Rep. Deqa Dhalac

Rep. Deqa Dhalac is serving her second term in the Maine House representing part of South Portland. She is a member of the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee.

In 2021, more than 30 years after first coming to the U.S. to flee civil war in Somalia, she became the first Somali-American mayor in the country. She is the co-founder of Cross-Cultural Community Services and formerly worked as the assistant executive director at Gateway Community Services in Portland. 

In 2024, Dhalac sponsored legislation that helped establish the Office of New Americans within state government. 

Dhalac also serves on the boards of Mercy Hospital and I’m Your Neighbor Books, on the Somali Community Center of Maine advisory committee and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Population Health. 

Since 2008, Dhalac has lived in the West End of South Portland, where she raised her three children, all of whom attended South Portland public schools.