Events
Early Bird Breakfast October 2020 - Matthew Dunlap, ME Secretary of State
Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap of Old Town, Maine's 49th Secretary of State, is now serving his fourth consecutive and seventh overall term in office. He previously served three terms as Maine's 47th Secretary of State and is the first person to serve non-consecutive terms as Secretary of State since 1880.
A founder of the Maine Youth Fish and Game Association, he is an award-winning monthly columnist for The Northwoods Sporting Journal and is active in many civic endeavors, including board positions with the University of Maine "M" Club, Russian-American Rule of Law Consortium, the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine, New England Outdoor Writer’s Association, and Windover Art Center in Newburgh. In 2011, he served as Executive Director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine. He is a former Commissioner on the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission (February 2013-June 2015) and served as a member of the national Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, (May 2017- January 2018).
During his previous tenure as secretary, he served as President of the National Association of Secretaries of State and was named Maine's Public Administrator of the Year in 2008. In 2005, he was appointed by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta to serve on a national rulemaking panel on driver license and identification card security, and has remained active in the national debate on privacy and national security.
He previously served four terms in the Maine House of Representatives (118th-121st) representing part of Old Town and the Indian Island Voting District; he served three terms as House Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Inland Fisheries and Wildlife as well as House Chair of the Government Oversight Committee.
A native of Bar Harbor, Dunlap is a graduate of Mount Desert Island High School and holds a B.A. in Roman History and an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Maine. Prior to his career in public service, he worked extensively in textiles, food service, nonprofit management, the outdoors; and printing, writing and publishing.
He lives in Old Town with his wife, Representative Michelle Dunphy, and their daughter Emily Charlotte Dunlap.