Maine People’s Alliance (MPA)

History and Organization

The Maine People’s Alliance was founded in 1982 to promote left-of-center public policy and Democratic Party candidates in Maine. ¹ It claims to be “Maine’s largest progressive community action organization,” with more than 32,000 members in the state.  ¹

It is a sister organization to the Maine People’s Resource Center (MPRC), a charitable nonprofit that does community organizing, trains activists, and operates a think tank promoting left-of-center public policy in Maine and across the country. ³

Left-of-center activists Amy Halsted and Jesse Graham are co-directors of both the MPA and the MPRC. Both received the majority of their compensation from the MPRC, with Halsted receiving $145,017 from the MPRC and $36,255 from the MPA in 2024, while Graham received $142,958 from the MPRC and $40,317 from the MPA. ^{4  2}

Maine State Rep. Rafael Macias (D-Topsham) is a member of MPA’s board of directors. ⁵

Working Families Party

The Maine People’s Alliance received $227,000 in grants between 2020 and 2024 from the Working Families Organization (WFO, also known as Working Families Power), which is the advocacy group affiliated with the democratic-socialist Working Families Party political party.  ⁶

In 2023, WFO gave the MPA $150,000 for “state investment,” while also donating $50,000 to its sister group, the Maine People’s Resource Center. ⁶

On its 2020 tax returns, the WFO misstated MPA as a 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit rather than a 501(c)(4) advocacy group. ⁷

Activism

The Maine People’s Alliance supports left-of-center public policies and social causes in areas including fiscal and tax policy, taxpayer-funded child care, opposition to federal immigration law enforcement, taxpayer-funded housing, increased government control over health care, environmental regulations, weather-dependent energy generation, opposition to election security measures, increased minimum wages, support for labor union organizing, drug legalization, and criminal justice reform.  ⁸

It operates local chapters across Maine that it uses to organize and train grassroots activists to promote its positions. ⁹

The MPA also operates the Maine Beacon, a news site and podcast that “promote a progressive worldview.” ¹⁰

Fiscal Sponsorships

The Maine People’s Alliance offers fiscal sponsorship to left-of-center organizations and campaigns that align with its mission and principles.  ² However, as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, it cannot sponsor would-be charitable organizations.

In 2024, the MPA’s annual filings with the Internal Revenue Service identified “Progressive Coalition Services,” which included fiscal sponsorship, as its largest program services segment.  ² These services accounted for $1,088,316 of the MPA’s total of $1,981,287 in total program services expenses. ²

The two major fiscal sponsorships identified in the filing were the Maine Labor Climate Council and Maine Votes.  ^{2  11} In 2024 and 2025, Maine Votes was involved in defeating an election security ballot initiative and passing a “red flag” law that allows courts to restrict a person’s access to firearms if a judge found that they posed a significant danger. ¹² Maine Votes worked in coalition with the Movement Voter Project and other left-of-center groups in this election. ¹³

Political Endorsements

The Maine People’s Alliance endorses candidates for public office in Maine.  ¹⁴

In 2026, it endorsed left-wing activist Graham Platner, who is an active member of the MPA, over Gov. Janet Mills (D) for the Democratic Party nomination for the 2026 U.S. Senate election. ¹⁴ MPA focuses significant attention and effort on criticizing incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). ¹⁵

The MPA also endorsed Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D) for governor. ¹⁴ Bellows is the former executive director of the ACLU of Maine and led campaigns to uphold Maine’s LGBT anti-discrimination law in 2005 and enact state recognition of same-sex marriage in 2012. ^{16  17}

Legislative Scorecard

The Maine People’s Alliance publishes a legislative scorecard that ranks legislators on their votes on issues identified by the MPA.  ¹⁸ In the 2025 legislative session, the MPA scorecard ranked legislators’ votes on issues including “tax fairness, climate change, housing, workers’ rights, paid family and medical leave, childcare, transgender rights, and immigration.” ¹⁸

The scorecard favors legislators from the Democratic Party. 75 of the 97 Democrats in Maine’s legislature received perfect 100 percent ratings on the 2025 MPA scorecard, with another 10 receiving 92.9 percent rankings that denoted disagreement with the MPA’s position on a single vote. ¹⁹ Meanwhile, only one Republican received a 25 percent ranking and no other GOP legislator had better than a 16.7 percent ranking.  ¹⁹  Overall, 56 members of the Republican caucus received 0 percent rankings for voting against the MPA’s position on every selected piece of legislation.  ¹⁹

Relationship with the Nautilus Center

The Maine People’s Alliance co-directors Amy Halsted and Jesse Graham also lead the Nautilus Center, a 501(c)(4) created in 2020 with $400,000 grants from both the MPA and the Maine People’s Resource Center that has since remained largely dormant.  ^{20  4  2} In its Internal Revenue Service filings, the Nautilus Center says its mission is “to build a more powerful movement for progressive social change by providing research, training, mentorship, and shared fundraising strategies to build resilient organizations that have maximum impact on local, state and national policy-making.”  ²⁰

In 2024, the Nautilus Center reported making a $50,000 grant to the MPA for “asset purchase assistance,” a $50,000 expense for undefined “training services,” and $643 in all other expenses for the year. ²⁰

Funding

Despite promoting itself as a grassroots, community-based organization, the Maine People’s Alliance is heavily funded by major left-wing donor collectives and special-interest organizations.  ²¹

Its funders include the Climate Jobs National Resource Center and its affiliated Climate Jobs National Resource Center Action Fund, Tides Advocacy, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sixteen Thirty Fund (1630 Fund), the Rockefeller Family Fund, the Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, the Fairness Project, the Center for Empowered Politics, the Center for Popular Democracy Action Fund, America Votes, the Movement Voter Project, the Economic Security Project Action, the Women Donors Network Action, and the Open Society Action Fund, formerly known as the Open Society Policy Center, which is part of the Open Society Network of left-of-center billionaire George Soros. ²¹