Sarah Hague for Board of Selectpersons

Sarah Hague has lived her whole life in the Farmington Valley area but has just bought her first house in Canton — the town she has wanted to live in for years. We are thrilled to introduce this passionate public servant to Canton and as one of our excellent Board of Selectpersons candidates.

Sarah brings a remarkable amount of experience and education to her candidacy. Starting early, she “caught the policy bug” as a high schooler while a member of Congressman Larsen’s congressional youth cabinet at the age of 15. Her master’s in social work from Columbia University is in public policy, and shortly after graduating she began working for Congresswoman Maloney — rising from intern to chief of staff.

This experience started her down the path she remains walking today — focused on translating the policy decisions from Washington to the constituents in her district. These communication skills paired with a deep desire to make government and policy accessible to everyone are core to her candidacy today.

Following Sarah’s role in the office of Congresswoman Maloney, she joined Vote Mama as the Chief Program Officer. Vote Mama supports moms running for office across the country as well as lobbying for better policies for child care and maternal health care — and ensuring that caregiver status is considered along with other factors for diversity in decision-making bodies.

Sarah’s deep need to be involved in her town made it an easy decision to run for Board of Selectpersons. “I always said that if I were asked to run for office, I will say yes, on the first time, because it's important that if someone sees something in you and thinks that you can do it, that you jump on it, because I spend all day trying to convince other women that they have the skill sets needed to do it. I was asked to run and to serve and it was an easy yes. Because I want to be involved in my town, and I want to get other people involved as well.”

Like our other candidates, government transparency and accessibility are top of mind for Sarah. “I want residents to know that the board exists and who is on their board and what we do and how they can be involved in the process. I want them to have a say in what happens and feel like they're represented.” She plans to use her extensive experience in translating policy decisions to build that community connection and help residents clearly understand what’s going on in town.

She also plans to bring her talents for innovation and creative problem-solving to the table. Sarah well understands that the issues that impact residents’ daily life are the ones that are happening at the town level more often than the state or federal level, and her experience at different levels of office will help her address those issues with a fresh lens.

Lastly, Sarah is also focused on the environment. She understands and supports Canton residents’ desire to maintain and nurture our spectacular natural environment and plans to help ensure that we and our children are able to enjoy that natural environment today and tomorrow. In fact, the natural beauty of Canton is one of the reasons she wanted to move here, “Give me the bike trail, I want to do all the hiking, I'm going to get my kayak out in the river. There is so much to do!”

In her spare time, Sarah loves to spend time with the dog she rescued from the streets of East Harlem, Ruth Barker Ginsburg, and she’s also an abstract acrylic painter.

Sarah is clearly an invaluable asset to our town and will be to our town government.