About me
My name’s Wes. I’m a community organizer and activist who currently rents an apartment in the rain shadow of Maine Med with my wife and our cat Sardine, who’s a menace. I’ve lived in Maine for my entire life, having grown up in Topsham, attended college in Orono, and have lived in Portland for the past decade, renting apartments across the peninsula.
I first got involved in politics canvassing for Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential run, and have been volunteering for Democratic candidates and local and state ballot items since. I've been a member of the Maine chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America since 2018, serving in multiple administrative and leadership roles, which has provided me with skills like policy writing and conflict resolution, and a begrudging respect for and fluency with Roberts Rules of Order.
I’ve also learned how to organize communities for a collective good, and in 2020 helped form the Trelawny Tenants Union, which started out representing tenants of Apartment Mart but now helps tenants across the city safely report Rent Control violations.
My wife and I have been semi-contributing members of some of the most established bar trivia teams in town, playing at Brian Boru (RIP) as Center Street Trivia Friends, Gritty McDuff’s as Them Apples, and, at present, Arcadia with a non-set team name, where we mostly get either first or third place.