Justin Chenette is a graduate of Thornton Academy and holds a degree in TV News from Lyndon State College. While in high school, Justin was the station manager of TATV Channel 3 and hosted the public affairs show, The Issue. Having the opportunity to interview politicians and candidates allowed him to learn the importance of holding leaders accountable for their actions and inactions.


He carried that spirit into the Maine State Board of Education, when Gov. John Baldacci appointed Justin as the first member to be a student in 2008. In his 16-month term, Justin pushed for civic engagement curriculum, a universal grading system, increased drug prevention, and to shore up the educational disparity between northern and southern Maine.

Between 2007 and 2011, Justin served as an Ambassador and Public Relations Director for Hugh O' Brian Youth Leadership. In this role, Justin completed over 2,000 hours of community service earning him the Presidential Service Award from President Barack Obama and the Governor's Volunteer Service Award in 2008 and 2009 respectfully.

During then Senator Barack Obama’s successful run for President, he served the Maine Democratic Party as a Youth Organizer continuing his passion for public policy advocacy. On the local level, Justin worked with Saco officials across multiple departments as a Communications Intern and as a Social Networking Committee member throughput 2010.

The theme of bi-partisanship has been a common theme for Justin and was firmly cemented as the host of the statewide public affairs show called Youth in Politics on WPXT/WPME. He had the distinct honor of hosting/organizing the first televised gubernatorial debate during the 2010 election season and the 1st District Congressional Debate between Chellie Pingree and Charlie Summers in 2008.

Justin was an integral part of Rep. Linda Valentino’s re-election campaign in 2010 serving as her Political Communications Director and is now working as a Campaign Strategist for her senatorial bid. He is also a former Political Columnist with the Portland Daily Sun and the Journal Tribune newspapers analyzing public policy and the political landscape every week.

Justin is currently taking a leave of absence from his job as the Assistant Morning Producer for Fox 23’s Good Day Maine as he runs for State Representative District 134-Saco.

At age 11, Justin worked as a campaign assistant for his step-father's run as a local school board candidate. Activities included petition collection, sign posting, campaign material distribution, and secretarial duties. This sparked his interest in the field of public service. As a result, from elementary school through college, Justin served in a number of elected leadership positions in student government including class representative, secretary, and vice president.

At Thornton Academy, Justin joined Saco's Educational Station known as TATV Channel 3. TATV is a student-run station that broadcasts to over 10,000 people in the city.

At TATV, Justin quickly worked his way through the ranks becoming the Executive Producer of all station programming for 2 years and then becoming Station Manager his senior year. In addition to holding leadership positions, he also carried out on-air and other off-air responsibilities.

Justin created TATV's weekly public affairs show, The Issue, and served as its Producer and Host for three years. He produced over 55 episodes in 3 highly successful seasons. In addition, he moderated Saco's 1st Televised Mayoral Forum and produced/hosted 3 live election results shows.

Justin interned with the Community Television Network Channel 5 in Portland for two years as a mere freshman and sophomore in high school. There he became familiar with the day to day operations of a large market public access station.

Youth in Politics is a weekly public affairs television show on WPXT Channel 12 and WPME Channel 17 airing across 400,000 homes in Southern Maine and New Hampshire. In over 3 years of being on the show, Justin has hosted over 40 episodes of this highly successful series. He even had the distinct honor of moderating the 1st District Congressional Forum between Chellie Pingree and Charlie Summers during the 2008 elections and the first televised gubernatorial debate of the 2010 electoral season with all five candidates.

In April of 2008, Maine Governor John Baldacci appointed Justin to serve on the Maine State Board of Education for a 16-month term. As the first Student Member on the board, it was his job to represent the youth voice of Maine when discussing matters of statewide educational policy. He was a staunch advocate for increased civic engagement curriculum, a universal grading system, and increased drug prevention programs. He served as an active member of the Student Voices Committee.

Over the summer of 2008, Justin interned with the Maine Democratic Party and learned some of the inner workings and operations of a political party. As a youth organizer, he setup several youth-to-youth phone banks and became the #1 canvasser in York County to get the word out to vote.

