Bettyann Sheats

For Senate District 20
Running to represent Auburn, Poland, New Gloucester, and Durham

Listen : Learn : Lead

An experienced leader for Maine

As a veteran and small business owner, Bettyann is no stranger to serving her community. A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, where she majored in aeronautical engineering, Sheats served our nation as a United States Army helicopter pilot.

Bettyann has practical experience and professional insights into issues facing Mainers. She has owned and operated a specialty construction business, been a Member of the Board of Directors for the Finance Authority of Maine (FAME), served as the Chairperson of the Board of the Auburn Lewiston Airport (and interim manager of the airport), and been a member of the Maine Turnpike Authority Board. Bettyann is active in our community with leadership roles in her church, St. Mary’s Food Pantry, and especially veterans’ organizations: she is a member of the Maine Military Community Network and American Legion Post 31, and serves on the Maine Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery Board.

Bettyann believes that listening to neighbors, veterans, business owners, voters, and even visitors to Maine has helped her learn about the issues and find common ground as well as common sense solutions. This has allowed Bettyann to take the lead on many issues, when in the legislature, and in the community. Bettyann strives to constantly learn about issues affecting Mainers from every perspective. Bettyann is running to bring her unique perspective and skills to fight for District 20 in Augusta.

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On the Issues

Transportation

As the former Chair of the Board of the Auburn Lewiston Airport, Bettyann knows the Airport Industrial Park is home to many wonderful small, medium, and large businesses. Those businesses are constantly looking for new employees, but there is no public transportation to the airport. Many people seeking jobs do not have reliable transportation, and cannot get hired because of it. Bettyann has worked to put the two together.

As a former member of the Public Transit Advisory Council (PTAC) she worked on “out of the box” designs with microbus routes at different times of day, rideshares, GOMaine (www.gomaine.org) and so many other ways to save money while getting Mainer’s where they need to go.

Expanding Broadband

In 2020, Bettyann worked in the legislature with the Governor, to bring Maine’s Budget Stabilization Fund, also known as the Rainy Day Fund, to a record high. This left Maine better prepared to address unforeseen issues, including the emergence of COVID-19.

One lesson we have learned from the virus is that the expansion of broadband is not a luxury. It is essential for our healthcare system, education, and especially our economy: for training our workforce, for workers to connect from home, or for businesses (wherever they are) to connect to customers (wherever they may be).

Veterans Affairs

As a veteran, Bettyann understands the common challenges faced by the community. She has worked hard to improve veterans’ access to healthcare services, including transportation issues of getting to TOGUS, obtained funding for the only female veteran homeless shelter and transitional housing site in Maine, and led the effort to expand Veteran Treatment Courts in Androscoggin County and across the state.

Health Care

While serving as a State Representative, Bettyann worked on lowering the cost of healthcare, especially drug prices, by targeting pharmaceutical benefit managers (PBMs). Other flaws within our healthcare system became more evident with Covid-19. Our hodgepodge of work-based, private, and social (VA, Medicare, Medicaid) health insurance is expensive and hard to manage for providers and individuals. The virus showed how vulnerable our current system is to changing situations, with workers laid off through no fault of their own losing their healthcare insurance. We, Americans, have proven we can accomplish anything we set as a priority. That’s why Bettyann knows that we need to make affordable healthcare accessible to everyone.

Reproductive Rights

Bettyann does not feel Maine laws regarding abortion need to be changed. No legislator, or politician, has the right to impose their religious or personal beliefs on the healthcare decisions of another person. A woman should make that very private decision with her healthcare provider. Maine currently does not allow an abortion past the viability of the fetus except to preserve the life or health of the woman. She believes Maine’s current law is sufficient and just. Access to healthcare and privacy are rights all people deserve.

Why Bettyann’s Running

When Bettyann learned that the decorative charms she and her daughter used to make bracelets could contain lead, she felt called to protect her daughter and other children across Maine from toxins found in our everyday products. Bettyann joined the Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine in their efforts to pass the Kids Safe Products Act, which banned BPA from baby bottles and sippy cups.

As a former legislator, she later worked with firefighters to get cancerous flame retardants out of furniture, with moms to get phthalates out of food packaging, with farmers to keep PFAS out of our water, and with landlords to get lead out of apartment buildings. Bettyann is running for District 20 to continue my fight for a safer Maine for all families.