Rachel Talbot Ross is a member of the Maine State Senate, representing District 28. She assumed office on December 3, 2024. Her current term ends on December 1, 2026. The Maine House of Representatives unanimously elected Ross to serve as the Maine Speaker of the House in November 2022, making her the first Black speaker of the Maine state House. She left the state House in 2024. Talbot Ross worked as the City of Portland’s director of equal opportunity and multicultural affairs for 20 years and as president of the Portland branch of the NAACP. Talbot Ross founded three nonprofit organizations focused on racial justice in Maine, including the Maine Black Community Development, Maine Freedmon Trails, and the Martin Luther King Jr., Fellows. Talbot Ross chaired the Maine Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil RIghts and the African American Collection of Maine at the University of Southern Maine. Talbot Ross first ran for public office in 2016, winning election to the Maine state House in District 40. After twice winning re-election in District 40, Talbot Ross won election District 118 following redistricting. In November 2020, Talbot Ross became the assistant majority leader in the Maine state House.
