This case study recounts and analyzes the 2023 ballot initiative campaign for Maine to take ownership of the two investor-owned utilities in the state and create a new publicly-owned utility called Pine Tree Power. Along the way, the Our Power campaign integrated research throughout their campaign to evaluate their power-building strategy. While the referendum lost at the ballot, Our Power draw out a number of insights from their campaign for energy democracy, including:

• Build on momentum, which remains strong even after the referendum defeat
• Identify creative mobilization strategies to overcome entrenched power
• Articulate the benefits of public power and harms of the status quo
• Draw on the history of public power and adapt it for the present
• Link public power initiatives across place
• Create touchpoints for organizers to increase capacity