Maine Dem Opens Fundraising Pitch By Saying ICE Shooting Caused Her to Freeze Up During Debate

Give Shenna Bellows points for originality. Just not points in the polls.

Bellows, Maine’s secretary of state, was one of the eight candidates selected to participate in two separate debates Thursday night in the battle to decide who replaces disgraced oysterman/Nazi tattoo aficionado/accused rapist Graham Platner atop the Democratic ticket in the critical Senate race there this fall.

She wasn’t the only one to totally humiliate themselves during the performance. Far from it, actually; if you’re one of those people who watches NASCAR for the crashes, the debates were basically like a two-hour highlight compilation specifically assembled for you, but involving politics.

She was, effectively, the one with the most to lose by crashing out repeatedly during the debate. Bellows is an establishment favorite, and given that the party selects the nominee at a convention on July 25, any flash of enthusiasm would have given her an edge over the prohibitive market favorite, former state Senate President Troy Jackson.

Jackson looked uninspired and uninspiring, but at least he didn’t freeze like a Commodore 64 trying to load Instagram. Bellows, on the other hand, couldn’t even get through her greatest hits (including trying, unsuccessfully, to block Donald Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot due to the events of Jan. 6, 2021) without buffering:

Maine Democrat Shenna Bellows – who is running to be handpicked by the Democrat establishment not Mainers – brags about interfering with elections and protecting illegals on voter rolls. pic.twitter.com/zWucrUd88E

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 16, 2026

Bellows needs to 1) raise funds in spite of her performance and 2) raise some kind of defense for her performance.

Her response to both of those on Friday morning was brilliant, in its own twisted way: Did you know Immigration and Customs Enforcement killed a guy in Maine? Yeah, that’s why she was freezing up!

On Monday, Colombian national Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero was shot to death in Biddeford, a coastal city, after he allegedly weaponized his car against agents. According to the Associated Press, the “vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon.”

According to the outlet, questions about the ICE officer’s mental health have been raised — albeit after the debate, so they couldn’t be weighing strongly on Bellows’ mind.

That didn’t stop her from blaming her performance on Durán Guerrero’s death.

“The pundits said I froze at the debate last night,” Bellows began in a fundraising .

“My friends have said I’ve been raw all week. The truth is I am. I don’t know how not to be raw after Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero was brutally killed by ICE in the streets of Biddeford on
Monday.”

“Our neighbor is dead, his little girl left without a dad. Of course I’m raw. Of course I’m afraid for my country and our friends and our communities,” she continued.

“But leading in times like these doesn’t require that we not be afraid, that we not be raw, or that we not be human. It doesn’t require that we always deliver the perfect punchline. What this moment does ask — and need — of us is action. Working through our grief, organizing in our pain, and fighting through our fear of what happens if we don’t.”

“This week I’ve been running to where I needed to be, not for the photo op, but for the work,” she continued, going on to say that “these aren’t normal times. And so we cannot rely on normal — and therefore old — playbooks.”

“Yes, we need leaders who can perform and hold our own — especially against Susan Collins,” she wrote. “And if there’s any doubt about whether I’m tough enough to stand up to her, just look at my fights and wins against Donald Trump.”

Maine Senate hopeful Shenna Bellows has released a fundraising plea that opens with her explanation for freezing up during last night’s debate. pic.twitter.com/40cXIdKF7r

— Nathan Bernard (@nathanTbernard) July 17, 2026

Again, props for the originality. That’s the best “the dog ate my homework” excuse I’ve ever heard a candidate give in a while. It’s worth noting, however, that she lost her biggest and most prominent fight against Donald Trump, the one to keep him off the ballot.

She also lost against Susan Collins, too. In the 2014 midterm elections. By over 30 points.

But sure. It was the ICE death that caused her to glitch up on issues that could get any candidate raw. Like, for instance, whether she wants permanent daylight savings time, where the best answer she could give was “I love when it gets light in the morning and dark at night.”

Maine Democrat Shenna Bellows can’t answer the most basic question:

Q: Would you approve of ending daylight savings?

BELLOWS: There are reasons for and against.

Q: Doesn’t sound like a lot of conviction.

BELLOWS: I love when it gets light in the morning and dark at night. pic.twitter.com/Y811fZIasR

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 17, 2026

That’s the kind of free-association babble you usually hear as the internal monologue from a Faulknerian man-child, not a potential Senate candidate arguing over an issue she’s had a lifetime in politics to think about.

She also froze up, albeit briefly, when remembering that, yes, she had run against Susan Collins before!

“I’m the only one who has run against Susan Collins before.” – Shenna Bellows

So true girl. And you lost by how much? pic.twitter.com/9QhyDoaOYn

— Kaeley Gemmill (@KaeleyGemmill) July 16, 2026

Just had to fact-check that one internally, I guess. Please do remember, she’s raw.

And here’s her talk about her potential role in oversight in the Senate, saying “I have many ideas on this one” before pausing to give an idea:

Starting to feel bad for these Maine Democrats 😬

SHENNA BELLOWS: “I have many ideas on this one.”

MODERATOR: “Give me an example…”

BELLOWS: *buffers* pic.twitter.com/ifdM00tTWl

— Senate Republicans (@NRSC) July 17, 2026

Do again forgive her. The woman was so clearly “raw.”

This, I remind you, is effectively a job interview, where the interviewers were concerned with electability and ability to perform under pressure. The Senate offers much greater pressures than just one ICE shooting, one can safely assure anyone seeking a seat there.

Bellows has been in politics for over a decade now and she can’t figure out how to prepare for a debate because she got herself flustered over an ICE shooting. That’s it. That’s her explanation. That’s effectively admitting that she can’t handle more than she already has on her plate, not an explanation for a bad debate performance.

The fact that Bellows was the darling of the establishment before the debate is proof of how Graham Platner got so far in the first place: No, apparently there aren’t enough Democrats in the state of Maine to field a candidate with energy and capability, at least one without disqualifying character flaws.

Emphasizing it again on Friday with the Bellows fundraising was just the cherry on top of a massive failure sundae. Nice work.

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