After a draft opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn national abortion rights was leaked, Andrea LaFlamme bought a $3 box of washable chalk on a sunny May day and scrawled a message on the sidewalk in front of a Bangor home of the person she held responsible: Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

Collins, who says she supports abortion rights, had cast the decisive vote two years earlier to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, giving anti-abortion justices the majority they needed to overturn Roe v. Wade. A draft opinion was leaked on May 3 and the court released its decision in June.

LaFlamme said she was not getting any response to emails or phone calls from the senator’s office. She thought writing a message in chalk in front of Collins’ house would be a playful, nonthreatening way to make sure her call for national abortion protections was heard.

“Susie, please … Mainers want WHPA,” she wrote, referring to the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would have enshrined abortion rights in federal law. “Vote yes, clean up your mess.”

Collins opposed the bill because it didn’t include religious exemptions for anti-abortion doctors.

Collins wasn’t home when LaFlamme drew on the sidewalk, but she later filed a police report and had public works wash away the message. LaFlamme returned a few days later to leave additional messages and was confronted by Collins’ husband.

Now LaFlamme is publicly identifying herself as the chalker for the first time and launching a longshot bid to unseat Collins.

“Chalking on a sidewalk is not a big thing, but she made it a big thing with her response,” LaFlamme said in an interview Friday. “And I think ironically by doing that she gave me the voice I need to take her seat.”

The political newcomer from Bangor has a tough road ahead. She’s running in a fiesty Democratic primary that includes Gov. Janet Mills and Graham Platner, who is barnstorming the state and drawing large crowds.

The race is expected to be the most expensive in state history, making it difficult for lesser known candidates without significant resources to get their message out to voters.

The 37-year-old, self-described progressive said she’s also a gun owner who was once married to a U.S. Army veteran. She has been a candidate since last June, but she is just standing up a website and fundraising operation.

She’s an experienced community advocate and an adjunct professor at Eastern Maine Community College and the University of Maine in Orono, specializing in public health and nutrition. She has served as chapter president for her local union, securing a 4% wage increase for adjunct professors.

She said she appreciates what Mills has done for the state, but she believes it’s time for a new generation of leadership. She said Platner “has a lot of great ideas,” but said she brings decades of experience working in the community.

LaFlamme expects to run a lean campaign. Her motto is “together we lead.”

“I think my message will resonate with a lot of people,” she said. “I’m really confident I will be able to be competitive with or without large money coming.”

LaFlamme said she was initially reluctant to identify herself as the sidewalk chalker out of fear of retaliation. She shared her story with Buzzfeed News under the condition they use a pseudonym.

Now, she’s ready to own it, because “the stakes are too  high for everybody.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated on Feb. 23 to correct LaFlamme’s marital status.