Paige Loud

Paige Loud
File:Paige-Loud-Social-Worker-Maine-Candidate-Congress.jpg
Personal details
Born	1996 (age 29–30) Thibodaux, Louisiana, US
Political party	Democratic (Progressive Wing)
Spouse(s)	Aaron Loud (m. 2020)
Alma mater	University of Maine Bachelor of Social Work, 2024 Master of Social Work, 2026
Occupation	Social worker
Website	Campaign Website

Paige Loud (born December 30, 1997), is a Cherokee social worker and political candidate. She is a grassroots candidate is seeking the Democratic nomination in Maine's second Congressional district election on June 9, 2026 to succeed retiring Rep. Jared Golden. She is the first Native American to appear on the federal ballot in Maine's history.

Early life and education

Loud was born in southern Louisiana and raised in rural Oklahoma in poverty, an experience she has cited as formative in her commitment to public service and her understanding of the importance of the social safety net. She attributes her perspicacity and resilience to the women in her family as well as her tribe, the Cherokee Nation. She and her husband now live in Old Town, Maine.

After restarting her college education in 2020, Loud enrolled at the University of Maine and earned her Bachelor of Social Work in 2024, and will receive her Master of Social Work in 2026 while simultaneously working full-time as a social worker serving adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).

Career

Loud has worked as a social worker across multiple practice areas, including hospice care and services with adults with IDD. Her casework has involved helping clients navigate housing instability, food insecurity, and barriers to medical care. She cites her direct work with Medicaid programs like Medicaid's Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) waivers as her motivation for running for office. She has also cites her experience working as a Medicare grievance and appeals coordinator in the private sector as her motivation for entering the field of social work.

Loud has also worked in the service industry as a server and bartender for many years in both Oklahoma and Maine.

2026 Congressional campaign

Entry into the race

Loud officially entered the race for Maine's 2nd district on December 20, 2025 following the retirement announcement of five-term incumbent Jared Golden, who had represented the district since 2019. Loud, 29 years old at the time of her candidacy, is the youngest candidate in the Democratic primary field. She joins a four-way ranked choice primary that includes 61-year-old Maine State Auditor Matthew Dunlap, 61-year-old State Senator Joe Baldacci, and 36-year-old former Congressional staffer Jordan Wood.

Campaign themes

Loud's campaign is centered on issues affecting rural working families, including universal healthcare, guaranteed housing, and food security. She supports Medicare for All, expanded SNAP benefits, universal school meals, and a federal commitment to housing first policies and passing the Homes for All Act.

As a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, Loud has made Wabanki sovereignty a priority, calling for full federal recognition of the Wabanki Confederacy and access to federal tribal programs currently restricted under Maine's Indian Claims Settlement Act.

Loud has also highlighted her background as a renter, child of poverty, and survivor of gender-based violence, describing herself as the one candidate in the primary field whose lived experience most closely reflects the constituents she seeks to represent.

Political positions

Template:Progressivism US Loud's platform is centered around the belief that all people should have their basic needs met. Her stated policy priorities include:

• Healthcare: Medicare for All; a universal single-payer healthcare system. She also supports banning Medicare Advantage plans and expanding Medicare coverage to include mental health, dental, vision, hearing, and long-term and rehabilitative care. She wants to expand Medicaid coverage and close the gap.
• Housing: Housing First policies; federal investment in affordable housing via the Homes for All Act.
• Food security: Expanded SNAP; universal school meals; federal investment to eliminate food deserts; recognition of food as a human right.
• Indigenous rights: Federal recognition and sovereignty for the Wabanaki Confederacy; tribal access to federal environmental and clean energy programs.
• Economy: Democratic economy; taxing billionaires out of existence; repealing Citizens' United; support for small businesses, expanded SBA loan access, and prioritizing local and unionized businesses in federal contracting.
• Humane Foreign policy: Divestment from Israel, ending the genocide in Gaza and apartheid in the West Bank; redirection of funds to domestic priorities before foreign interests; anti-imperialism and anti-war.

Loud is also refusing any campaign donations or endorsements from corporate interests, naming AIPAC specifically. She has pledged to abolish ICE, impeach President Trump, and prosecute Epstein's co-conspirators.

See Also

• Democratic Socialists of America
• Progressivism in the United States
• Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
• ICE Out
• bell hooks
• Angela Davis

External links

• Official campaign website
• Paige Loud at Ballotpedia

This article "Paige Loud" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Paige Loud. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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