BANGOR – Steve Butterfield, a resident of Ohio Street in Bangor, announced that he is running as a Democratic candidate for House District 16, which covers part of the city.

Butterfield, 25, is a lifelong Mainer who has lived in the area since 2003.

He said he decided to run after watching his grandfather struggle for years to make ends meet in retirement.

“My grandfather has been an enormous inspiration to me,” Butterfield said in a statement. “He was an Army medic in the 1950s, and since he had a family to feed, spent his life working from the minute he left the service – in hotels, factories, restaurants. All he has to live on is his Social Security and my grandmother’s survivor benefits, and anybody trying to make ends meet that way knows it’s impossible.”

Butterfield added that “it’s frightening to think that poor children in Maine have it even worse.”

He cites tax reform, job creation and economic growth as his top priorities as a candidate.

“There are ways we can help kids and the elderly, but we have to be able to pay for it, and that starts with smart growth, job creation, and real tax reform,” Butterfield said.

Butterfield said he works with home health care workers at MSEA-SEIU Local 1989 to improve their wages, benefits, and consumer quality of care.