Currently holds the office of Maine House of Representatives - District 113 until December 4, 2024.
Candidate for Maine House of Representatives - District 113 in 2024 Maine General Election.
View your personalized ballot, check your voter registration, make a plan to vote, and research every name and measure on the ballot with BallotReady.
Get StartedPublic Safety is bigger than police and prisons. Housing, healthcare, education, and job opportunities are all essential pieces of the preventing crime and creating safer communities. If we are serious about public safety, those need to be our priorities, and our budgets out to reflect that. Learn more
Sign onto Vision Zero, a strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries, while expanding safe and healthy mobility for all. Learn more
Expand traffic calming in our residential neighborhoods to prevent injuries and deaths. Learn more
Reduce public litter associated with drug use (including needles). Learn more
Make large thoroughfares (e.g. Forest Ave, Outer Congress, etc) safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Learn more
The people who work on the water were once the backbone of our city’s economy, and are still a major part of the character and history of Portland. We need to do all we can to preserve wharfs used for fishing and prevent them from being turned into high end hotels or condos. Learn more
Through public investment in needed sea-level rise and climate change mitigation infrastructure, we can bring thousands of good paying jobs to the state in the New Green Economy. Additionally, the cannabis industry is bringing many young people to the state, and we can bring back paper production to the state using the by-products of the cannabis industry. Learn more
Form a task force with the School Board to identify new sources of revenue to keep education fully funded and take pressure off property taxes. Learn more
Work closely with State Delegation to fix the State School Funding Formula to make sure Portland schools get what they need. Learn more
Grayson will fight for better conditions for teachers, and fight any cuts to education by increasing revenue sharing from the state to towns. Learn more
Investigate alternatives to the purple plastic trash bags. Learn more
Get rid of the coal pile on the West End. Learn more
Plant more street trees. Learn more
Initiate a municipal composting program. Learn more
Continue electrifying everything to reduce our reliance on burning fossil fuels. Learn more
Work with the State Legislature to fix and tighten laws limiting excessive and wasteful political campaign signs in roadways. Learn more
More aggressively work towards the goals in Portland’s One Climate Future plan. Learn more
Focus city resources on native plants, not invasives or imports. Learn more
We’re also going to need to invest in making that infrastructure more resilient to sea level rise. Learn more
Raise revenue for climate adaptation and carbon reduction efforts by assessing climate impact fees on major greenhouse gas emitters, such as cruise ships and megayachts. Learn more
Low-lying coastal communities need to be preparing NOW for the reality of sea level rise through investment in climate mitigation infrastructure, and building renewable energy projects like offshore wind. Maine can be a leader in the coming Green Economy if we act now. Learn more
Across the public sector, we need to ensure that we have dedicated, passionate individuals who want to help the city succeed in creative ways. Too often, our staff are underpaid and overworked, this leads to burn out and dysfunction in the city. We need to hire staff and ensure that their compensation is competitive so we don’t lose good people to higher paid jobs in the private sector. Learn more
The core issue in our political system continues to be the influence of billionaires on our elected officials. I am a proud clean elections candidate who will work to expand the Maine Clean Elections Act to cover local and federal level races, so that anyone can run for public office regardless of their connections to the wealthy and powerful. Learn more
Grayson believes in a single-payer, universal healthcare system in which every person can get treatment regardless of their ability to pay. Learn more
Silicon valley shouldn’t be dictating housing policy in our City, that’s why I support limiting Short Term Rentals to only owner-occupied units. We need housing, not hotels. That is why I also support taking a harder look at some of the recent decisions the planning board has made to allow developments slated for housing to become luxury hotels instead, contrary to their original promises and plans. Learn more
Rents in Portland continue to be too high, even for middle income earners. In order for us to create the mixed income, vibrant neighborhoods where all Portlanders can call home, we need a Social Housing developer like they have in Montgomery County, Maryland. A Social Housing developer has one goal: to create affordable housing for all income earners. This will be a revenue neutral method of creating housing in which the public has equity and will address the crisis in housing that has been created by decades of federal housing policy that has prioritized profit over people, and commodification over community. Learn more
Housing is a human right, and Maine is the 9th least affordable state in which to rent. Portland is the epicenter of the crisis in housing and homelessness. Grayson supports building more public housing, reining in online short term rentals to only owner occupied units, and enacting stronger protections for tenants in order to keep a roof over the head of everyone who calls Maine home. Learn more
Increase the frequency of METRO bus service, to make it a more reliable, realistic option for Portlanders seeking an alternative to cars. Learn more
Expand bike lanes throughout the city. Learn more
Oppose the Gorham Connector, which will increase traffic and carbon emissions. Learn more
Grayson will work to bring back trains and to strengthen public transit around the state. This will also benefit rural Maine by helping to integrate the economic centers of Maine with the more remote areas. Learn more
Citizens deserve to know how their online data is being used, and companies that abuse that data need to be held accountable. Grayson also supports Internet Neutrality by preventing Internet Service Providers from creating a multi-tiered internet. Learn more
I will work with other municipalities to distribute the responsibilities with other communities, so that people who fall into homelessness can live in the communities near where they have support. Learn more
Similarly, several neighborhoods in Portland have disproportionately been tasked with providing shelter. I support smaller shelters spread more equitably across the city. Learn more
View your personalized ballot, check your voter registration, make a plan to vote, and research every name and measure on the ballot with BallotReady.