it’s cool to see the excitement.”

Isa Cruz

Zak Asplin ’27, leader of the Bowdoin College Conservatives, encouraged students voting in Maine to consider how the election affects Mainers more broadly.

“For people who are generally [from] out of state, we want them to vote not just with the intention of what happens at the national level, but how it affects the people who have to live in Maine, work at the College, work in Bowdoin Dining, work in Brunswick and who we interact with on a daily basis,” Asplin said. “They are actually Mainers, and [when you consider] how our votes affect them, we think it’s abundantly clear that Susan Collins is the obvious choice.”

Asplin said the Bowdoin Democrats’ approach to voting focuses too much on party loyalty.

“Would you rather have a five-term senator who runs the Appropriations Committee, has proven to be the most bipartisan member of Congress and helps deliver key concessions in bills that are Republican and bills that are Democratic, or [Jackson], who would become the most junior senator, somebody who has proven that he doesn’t really know much about policy and has flip-flopped a great deal on policy over the course of his campaign?” Asplin said.

Nelson Dorsey ’28 first got involved in campaigns working for former governor of Maryland Larry Hogan’s Senate campaign, which led him to intern in Senator Susan Collins’s office and then join her 2026 re-election campaign.

Dorsey echoed Asplin’s sentiments about Collins and felt that enthusiasm among students for the democratic candidate had waned since Platner dropped out of the race.

“When Platner dropped out and [Jackson] became the nominee, Platner took the momentum with him, and I think a lot of people just aren’t as enthusiastic about [Jackson],” Dorsey said. “Does he really believe the stuff that he’s saying? Especially when his voting record in the past may have contradicted some of that stuff.”

In contrast to Yue, who felt Bowdoin students are, on average, open-minded about politics, Dorsey said that many people he knew likely keep more conservative beliefs restricted to private circles.

“I’m someone who’s unafraid to share what I believe in class,” Dorsey said. “I have so many friends and people who I know who fear social retribution for coming out with certain not as popular views, and especially in a place like Bowdoin.”

Andy Mugisha ’28 spent the summer as a financial advisory intern for Graham Platner’s campaign. Mugisha immigrated to Maine from Burundi at age 12 and has been committed to helping other new Mainers adjust ever since. Before the campaign, he worked with a nonprofit that helps new Mainers enroll in Medicaid and SNAP, even as access to both programs has been cut. That work led him to Platner.

“It just made sense to look for people who would represent the people we were working for, which were newcomer Mainers. Out of the candidates that were running, Platner was the one who wanted to really look out for newcomer Mainers,” Mugisha said.

Even without Platner in the running, the Senate race has remained highly contested.

“This race has really shown us how important Maine is, and there is a saying that we used to use a lot during the campaign, which was, ‘If you win Maine, you win the country,’ and that’s a lot of what we are seeing right now,” Mugisha said.