{"id":11827,"date":"2026-09-25T19:07:42","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T19:07:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/candidates\/lauren-jones\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T19:07:42","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T19:07:42","slug":"lauren-jones","status":"publish","type":"candidate","link":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/candidates\/lauren-jones\/","title":{"rendered":"Lauren Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Previous Offices Held<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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None previously. 2026 is my first run for elected office.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Top Three Priorities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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1. Make Maine more affordable by lowering taxes and unnecessary regulatory costs. 2. Protect parental rights, individual liberty and local control. 3. Expand housing and economic opportunity by removing barriers that make it harder to build, work, start a business and raise a family in Maine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Why are you running?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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I\u2019m running because I don\u2019t want Maine to become a place our children have to leave in order to afford a home, build a career or raise a family. As a mom and real estate broker, I see firsthand how taxes, housing costs and overregulation are squeezing Maine families. I want a government that spends less, listens more, respects parents and protects the individual freedoms that make Maine worth calling home.<\/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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Maine is on the right track in the strength of our communities and the quality of life people work hard to preserve. We are on the wrong track on affordability. High taxes, housing and energy costs, growing homelessness, the drug crisis and government programs that too often reward dependency over self-sufficiency are making Maine harder for families to thrive in.<\/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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Maine is landing near the top of the lists we don\u2019t want to lead and near the bottom of the ones we should. If we want different results from Augusta, we have to stop sending people there who are comfortable with the results we\u2019re getting. I\u2019m not afraid to speak up, ask hard questions or challenge the status quo. I\u2019ll be fierce in defending taxpayers', parents' and individuals' freedom, and compassionate in how I do it.<\/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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Maine doesn\u2019t have a revenue problem, it has a serious spending and priorities problem. The General Fund has grown more than 50% since Gov. Mills\u2019 first full budget. I want to find where that money went, eliminate fraud, waste and ineffective spending, and redirect savings to property-tax relief. Seniors should be able to stay in their homes. Families should be able to afford theirs. If spending keeps rising while outcomes keep falling, taxpayers deserve to ask: what are we paying for?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":10921,"template":"","meta":{"voter_guide_candidate_first_name":"Lauren","voter_guide_candidate_middle_name":"Chelsea","voter_guide_candidate_last_name":"Jones","voter_guide_candidate_suffix":"","voter_guide_candidate_race_id":11686,"voter_guide_candidate_age":35,"voter_guide_candidate_hometown":"","voter_guide_candidate_occupation":"Real Estate Broker \/ Team Leader","voter_guide_candidate_bio":"Falmouth native, real estate broker, wife and mother with deep roots in Maine and Greater Portland and firsthand experience with Maine\u2019s housing and affordability challenges.","voter_guide_candidate_education":"Bachelor\u2019s degree in Business Administration, University of Maine; Dean\u2019s List","voter_guide_candidate_years_in_municipality":"","voter_guide_candidate_headshot_url":"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/open?id=1HKCviNstJoBQIlhVjxjHPtlL8Rhw3i6e","voter_guide_candidate_date_filed":"","footnotes":""},"vg_party":[564],"vg_residence_municipality":[],"class_list":["post-11827","candidate","type-candidate","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","vg_party-republican"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates\/11827","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":1,"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates\/11827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11828,"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates\/11827\/revisions\/11828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"vg_party","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vg_party?post=11827"},{"taxonomy":"vg_residence_municipality","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vg_residence_municipality?post=11827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}