Amid a backdrop of increased immigration enforcement activity, Lewiston’s city councilors had an unusual decision to make Tuesday night: Who should represent the empty Ward 5 seat on the city council?
Nearly 100 people crammed into the overflowing city council chambers, where the six members of the council and Mayor Carl Sheline heard nearly two hours of heated public comment from people debating two candidates, with much of the argument centering on which selection would more disenfranchise the voters of the fifth ward.
The council ultimately ignored all of the endorsements and denouncements, choosing a third candidate whom none of the dozens of speakers had publicly backed.
Tensions about the federal immigration crackdown in Minneapolis and now Maine spilled into the debate. Attendees who spoke were divided into two camps.
One included mostly members of the city’s Somali community and their allies who supported Kieran Majerus-Collins, an immigration lawyer, for the role. The remaining attendees appeared to support Eryn “Ryn” Soule-Leclair, who previously represented the fifth ward and has been supportive of U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement officials on social media.
The city council had not wanted to pick someone to replace former Councilor Iman Osman, who was briefly in the role and resigned Jan. 8 after being indicted on gun-related charges late last year. But a clerical error prevented a special election process from being added to the city charter, leaving councilors to decide who would replace him instead of voters.
Five people applied for the position, and public comments almost exclusively centered on the two apparent frontrunners: Majerus-Collins, who had represented Osman as his attorney, and Soule-Leclair, who had lost to Osman by 35 votes in November’s election.
Immigrant community members, many of whom said they were U.S. citizens and had no memory of any home other than Lewiston, were almost universally opposed to Soule-Leclair, arguing that voters had already rejected her at the ballot box in November. Some called her Facebook comments “divisive” and “disgusting,” and provided printed-out copies of posts to the city council to review.
Meanwhile, Soule-Leclair’s supporters at the meeting, many of whom said they came from areas of Lewiston that were outside Ward 5, argued that Osman should never have been on the ballot in the first place, citing a controversy about his place of residence. Many argued that choosing anyone but Soule-Leclair would disenfranchise the residents who cast votes for her, since she was the only one aside from Osman who had garnered votes from Ward 5 residents in November’s election.
They also argued that Soule-Leclair had experience working productively on the council, and cited endorsements by the city’s police and firefighter unions. She had served as councilor from Jan. 2, 2024 to Jan. 5, 2026, according to the city.
The Lewiston city councilor position is nonpartisan, and speakers avoided mentioning party politics, but affiliations were still on display. Majerus-Collins is a former chairman of the Lewiston City Democratic Committee and is running for the Maine House as a Democrat, while those who spoke in support of Soule-Leclair included Republican gubernatorial candidate and Falmouth resident David Jones.
Just before 11 p.m., nearly four hours after the meeting started, the council chose a third candidate that no one in the room had endorsed. In a 5-2 vote, the council appointed applicant Chrissy Noble, a youth counselor, to represent Ward 5. Two councilors voted for Soule-Leclair.
“I got screwed,” Soule-Leclair told The Maine Monitor as she was leaving city hall. “Six months of campaigning. It’s all right, I’m taking Carl’s seat next,” she said, vowing to run against Mayor Sheline.
Majerus-Collins was more diplomatic. “I am just so heartened by all the people who came out tonight to speak on my behalf. It really meant a lot,” he said. “This is a night that people need to reflect on the importance of listening to a community that’s under attack. I have initial confidence that the new city council will do just that. I certainly hope so.”
The shadow of ICE hung over much of the meeting. Earlier that day, Sheline had confirmed that ICE had stepped up activity in Lewiston, and federal officials told Fox News the agency had arrested nearly 50 people in the state on Tuesday. Meanwhile, in Minnesota, home of another large Somali community, police chiefs gathered for a press conference to demand that ICE cease indiscriminately stopping people of color — including off-duty police officers — and demanding proof of citizenship.
Somali-American residents at the meeting told the council they didn’t know whether it was safe to send their kids to school that day. They said they were keeping their passports close to prove their citizenship in case they were stopped.
“I’ve never had to face fear like this in my life. I’ve never had to wake up every day and say, ‘Is it safe for me to walk out my front door? Is it safe for me to go to work? Is it safe for me to go to the gas station to put gas in my car?’” said a Ward 5 resident named Medina, adding that Soule-Leclair’s Facebook comments “fuel hate.”
Soule-Leclair’s recent Facebook comments included a Jan. 13 post in which she reposted a video of an ICE agent shoving a man to the ground who seemed to be filming and obstructing an ICE vehicle. She wrote, “I love it! Stop being so stupid ppl”. She also posted stories from conservative outlets about social services fraud by members of the Somali community in Maine and Minnesota.
In her comments to the council, however, she said, “My goal is simple: to make Lewiston a place where everyone feels they belong, where they feel safe, and is a place that we are all proud to call home.”
Majerus-Collins cited the legal work he had done earlier in the day in arguing he was “ready and able to meet this moment.”
“I received a frantic call from a family member of a woman in Lewiston abducted this afternoon by unidentified men with guns,” Majerus-Collins said. “As of this evening, her children still have no idea what has happened to her. … Our city is in a moment of crisis, and we must rise to the occasion together.”
After Collins-Majerus spoke, Councilor Brett Martel asked him to address recordings that former council candidate Walter Hill said he took of Majerus-Collins in 2019. Hill alleged Majerus-Collins came to his door and harassed him for jumping into a city council race against eventual winner Safiya Khalid, the first Somali immigrant to serve in the role.
“I’m curious if that represents how you intend to deal with your colleagues going forward?” Martel asked.
Majerus-Collins said he had no idea what Martel was talking about, drawing laughter from the crowd.
“So it’s your testimony in front of us that you don’t recall going to his house and harassing him, and you have no idea that there’s any recordings of such circulating on the internet?” Martel asked.
“Again, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Majerus-Collins responded.
In the end, the city council chose neither candidate. Instead, they chose Noble, who told the council about her work as a youth counselor and conflict mediator.
“I’m not going to pretend I’m political or that I’m a master of policy,” Noble said. “But I have a really big heart. I’ve lived in the city a really long time, and I have a good understanding of the people who live here.”
