Ross LaJeunesse

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Ross LaJeunesse (born December 11, 1969) is a Democrat running for election to the U.S. Senate to represent Maine in 2020. He declared his candidacy on November 6, 2019.. LaJeunesse, a native of Biddeford, Maine, has never held or run for political office, but said in an interview with the Portland Press Herald that he’s running in large part because he still sees many Mainers left behind. His entry made it a four-way primary race with Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon, activist and lobbyist Betsy Sweet, and attorney Bre Kidman. The primary is scheduled for June 9, 2020.

His policy platform focuses on affordable health care, infrastructure and high-speed internet, technology regulation and reform, education and multiple pathways to success, veterans' affairs and senior issues, environmental issues, and Maine's involvement in the global economy.

The Victory Fund, an organization dedicated to increasing the number of openly LGBTQ public officials in the United States, has endorsed LaJeunesse.

Early Life and Education

LaJeunesse was born in Biddeford and moved to neighboring Arundel in his youth, where he lived on a small farm. His father was a UPS driver and Teamster, and his mother was a neighborhood babysitter and house cleaner. LaJeunesse talks often about his family's struggles during his childhood on the campaign trail, sharing the story of how bank assessors came to his family home as a child to discuss foreclosure on their home after his parents' attempt to open a small hardware store failed.

LaJeunesse graduated from Biddeford High School in Biddeford, Maine in 1988. He went on to receive an A.B. magna cum laude in Asian Studies from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire in 1992, on loans and scholarships, and studied advanced Arabic at the American University in Cairo during the summer of 1991. LaJeunesse later graduated from Harvard Law School with honors in 1998.

Career

LaJeunesse began his career as an assistant to United States Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell of Maine and later served Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts as his chief advisor on reinventing government, and national and community service issues.   He then received his law degree with honors from Harvard Law School.

After law school, Ross moved to California, where his brother lived, and worked at a law firm for a short time before transitioning back to the public sector. He served as Chief of Staff to two Democratic state officials, California Public Utilities Commissioner Susan Kennedy and State Controller Steve Westly, where he was also an advisor to Westly’s unsuccessful campaign for governor. In the early 2000s, LaJeunesse worked on the first report about broadband access in California while at the California Public Utilities Commission. After Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger won re-election in 2006, he asked LaJeunesse to join his bipartisan administration as Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor. LaJeunesse developed and executed the Governor's policy agenda, including environmental issues, infrastructure investment, gang violence, and economic development.

LaJeunesse joined Google in 2008 and worked there until May 2019. He served as the company's first Head of Public Policy for Asia Pacific when Google dispatched him to Hong Kong in 2010. He negotiated directly with the Chinese government, traveling to Beijing every week for months and helped oversee the company’s decision to shut down its search product in mainland China rather than cooperate with government censorship.

He then served as Google's Head of International Relations, where he worked on human rights, internet governance, and relationships with the diplomatic community and international organizations. He helped lead US government resistance to efforts by Russia, China, and other governments to hijack United Nations treaties to globally regulate free speech on the internet.

He left Google in the spring of 2019. On January 2, 2020, the Washington Post broke a story where LaJeunesse said he was pushed out for pushing Google to launch a formal human rights program. He wrote a Medium post titled "I Was Google’s Head of International Relations. Here’s Why I Left," with the sub-title "The company’s motto used to be 'Don’t be evil.' Things have changed." The article asserted that Google changed into a company that values profit over human rights. LaJeunesse says his experience at Google convinced him of the necessity of tougher regulations on tech companies.

LaJeunesse holds appointments as an adjunct professor at Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service and at the George Washington University Elliot School of International Affairs

Personal Life

LaJeunesse is openly gay and married Patrick Oathout on June 23, 2018. They reside in Biddeford, Maine.

LaJeunesse served on the board of Freedom House, a non-profit originally co-founded by Eleanor Roosevelt that works for democracy, political freedom, and human rights causes, and the LGBTQ Victory Institute, which trains LGBTQ individuals to run for office.

References

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

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