25 Facts About John Eder

John Eder was born on January 18,1969 and is an American activist and politician from Maine.

John Eder is a former member of the Maine Green Independent Party and the Maine Democratic Party.

John Eder served in the Maine House of Representatives as the legislature's first member of the Green Party for two terms and was elected in 2002 and re-elected in 2004.

Until his defeat in 2006 Eder was one of only a handful of independent or third party state legislators in the country and was the highest-ranking elected Green official in the United States.

In 2014, John Eder won a race for an at-large seat on the Portland Board of Education.

In 2018, John Eder unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for a seat in the Maine House of Representatives in Biddeford.

John Eder claimed that "Democratic values" moved him to join the party.

John Eder became a Republican in 2024, and again sought a seat in the State House of Representatives.

Since legislators not enrolled with a political party typically caucus with one of the two major parties, it was assumed by Maine political observers that John Eder would be forced to do the same.

John Eder negotiated to have a dedicated staff person assigned to him, something individual legislators in the Maine House, who serve on a part-time basis, do not have.

Two weeks later John Eder deployed with the Red Cross to drive a food canteen truck and provide case management to victims of the storm.

John Eder lost the 2006 election to the Maine House by about 60 votes to Democrat Jon Hinck.

John Eder entered the campaign as a favorite, and many environmental, gay-rights, labor, and progressive organizations lined up behind him.

John Eder is considered a founding father of the Green Party in Portland.

John Eder is further credited with changing Portland's political landscape by bringing young voters in Portland into the political process and paving the way for the Greens to assume their present role as the second party of contention in Portland, Maine's largest city.

Several young activists who John Eder mentored have since won political office in Portland.

John Eder was the first member of a third-party to serve in the Maine Legislature since 1915 when representatives of Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive Party held legislative offices there.

John Eder remains the only state legislator in the country to serve a full term as a Green and to be re-elected as a Green.

In November 2008 John Eder was elected to the Cumberland County Charter Commission.

John Eder finished second out of five declared candidates running a write-in election for two seats.

John Eder is a recipient of the George Mitchell Peace Scholarship.

John Eder was a candidate for mayor in the 2011 Portland mayoral election.

John Eder served a term on the Portland Board of Education during which time he chaired the committee to oversee the transition plan to have Greater Portland METRO buses transport Portland Public Schools' high school students to and from school.

In January 2018, John Eder announced his bid for the Democratic nomination for District 12 of the Maine House of Representatives.

In 2024, John Eder filed to run as a Republican for an open state house seat.