BRUNSWICK

While Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton battle over the direction of the country, Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, hopes to return to Congress where she can quietly resume the work she’s been doing for the past several years in the House.

“It seems like we have a lot of unfinished work, and unfortunately, as you know, Congress has been a little bit lethargic and kind of do-nothing for a little bit of the time,” said Pingree. “I think we’re all anxious every election cycle, hoping that there will be a slightly different face to Congress and that we’ll go back to tackling issues that we did more in the first couple of terms I was there.”

Pingree is running for re-election in Maine’s heavily Democratic 1st District, where the most recent Colby College-Boston Globe poll shows her leading Republican nominee Mark Holbrook by 20 points.

Originally from Minnesota, Pingree moved to Maine in her early years where she graduated from the College of the Atlantic and moved to North Haven. Since then, Pingree has owned a small business, operated a D.C.-based advocacy organization, and served as Democrat majority leader in the Maine Senate. Pingree was first elected to Congress in 2008, and has won re-election three times — the last two by nearly double the votes garnered by her Republican challengers.

Pingree says that her focus in Congress is largely on domestic issues. Pingree sits on the agriculture subcommittee of the powerful Appropriations in Congress, where she works on policy that supports small farmers and organic foods.

“Working on the next Farm Bill is a big priority for me,” said Pingree. “And that covers everything from child nutrition in school lunch programs to how we help our farmers to expand their markets and how we make it more affordable for young people to buy farms.”

Pingree noted that while she was relatively new to the agricultural appropriations subcommittee when the last Farm Bill was crafted, she hopes that her experience and seniority in the next session will allow her to pursue an agenda to help Mainers.

“I know much more about how to go back trying to impact the things that we care about, whether it’s supporting small farmers, or enhancing the marketing of local foods, organic standards, funding for what we do, I mean there’s really a lot that will be in that bill. I think not only do I know more — I’m in a better place legislatively — but the country has really moved a lot,” she said. “You know, people just increasingly want better access to healthy food, and Maine’s in a great position to be providing more of that food … to local markets, but a lot of that needs some policy changes and more support.”

This summer, Pingree participated in a sit-in of the House floor to push for gun control legislation after a number of fatal shootings. The sit-in made national headlines when Republicans turned off the cameras in the House, and the Democrats turned to online streaming tools like Periscope to broadcast their conversation to the nation.

“People just got up and spoke and told really heartfelt stories about losing a family member,” she said. “One woman had been shot herself in an incident, and showed the bullets that had been taken out of her body.”

While the sit-in didn’t force Republicans to consider gun legislation, Pingree believes that it helped start a national conversation on gun violence in America.

Pingree’s opponent on the ballot, Holbrook, has tried to frame the election largely on the issues of national security and immigration. Holbrook has called for the complete deportation of all immigrants who are in the country illegally, which Pingree dismissed as unrealistic.

“The idea that we could deport everyone who is in this country illegally right now — I don’t think it’s financially or practically possible,” said Pingree. “I think that is more rhetoric than actually a practical application.”

Pingree said she supports comprehensive immigration reform and believes that immigrants can play a vital part in Maine’s economy.

“Maine is in a unique position. In Maine, we have a dwindling population,” she said. “And a lot of employers are saying they need more of a workforce.”

Pingree, who has endorsed Clinton, says that she is concerned by the possibility of a Trump presidency.

“I do not think it would be good for this country to have Donald Trump as president,” said Pingree. “He’s very volatile. He doesn’t seem to understand the value of diplomacy.”

Pingree hopes that Clinton will win not just Maine, but the election, and brings enough Democrats into office to significantly alter the makeup of Congress.

“I just feel like there’s a lot of things that I went there to work on that we could still get a lot more done,” said Pingree. “I’m hoping that there’ll be some changes in Congress, enough so we can do more, or either way, I’ve got my committee assignments and I’m going to keep working on those things.”