The following year, the Maine chapter of Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership elected Justin as Public Relations Director. Justin served 3 terms being in charge of all communications sent out by the Alumni Board from newsletters to video updates.

Based on his work throughout high school, Justin was named the 2009 National Student Broadcast Journalist of the Year by the Student Television Network. From this honor came an ongoing internship at annual conventions and continuous work through the rest of the year in providing support to the organization. One of the best experiences of his life came when he delivered the key note address at the 2010 convention in Anaheim, California.

During the summer of 2009, Justin was hired by a national online news organization known as Palestra.net/UWIRE.com, as a multimedia reporter. At Palestra/UWIRE, Justin produced weekly news packages for their college network website that shares a content partnership with Fox News.

In May of 2010, Justin was hired by Biddeford Public Access Channel 3 as a Media Trainer. His job was to create and facilitate a summer training program for students around the topic of broadcast journalism.

During the June 2010 primary, Justin served as a city clerk assistant and poll worker both before and during the election. His work included answering phones, ward allocation, ballot box supervision, and voter registration.

Over the summer of 2010, Justin started working for the City of Saco as their Communications Intern utilizing his media skills coupled with his interest in local government. He was responsible for producing a series of videos showcasing a behind-the-scenes look at the Departments of the City. The videos aired on the City's website, Facebook page, and local educational TV station. Justin was also appointed and served on the city-wide Social Networking Committee in addition to responsibilities on the Cable Communications Committee.

Justin became the Political Communications Director for State Representative Linda Valentino of Saco on her re-election bid for her seat. In this role, he advised campaign strategies, designed and managed the website, and produced all multimedia. He later became Valentino’s Campaign Strategist for her State Senatorial campaign.

When Justin became a freshman at Lyndon State College in the fall of 2010, he immediately became heavily involved in the media on campus. As a web editor and staff writer at the student-run newspaper, The Critic, Justin was able to cover news around campus and community by producing video content featured on the paper's website and writing articles in the print version.

As host of The Justin Chenette Radio Show on WWLR 91.5FM, Justin covered national headlines, politics, and entertainment news mixed with a variety of music in a weekly two hour program. The show was honored as the Best Talk Show of 2010 on WWLR 91.5FM for two consecutive seasons.

In October of 2010, Justin was hired as the New Media Intern with a Vermont newspaper, The Caledonian-Record. His job was to build all social networking structures from the ground up. Now the paper has over 1,000 followers via their Facebook and Twitter pages based on the work he did. In addition, Justin updated the website with news content from the Associated Press.

In the fall of 2010, Justin produced, edited, and hosted his new TV show on the local public access station in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. KATV Channel 7 has been the home of his show called Beyond the Headlines, a bi-monthly public affairs program delving into the stories making news. The show ended its run in early 2011 due to contractual obligations at News 7.

Through the curriculum at Lyndon State College, Justin has been focusing his efforts working as a general assignment reporter and anchor at the Vermont Center for Community Journalism for the Emmy-Award winning News 7. At the daily evening newscast, Justin reports and anchors for towns across northern Vermont and New Hampshire covering anything from a feature piece on rehabilitated drug addict to investigating tax money expenditures of local officials.

After serving as Secretary of the chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists on campus, Justin was elected by his fellow peers to become the next chapter President working towards first amendment awareness. The national organization appointed Justin to serve on their Diversity Committee as the only college student to do so.

In May of 2011, Justin earned his Associates Degree in TV News at Lyndon State College and is poised to receive his B.S. soon.

Over the summer months of 2011, Justin interned for WPFO-Fox 23 in Portland. His duties and responsibilities included moderating blogs, updating website content, producing stories for the web, developing social media strategies, and creating promotional campaigns.

In July of that year, Justin started writing a weekly political column at the Portland Daily Sun and the Journal Tribune with a combined circulation of over 25,000.

Based on his intern work at Fox 23, he was hired in August of 2011in a freelance position as Assistant Morning Producer of their Good Day Maine TV show. His duties include booking guests, manage scheduling, and help updating social media. He also served as a Weekend Web Producer updating the station's website with fresh content.