MINOT — Colleen Quint has launched a campaign to represent state Senate District 17, which comprises Mechanic Falls, Minot, Turner, Leeds, Livermore, Livermore Falls, Greene, Wales, Sabattus and Lisbon.

Quint is the former executive director of the Sen. George J. Mitchell Scholarship Research Institute. She has been a member of the Minot School Committee and the Minot Budget Committee, and led the consolidation process that transitioned School Union 29 (Mechanic Falls, Minot and Poland) into RSU 16.

“I am so very grateful to have been able to raise my children in this area and will work to build a future that the next generation will want to be part of, even as we work to create jobs and lower taxes for those of us here today,” she said in a prepared statement.

“I care deeply about the people of this community, and of this state,” she said. “Education and jobs are the key — and the two are connected. I am troubled that public schools are under fire, and upset that last year Maine led the nation in job losses. We are moving in the wrong direction — but can have a better today, and a better tomorrow, if we work together to make that happen.”