Friends, Earlier this year, we launched a campaign focused on you – the people of Maine – and in this election you sent a clear message: that we will continue to move forward, and not go back; and that we will continue to fight problems, and not one another.

This election belongs to you. You put your whole heart into this race, and I am forever grateful. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

We have been through tough times these past few years, and there are challenges ahead – but I remain hopeful about our future. Hopeful because of the millworkers in Madawaska, the potato farmers in Ashland, the fishermen in Stonington, the new Maine citizens in Portland and Lewiston and elsewhere, the shipbuilders in Bath; the moms and dads all across this great state who are raising the next generation.The people with backbones of steel and steady hands, compassionate hearts and creative minds; the people showing our children that Maine can become whatever we believe and whatever we build it to be.

It is for them that our work begins anew. It is for them that we will work harder than ever before. It is for them that we will make sure Maine is the best state in the nation to live and work and raise a family, and, always, is a safe and welcoming place. The Maine we dreamed of every day during this campaign.

You deserve every ounce of hard-won progress we have achieved, and you have earned all the progress yet to come.

Thank you, Maine! I love you.