{"id":11576,"date":"2026-09-25T19:07:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T19:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/candidates\/sam-zager\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T12:31:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T12:31:59","slug":"sam-zager","status":"publish","type":"candidate","link":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/candidates\/sam-zager\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Zager"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Previous Offices Held<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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House District 116, 2020, won. Relected in 2022 and 2024.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Top Three Priorities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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1. Promoting health and well-being (healthcare quality, affordability, equity and sustainability) and addressing the #1 killer of kids: firearms that are unsafely used; 2. Climate change response; 3. Promoting a fair and robust economy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Why are you running?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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I've learned a lot and have led or helped create several improvements for the above priorities in prior sessions. There's more work to do, though, and I promise to build on this momentum and collaboration my constituents have trusted me to build.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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What is one way Maine is on the right track? What is one way the state is on the wrong track?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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We\u2019ve become a national leader in protecting rights and due process, and opposing authoritarianism. Maine has a weak economy (40th state in GDP per capita, improved from 42nd in 2018). This harms health and practically everything else \u2014 regardless of political priorities. This is especially bad in rural areas where over 60% of Mainers live, and has terrible spillover implications for Portlanders.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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As one of several dozen legislators in your chamber, how would you make a measurable difference for your constituents?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Teamwork. Credibility. Willingness to the long game for a beneficial proposal that might take a few years to fully come to fruition. I favor systemic improvements that do good for people long term.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Surveys show the economy is the top concern of voters. What is a specific proposal addressing Maine voters\u2019 economic anxieties that you\u2019d work to make law?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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First, reduce wealth disparities by improving renters\u2019 credit for home and other loans (supported by advocates for low-income Mainers and by landlords), and making the tax code fairer for working Mainers. Second, improve our economy as a whole. Establish manufacturing capacity for sustainably harvested mass timber. I\u2019ve led a bipartisan effort that has been supported by environmental groups and rural economy advocates.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12794,"template":"","meta":{"voter_guide_candidate_first_name":"Samuel \"Sam\"","voter_guide_candidate_middle_name":"Lewis","voter_guide_candidate_last_name":"Zager","voter_guide_candidate_suffix":"","voter_guide_candidate_race_id":11575,"voter_guide_candidate_age":51,"voter_guide_candidate_hometown":"","voter_guide_candidate_occupation":"Family Physician","voter_guide_candidate_bio":"US Navy (1993-2004); prior volunteer physician for Portland Public Schools; prior board member of Portland Public Library and Maine Academy of Family Physicians; Married with two teenage daughters.","voter_guide_candidate_education":"U.S. Naval Academy, 1997, BS History, Secretary of the Navy Distinguished Graduate; University of Oxford, UK, 1999, Master of Philosophy, Economic and Social History; Harvard Medical School, MD, 2011) ; Maine Medical Center, 2014, Family Medicine Residency","voter_guide_candidate_years_in_municipality":"","voter_guide_candidate_headshot_url":"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/open?id=11gFzFxdgg1Z-ZK5XXSn2sZ-ruey_8fxB","voter_guide_candidate_date_filed":"","footnotes":""},"vg_party":[1073],"vg_residence_municipality":[],"class_list":["post-11576","candidate","type-candidate","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","vg_party-democratic"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates\/11576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/candidate"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates\/11576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12795,"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates\/11576\/revisions\/12795"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"vg_party","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vg_party?post=11576"},{"taxonomy":"vg_residence_municipality","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vg_residence_municipality?post=11576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}