Senate District 14
Craig Hickman

Senator Craig Hickman is an organic farmer, small business owner, poet, chef, author, and Harvard graduate. He represents Senate District 14 in southern Kennebec County, which comprises Chelsea, Farmingdale, Gardiner, Hallowell, Manchester, Monmouth, Pittston, Randolph, Readfield, Wayne, West Gardiner and his beloved hometown of Winthrop.

After serving four terms in the Maine House, Sen. Hickman was elected to his first term in the Senate after winning a 2021 special election. Now in his third term, Senator Hickman is a passionate advocate for child welfare in the wake of increasing child maltreatment rates. He serves as the Senate Chair of the Committee on Government Oversight, as Senate Chair of the Committee on Veterans and Legal Affairs and as a member of the Senate Committee on Conduct and Ethics. In previous terms, he has also served as the House Chair of the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee, and as the Senate Chair of the Labor and Housing Committee.

In both the House and the Senate, Sen. Hickman sponsored landmark legislation that promotes food sovereignty, protects individual rights and civil liberties, combats poverty and hunger, advances rural economic development, and strengthens resilient local communities. Sen. Hickman co-authored the first-in-the-nation Maine Food Sovereignty Act of 2017, signed into law by Governor Paul LePage. This law, and Maine’s Right to Food Constitutional Amendment, ratified by 61% of the voters in 2021, made Maine the first to enshrine the human right to food in a state constitution in the United States.

In 2019, Governor Janet Mills signed into law Sen. Hickman’s resolve to End Hunger in Maine by 2030, which directed a collaboration of agencies, institutions, organizations and people experiencing hunger to develop a strategy to implement a plan to achieve this ambitious goal. Sen. Hickman also secured the passage of legislation that created a Veteran-to-Farmer Training Pilot Program, saved Maine Veterans’ Homes from closure and sought justice for the survivors of members of the Maine National Guard harmed by exposure to toxic chemicals at Gagetown.

Originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Sen. Hickman is the son of a Tuskegee Airman and a wise woman. His parents were involved in the Civil Rights Movement, teaching him by example about the importance of public service and community. He is the first Black lawmaker in Maine history to serve in both chambers of the Maine Legislature and the first Black lawmaker to serve as both Speaker Pro Tempore of the Maine House and President Pro Tempore of the Maine Senate.

Senator Hickman is also a National Poetry Slam Champion, Lambda Literary Award Finalist for his memoir Fumbling Toward Divinity: The Adoption Scriptures, and a 2015 recipient of the Angels in Adoption® Program Congressional Award. He lives in Winthrop and runs a successful, diversified organic farm and food center on Annabessacook Lake with his husband of twenty-eight years.